What the Chlordecone Pollution Says About Modes of Inhabiting the World: Examining the Intersection of Socio-Racial Inequality and Environmental Degradation in Tropiques Toxiques by Jessica Oublié et al.

Abstract

In Tropiques Toxiques (2020), Jessica Oublié et al. use the graphic novel as a medium to convey the stories of people in the departments of France, in particular Guadeloupe and Martinique, whose lives have been affected by chlordecone, a toxic pesticide used in banana plantations between the years 1972 and 1993. The intimate dive into people’s lived experiences in the French Caribbean is paired with the elaboration of attentive scientific knowledge around the contamination caused by chlordecone and its continued effects. While the substance was already under scrutiny for its toxic effects on human and wildlife in the 1970s in the US, successive governments in France allowed the use of chlordecone to sustain and intensify the production of bananas against international competitors, until it was officially banned in 1993. As a point of departure, this article argues that such human-made ecological disaster forefronts the intersection of socio-racial inequality and environmental degradation, while questioning the practice of nonknowledge on the issue of chlordecone poisoning. How, then, does the graphic novel break the cycle of ignorance and call attention to socio-racial disparities not just in accessible knowledge, but also in protection of French citizens? And finally, what can chlordecone contamination say about our modes of inhabiting the world and the importance of imagining alternatives?