Dialogue with the Ancestors

Abstract

In the work of Maryse Conde, three novels evoke in an insistent way the question of a dialogue with the ancestor's words: Segu, I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, and Les derniers rois mages [The Last of the Magi].' This question is of particular importance for the characters; it shapes their knowledge, their imaginations, and their destiny. And it has particular importance for us, for it also shapes our knowledge, our imaginations, and our destiny as readers of these novels. At the beginning of Segu, we feel that this dialogue with the ancestors must have existed, serving as a clear guide for human behavior. The history of the decline of Segu is also a history of the weakening of the power of the ancestral word, blurring the characters' consciounesses. With I, Tituba Black Witch of Salem, awareness of the words of the ancestors resurfaces as a more individual conquest. The witch is isolated in groups which do not share her knowledge, and even if she has two ancestors for guides, her destiny depends more on her desire, on her own choices than on her obedience to the ancestors' words. Finally, with The Last of the Magi, the words of the ancestors have lost their direct dimension. One reads about them, sees pictures, paintings, and hears stories that mediate between the ancestors and characters-a distancing which leads the characters to new doubts. Through her history of the transformation of human conciousness, starting from a moment when that consciousness was based on knowledge born of shared blood, up