Crossing the Mangrove

Maryse Condé

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1989

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1-Part 2, Chapter 3

Part 2, Chapters 4-7

Part 2, Chapters 8-13

Part 2, Chapter 14-Part 3

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Background

Authorial Context: Maryse Condé

Maryse Condé is a Guadeloupean novelist, playwright, and critic who has explored the African diaspora in the Caribbean for decades. She is the recipient of many literary prizes, including the New Academy Prize (or Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2018. While acclaimed in French and Francophone studies, Condé is less known to English-speaking audiences. Her first novel, Hérémakhonon (1976), introduces many of the themes that appear throughout her work: identity, race, and gender. In her essay collection The Journey of a Caribbean Writer (2014), she explains the importance of Africa and the African diaspora to her identity and work: Africa “revealed me to myself and allowed me to see, with my own eyes, the world in which I live and to look at things round me in my own way, I Maryse Condé, Black, female and Caribbean” (Tepper, Anderson, “Maryse Condé, at Home in the World,” The New York Times, 19 Apr. 2023). Despite suffering a serious illness, Condé continues to publish as of 2023. Her more known novels include the historical Segu (1984)—which details the arrival of Islam to Mali—and I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem (1986)—which details the life of the enslaved Tituba, who was at the heart of the Salem Witch Trials—while her most recent work to be translated and released in the US is The Gospel According to the New World (2021). She writes exclusively in French and her husband Richard Philcox is her primary translator. In this guide’s version of Crossing the Mangrove, the “Translator’s Preface” explains how Philcox tries to find the right sound and conviction of Condé and her characters (ix). Overall, Condé’s writing is postcolonial, engaging with historical struggles against colonial rule, as well as identity, migration, and nature. Caribbean Francophone or Antillean literature shares themes of identity—specifically, negritude (self-affirmation of Black culture and heritage), which played a significant role in decolonization movements in African and the African diaspora.

Historical Context: Colonial and Postcolonial Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is a Caribbean nation comprising six inhabited and several uninhabited islands and outcroppings. Italian explorer Christopher Columbus “discovered” it during his second voyage (1493-96) to the Caribbean, and Spanish explorers made several failed attempts at settling during the 16th century. French explorers settled in Guadeloupe in 1635, driving out the remaining Spanish explorers. The Indigenous Carib population was largely destroyed by disease and warfare, as were many of the original French “volunteer” settlers. French settlers began importing enslaved people from Africa in 1650. The French government eventually seized control of Guadeloupe from the French West India Company, whose main cash crop was sugar cane. Slavery was institutionalized by the French “Code Noir” (1685-1848), but when the practice was dissolved, indentured laborers (voluntary or involuntary contractors without a salary) were transported from the French East India Company headquarters in Pondicherry, India. Indentured labor applies to voluntary apprenticeships and involuntary punishment for criminals, debtors, and prisoners of war. In the Caribbean, it was used by French and British settlers as a substitute for slavery—which was outlawed in 1848 and 1834, respectively. During this period, recruiters transported approximately a quarter million Chinese indentured laborers to the Caribbean and Latin America. Overall, many formerly indentured laborers remained in the Caribbean and started their own businesses—creating a “melting pot” akin to Crossing the Mangrove’s Rivière au Sel.

During World War II, Guadeloupe and other French colonies were initially part of the Vichy government, but later joined the exiled Free France government in 1943. In 1946, Guadeloupe became an overseas department of France. Departments are French territories outside of Europe with the same basic rights and responsibilities as their European counterparts. Independence movements emerged post-World War II, part of an anticolonial sentiment that swept Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in the 1950s-60s. The 1970s saw a resurgence of nationalism, but French concessions have kept Guadeloupe as one of its five remaining departments.

Cultural Context: Complex Identities of the Postcolonial Caribbean

The Postcolonial Caribbean is a “melting pot,” with European explorers first settling the region in the 1490s. The Indigenous Arawak, Carib, and Taíno populations had no protection against settlers’ diseases and weapons, and so, England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands colonized. Parts of the Caribbean were also colonized by Portugal, Sweden, and Denmark in the 16th-20th centuries. This legacy of colonial rule can be seen in the variety of languages, religions, and cultural products (such as music) throughout the subregion. One example is the island of Santo Domingo, divided into Haiti—a former colony of France—and the Dominican Republic—a former colony of both France and Spain. The official languages of Haiti are French and French Creole, while the official language of the Dominican Republic is Spanish. Likewise, the island of Saint Martin is divided into French and Dutch protectorates, with differences in official languages (French and English/Dutch) and Christian denominations (Catholic and Protestant) reflecting the metropole. Guadeloupe’s official language is French, but a French-based Creole language called Antillean Creole—which draws from French, Carib, English, and African languages—is spoken throughout the French Antilles. This language is used by Crossing the Mangrove’s characters, often in greeting; while “Creole” has many meanings, in the novel, it indicates language. Francis Sancher’s inability to understand basic phrases in Antillean Creole, in addition to his Spanish accent, marks him as an outsider in Rivière au Sel.

The Caribbean’s influx of enslaved people from West Africa and indentured laborers from India and China brought new languages, religions, and cultural practices. For example, the novel includes characters who practice forms of Christianity (specifically, Catholicism) and Hinduism. Other religions commonly found in the subregion are Islam as well as locally developed religions such as Voodoo and Santería—African diasporic religions practiced in Haiti and Cuba, respectively. As for musical styles, the novel mentions the mazurka (a Polish musical form), the béguine (a mix of Latin folk dance and French ballroom dance that originated in Guadeloupe and Martinique), and zouk (a musical movement invented by Guadeloupean and Martiniquais musicians). As Guadeloupe is considered part of France, inhabitants with financial means are able to study and work in the metropole. This movement to and from France is complemented by regional movements of people, in culture, politics, and marriage. Overall, Caribbean culture is both syncretic and fragmented in its hierarchies.