Crossing the Mangrove

Being of African descent, Mama Sonson embodies an important culture to the Creolization of the Caribbean. However, unlike characters who value white blood in their families (as the pinnacle of beauty or martial power), she is horrified when her son marries a white woman, as she blames European colonialism for the Transatlantic Slave Trade (1501-1807). When the Caribbean’s Indigenous population was decimated by disease and warfare, enslaved people were brought to cultivate sugarcane and other cash crops. These people brought their own religions, with Mama Sonson practicing a mix of Voodoo and Christianity. Voodoo itself is a blended belief system, with its African and Haitian practitioners implementing Christianity in ceremonies. Sancher was once a doctor, but became a curandero or folk healer to distance himself from non-spiritual matters such as politics. Yet, he seeks plants to abort his and Mira’s baby without her consent, using his expertise to harm rather than heal; he later uses a needle on Mira, echoing her first impression of him as “a devil’s darning needle.” He and Mama Sonson mirror each other in their knowledge of flora and future events, but while the older Mama Sonson’s clairvoyance predicts others’ deaths, the younger Sancher is fixated on his own—as if it were an equally supernatural matter. Again, this fear ties into the “Satanic” imagery (i.e., dogs, the devil’s darning needle) that seems to follow him wherever he goes.

Two chapters in this section are told from the perspectives of vulnerable young men. Dinah’s son and Mira’s stepbrother, Joby, is frightened by Sancher’s wake due to Rivière au Sel’s superstitions regarding the spirit world. For example, he thinks someone born at midnight like Mira’s son Quentin will be haunted by spirits. He also thinks Xantippe is a soucouyant or blood-sucking spirit of Caribbean folklore. Like Xantippe, who is later revealed to suffer trauma, Sonny is feared for his brain damage-induced behavior. While Sancher extends kindness to Sonny, both fear Xantippe—despite the potential for sympathy as fellow outsiders. Sonny often brings fruit from his garden to Sancher—evoking the Christian Garden of Eden—but one day, he spots Mira—whom he views as an Eve figure, a corrupting force—and feels betrayed. This framing of Mira echoes her relationship with Aristide, which she calls Eden-like “forbidden fruit” (36). However, it is Sancher who wields “forbidden” knowledge against her, to abort their baby. Dinah, too, seeks Sancher as “forbidden fruit” to escape her loveless marriage, but upon learning of his relationships with Mira and Vilma, she decides to forsake men—to leave her husband Loulou for good.