Crossing the Mangrove

Content Warning: The text depicts racism (including colorism, slurs, and outdated terminology), ableism, anti-gay bias, abortion attempts without the mother’s consent, misogyny, and incest, and discusses sati (a form of suicide), sexual assault (including a case involving an underage character), death by childbirth, child death, enslavement, torture, and murder.



“Like all the villagers of Rivière au Sel she had hated the man who now lay at

her feet. But death being what it is, when it passes by, respect it.”

This quote sets a somber tone for Crossing the Mangrove with the words “hated” and “death”—the latter of which is personified as “[passing] by.” This is the first speech at Francis Sancher’s wake, spoken by retired schoolteacher Léocadie Timothée, who found his corpse in the forest. The speech creates interest as to why Rivière au Sel hates him.

“So it was that the warm, salty tears streamed down her cheeks, still chubby from childhood. Tears of pain, tears of mourning, but not of surprise. For she had known from the very start that this man would break into and out of her life in a brutal fashion.”

This quote highlights how young Vilma is, making her pregnancy particularly shocking. She is one of two girls impregnated by the deceased Sancher, the other being Mira. Thus, the quote foreshadows both girls’ painful flashbacks, despite their shared “love” for Sancher.

“The coffin was placed on the bed, covered with a profusion of fresh flowers from the nurseries, in the larger of the two bedrooms under the three beams symbolizing Bread, Wine and Poverty, which during his lifetime had witnessed Francis Sancher’s prolific lovemaking with his success of women, and which had never been touched by a broom.”

It is ironic that the place where Sancher created two new lives (Vilma and Mira’s babies) is also the place where he is formally put to rest. The phrase “Bread, Wine and Poverty” is explained as “A way of predicting the fate of a home by counting the beams that represent Bread = strict minimum, Wine = abundance and Poverty = misfortune.” In the novel, misfortune is a powerful force. The room’s lack of a broom is likely a reference to “jumping the broom,” a marriage custom brought from West Africa through enslaved African people.