The keeper of stories

{ TALES OF MAGIC AND MEANING } CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF THE NAGAS

- Akankshya Abismruta [e-mail]

Huthuka Sumi is the latest addition to the growing group of voices from Nagaland.

For a long time, the place was written about by British anthropologists, American missionaries and political officers who largely wrote academic works that didn't capture the essence of the people or the land. Nagaland has a rich oral history that has only recently, since the 1970s, been transposed to print in English by indigenous voices.

The author and poet Easterine Kire believes her work, as an insider presenting historical narratives of the state, challenges colonial voices. Nzanmongi Jasmine Patton describes her writing as an effort to preserve the oral tradition and folklore now at risk of being lost.

Sumi's voice joins this lineage as he uses magical realism to create a coming-of-age story that captures the essence of the Naga people through their storytelling traditions.

The prologue presents an idyllic picture of a land on the cusp of change, with the Old Ones preparing for a long sleep while the White men arrive, holding guns. Sumi has created the lore but it is clear that these tales carry within them the lives of those who sat around kitchen hearths sharing stories.