TOBAGO-BORN actor Winston Duke never misses an opportunity to talk about his homeland and the experiences he had growing up in Trinidad and Tobago.
During an interview on Monday night on CBS talk show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Duke talked about the "nine days" spiritual tradition in TT, and what he called the country's "soap-opera" culture.
He was promoting his new movie Nine Days, a supernatural drama that tells the story about a man named Will (played by Duke) in the afterlife, tasked with the job of interviewing spirits for the opportunity to be born. The process takes nine days.
Colbert asked about the significance of the "nine" in the film as it relates to the culture in which Duke grew up.
"In my culture in Tobago, in Trinidad and Tobago, it's believed that when a loved one, or someone that is close to you, dies it takes them nine days for that spirit to move on. So within that nine days they'll visit you in a dream, they'll say goodbye, they'll do something and, you know, that will be like their way of moving on and detaching from this plane of existence," Duke explained. The tradition is common in the Caribbean.
Abbot of the Monastery of Mt St Benedict John Pereira told Newsday prayers for nine consecutive days is known as the "novena." He said this dates back to when the disciples prayed for nine days in the upper room to receive power from the Holy Spirit. He said there is a local tradition in the Catholic Church where a family would pray for nine nights for the soul of the deceased. This "wake," he said, may become a socialising event with food, drink and discussions about the deceased. He said many people who died would be in purgatory and prayers are made for the purification of their sins, though only God knows when that process would be complete. Pereira said the nine-days tradition would have been practised locally since Catholicism was introduced to Trinidad by the Spaniards. He said African slaves whose ancient religions reverenced the deceased and the ancestors, would have been attracted to Catholic nine-day tradition, and this contributed to some syncretism.
[caption id="attachment_906755" align="alignnone" width="819"] Tobago-born actor Winston Duke. -[/caption]
The film's storyline was inspired by the life of the director, Edson Oda, whose uncle died by suicide at the age of 50. Duke said Oda was often told, "Don't be like your uncle. Don't be weak." So, amid all his mental-health issues and depression, he (Oda) looked into his uncle's life and wrote a story to redefine the narrative.
"Because his uncle's life was was essentially just reduced to this one act. Not a full life; just this one act of pain. And he said, 'I wanted to rewrite the life by giving him another life in the afterlife so he could deal with some of that. Some of those shadows.' And that character is Will and I play Will."
Colbert then asked about the entertainment influences growing up in TT that inspired him.
Duke replied: "So much. So many imports are from America. So we have country music.
