Putting Down Roots: Imagery and Identity in Patrick Chamoiseau's Texaco

In his novel, Texaco, Patrick Chamoiseau uses recurrent imagery to draw parallels between the generations and experiences of his characters. One of these recurring images is that of roots. Chamoiseau describes and compares different groups of people to the image of plants taking root, tying them to the land and ultimately making them a part of Martinique. Esternome says this about the land slaves’ struggle for freedom:

…the land slaves were marching toward freedom by paths more unkind than those the maroons took. More unkind, I tell you: for their battle held the risk of being thrown in the deepest ditches where, without resistance, you took whatever you had coming. The maroons would break from the confrontation but the land slaves would remain in formation, standing over mud as best they could, a bit like those water lilies of the blind marshland, you had to hold on, and hold on, and moor the bottom of your heart in the sand of freedom, without noble gestures, just like a dry seed arrives on the beautiful alluvial lands riding the rain. (Chamiseau 81)

This passage from Texaco, illustrates the difference between the maroons and the land slaves, and we see Chamoiseau using an analogy of roots or plants. The maroons are depicted as “break[ing] from the confrontation” during the fight for freedom while the land slaves “remain in formation”. The difference between their struggles is highlighted here. The maroons help fight for freedom when they want to, but when their position or power is compromised they break away and leave. The maroons already have a great deal of freedom, compared to the land slaves, so their participation in riots and uprisings is half-hearted. On contrast, the land slaves have to be willing to take the consequences for trying to gain freedom. Knowing they will be punished severely and maybe even killed for defying the slave owners (bekes), makes their convictions stronger. They have to “hold on” to “the sand of freedom”.

Here Esternome, is attempting to explain the importance of the slaves fight for freedom to Marie-Sophie. The slaves may fight for their freedom “without noble gestures” but in whatever ways they can. It is a natural impulse for them to want to be free. Like the water lilies extending their roots down into the sand, or those “dry seeds” taking root in the “alluvial lands” the land slaves must take root in freedom and also in the land where they are in order to survive.

Without their knowledge of the land and their ability to grow food for themselves they would have starved when the bekes ran out of provisions. Understanding plants and the land of Martinique ultimately gives them a power and knowledge that the Bekes and Milatoes don’t possess.

Chamoiseau writes, “between the heights of exile where the bekes lived and the milatoes rushed to change their destiny, the land slaves had chosen the land. The land to survive on. The land to feed themselves with. The land to understand, and to inhabit” (82). The land slaves become a part of the land of Martinique, no longer merely exiles from their homeland, through slavery and abolition they have become a new people, one who have chosen to use the land as a key to their survival.

Esternome attests to the risks and necessity of the land slaves’ “march for freedom”. He likens the slaves’ attachment to freedom to “a dry seed arriv[ing] on the beautiful alluvial lands riding the rain” (81). Alluvial soil is that which has been “washed away from one place and deposited in another”(online dictionary). This is a rich soil often created by floods. The land slaves, not unlike the soil, have been taken from one place and deposited in another and must decide whether they will take root in Martinique or hunt always for the return to Africa. When Chamoiseau, through Esternome, compares the differences between the slaves and the bekes and milatoes in the preceding passage he makes it clear that by choosing the land the slaves and former slaves are the ones who truly survive and try to make a home of Martinique.

Esternome is devoted to the idea that City is the best place, despite his return to the hills and the land, and seeing Saint-Pierre destroyed by the volcano. Esternome does not return to the hills but goes to Fort-de-France. The idea of people trying to put down figurative roots, to find a home, is a major theme in the novel. Like the water lilies Chamoiseau compares them to, the land slaves put out their roots in order to hold onto their freedom and in doing so become a part of the land. Similarly, the creation of Texaco, is an attempt by Marie-Sophie, and others, to find a home, to create a place for themselves in the land and the city. The continual destruction and resurrection of Texaco illustrates the importance of these figurative roots. Like a plant that has been cut down and grows up again, Texaco emerges from the attempts to raze it stronger and stronger until ultimately creating itself out of cement and bricks and gaining more permanence.

The urban planner compares Texaco to a mangrove swamp and he says:

I understood suddenly that Texaco was not what Westerners call a shantytown, but a mangrove swamp, an urban mangrove swamp. The swamp seems initially hostile to life. It’s difficult to admit that this anxiety of roots, of mossy shades, of veiled waters, could be such a cradle of life for crabs, fish, crayfish, the marine ecosystem. It seems to belong to neither land nor sea, somewhat like Texaco is neither City nor country. (Chamoiseau 263).

Like the mangrove swamp, Texaco is a confusing blend of people trying to find their roots, trying to create an identity and in some cases just trying to survive. Texaco is not really a part of City, but cannot exist without City. It is not a part of the rural landscape either. It is an in-between place. The residents of Texaco, not unlike the land slaves of the past, don’t have many rights. Texaco doesn’t legally exist, is not really theirs. Texaco is not on any map. Without owning the land or having the land be a part of City, the residents can’t get running water or electricity. The residents of Texaco want to be a part of City, but not at the cost of losing their unique identity. Attempts to relocate the Texaco’s residents are ultimately unsuccessful. Just as the land slaves become a part of the land through their fight for survival and freedom, the residents of Texaco become a part of the City through their fight to establish their place within it. In their fight for survival both the land slaves, and later the residents of Texaco, become an essential part of the land and truly make Martinique their home.

By using the image of roots and plants throughout his novel Chamoiseau clearly ties the characters to the land. He creates for his readers an essential world in which the land and the people, the City and the country are ultimately linked. Chamoiseau portrays his country as a place where, though difficult, people can forge an identity and create a place for themselves.

Works Cited

Chamoiseau, Patrick. Texaco. Toronto: Pantheon Books, 1997.

Online Plain English Text Dictionary. (http://www.onelook.com/opted.)