“Crossing the Mangrove”, by Maryse Conde, takes place in 1986 on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. The story is told through the eyes of the island’s many inhabitants who are made uneasy by the arrival of a strange foreigner who has come to live among them. The mysterious story of Francisco Alvarez-Sanchez invokes themes from past and present Caribbean life and the stories of the villagers combine to connect the fascinating story. The novel reflects the Creole diversity of the inhabitants of Guadeloupe.
In “Crossing the Mangrove,” several prominent recurring themes in Caribbean life are evident. Colonization and the class perspective are among the most dominant themes. Guadeloupe was colonized by France in the 17th century and, like many Caribbean islands, Guadeloupe became a center for the slave trade. A story told by the strange recluse Xantippe shows how the colonization ideals of the past are still present on the island today. When he was young, Xantippe was happy and lucky. This gave the French-ruled gendarmes (police) a reason to question him. They insinuated that he had enemies and burned his cabin. Xantippe describes how he lost everything and his life changed for the worse, forever. This activity is reminiscent of Cesaire’s equation: colonization = “reification”.
The class perspective exists on the island of Guadalupe, but to a lesser extent than in the previous novels. The Ramsaraz and Lameane families are exclusive. They have land for cultivation and flower nurseries. They have big houses and drive French-made Peugeots. Although there is a population of peasants and servants, it does not feature prominently in the novel. Instead, a kind of middle-class society includes the majority class of the characters. Moise the postman, Emile Etienne the historian, and Lucien Evarist the writer are among a cast of Francis’ middle-class friends. But Francis is supposed to belong to the upper class because of his stories of travel and adventure, his ability to buy Alexis’s old estate, and daily truck deliveries of home appliances like a television, refrigerator, and stereo. music. The inhabitants of Riviere au Sel are envious of this and question his occupation and work ethic as a writer. They ask, “Was a writer a lazy bum, sitting in the shade for hours on his terrace, looking up at the crest of the mountains for hours on end while the rest sweated in the hot Good Lords sun?” One must get the feeling that the class perspective presented in “Crossing the Mangrove” is a good representation of society in Guadeloupe today.
The strong themes that are current in Guadeloupe society are that in a male dominated society, women are forced to practice arranged marriages. But many of the women of Riviere au Sel have contempt for their estranged husbands and their fathers who make the unusual arrangements. Forced marriages are common and rooted in the tradition of this island society, but curiously, no explanations are provided as to why a father would want to marry off his attractive young daughters to older men with dubious intentions. What is the motivation of the parents who participate in this practice? Yes, these men are rich and the girls will live comfortably, but do the fathers receive any compensation for their generous contribution to the men? All the young women seem to come from well-established families. Do parents take into consideration the trauma and unhappiness their daughters will experience?
In Riviere au Sel, Dinah’s father arranged for her to marry Loulou. Dinah was in favor of this, but then her husband rejected it. Dinah said, “It’s been years since Loulou slept in my bed. Once darkness falls, I close the door and curl up like a fetus between my sheets.” Rosa, of Indian descent, is forced to marry Sylvester; the practice of arranged marriages is also common in India, where a social caste system still exists. In the passage in the novel she wants it known that, “When I was married to Sylvester Ramsaran, no one asked me for my opinion” and “Sylvester hurt me. He tore me apart.”
Like her Indian mother before her, Vilma’s marriage was on the mend. Vilma’s father, Sylvester, arranged for her to marry a man named Marins Vindrex. But Vilma rebelled and ran away from home saying, “Marins Vindrex. But I don’t love him.” In the last act of revenge against her father, she joined the hated Francis Sánchez. Now in a position to forever poison the hideous marriage to the terrible Vindrex, she allowed herself to be impregnated by Francis. Sylvester is helpless to act as Francis’s questionable motives intensify among the villagers of Riviere au Sel who are already suspicious of him.
Conde connects the vignettes in “Crossing the Mangrove” by establishing the relationship that each villager had with Francis Sánchez as the story progresses. Each member has a strong opinion or emotion about Francis. Some of those thoughts are positive and some are negative. The center of the story is Francis’ wake that takes place in Riviere au Sel. It rains a lot in Riviere au Sel and Francis’ wake Thursday afternoon was no different. The rain seemed to act in the role of Mother Nature by cleansing the congregation of friends, enemies and former lovers who gathered to witness Francisco’s swan song.
Moise, the postman is the first character that Conde tells us about the relationship he had with Francis. Interestingly, there was some speculation in the community that there could be a homosexual relationship between Moise and the great womanizer Francis Sanchez. “There was evil teasing. There was something fishy about that friendship and the two men were Makoumeh! (Homosexuals). Adding further to the weirdness is the fact that many considered Moise a ‘misguided monster’ and ‘ugly’.” these accusations, the two were friends, but the friendship was awkward and unusual. At one point, we see Moise cradling Francis in his arms when something upset Francis. The next moment, we see Francis accusing Moise of stealing money from his mysterious trunk.
But Francis also had his enemies. Both Loulou Lameaulnes and Sylvester Ramsaran have similar reasons for despising Francis. Francis had sex with his daughters and got them both pregnant. For these two men, Francisco was a villain because of his indiscretions, but in both cases it was the young women who approached Francisco. Both women hated their parents and hated the life they led under their parents’ roofs. Perhaps the parents should have blamed themselves for forcing their daughters out of their arms and into Francis’s bed. Vilma and Mira shared the same bed with Francis and both attended his wake. They did not speak to each other. Interestingly, Loulou and Sylvester also attended and both felt that justice had been done in Francisco’s death.
The congregation left the wake with the sober realization that they had just mourned a man they barely knew. Francis had that ability. People were attracted to him, but they didn’t know why. The novel ends with the inhabitants of Riviere au Sel asking the same ironic questions about Francis as when they first saw him. “Who was Francisco Sánchez? And later, “Who was this man who chooses to die among us?