Texaco, a novel written by Patrick Chamoiseau, serves as a prime demonstration of the inner workings and significance of the process of creolization in the Caribbean, specifically on the island of Martinique. Understanding this process is key in gaining a greater understanding of the novel in the realm of history, globalization, and cultural relationships. For basic comprehension, creolization is the process through which “elements of different cultures are blended together to create a new culture,” with the produced culture being of mosaic nature (Webster). This process is intricate, complex, and requires certain conditions through which to function – conditions present in Martinique and portrayed in Texaco.
Creolization in Martinique
Martinique is the Caribbean island of focus in Texaco, with the novel providing key passages that highlight the history of the country that made the process of creolization so prominent. The history of colonization in the area produced a special Martinican way of living through the process of creolization, encompassing aspects of language, music, ways of cooking, and ways of dressing. Texaco paints the picture of a plantation society in this region, with Esternome’s early life being spent on a plantation in slavery. Esternome’s story is exemplary of many African enslaved persons imported to work on plantations in this colonized region.
Although the product of creolization is beautiful, the foundation of the process is dependent on the ugliness of this type of slavery and colonization. Stuart Hall, a Jamaican-British sociologist, articulates this phenomenon through the assertion that the platform that breeds creolization “always entails inequality, hierarchization, issues of domination and subalternity, mastery and servitude, and control and resistance,” all of which are present under the conditions of slavery evident in Martinique’s history (15).
Creolization occurs in this environment due to the way that different cultures and languages are forced into cohabitation. The need for enslaved persons on the plantations to survive and work together while under the power of the békés of European descent leads to these “processes of cultural and linguistic mixing and entanglement” (Hall 15). Creolization begins and Creole culture starts to emerge due to these power dynamics, tensions, and struggles associated with slavery and plantation life. When people of different backgrounds are placed in a subservient role, as they are in Texaco, creolization occurs initially in the form of language due to the need to communicate for survival, and then evolves from there into a whole new culture.
Language
Creole language is a key element produced from creolization that holds cultural implications. In a typical vocabulary, the term “creole” is most commonly used to describe a vernacular form of language that has developed in colonies and become the native tongue of most inhabitants (Hall 13). Due to location and the history we have unpacked, creole languages typically combine elements of European and African language. In the context of Martinique and the story of Texaco, creole is the vernacular spoken in most settings. Although French is the official language of Martinique, Martinican Creole is what is most commonly spoken (Lekka).
Readers of Texaco are sure to notice this pattern in the novel, as well as the tendency for people to assume that the creole language is undervalued or unintelligent. For example, Esternome accounts a man speaking “very good French” with sentences “truly beautiful.” In the novel, nobody was able to understand this “pretty French,” but all were in awe to the point of being speechless (Texaco 111). As this demonstrates, Creole language can even be internally undervalued, thought of as uglier or less intelligent by the speakers themselves.
Creole Culture
In Texaco, the actual word “creole” appears frequently, often referring to a variety of topics surrounding basic aspects of life, culture, and society in Martinique post-slavery. Demonstrating this versatility, in an interview, Patrick Chamoiseau deems Creole to be anything local or “from the country” (“From Creolization to Relation”). In Texaco, the term “creole” appears frequently in the “Noutéka” passage, which gives further insight on the culture that the process of creolization creates. While establishing Noutéka, or the “magical we,” Esternome accounts traveling through the hills with a group trying to set up a life after slavery. A lot of effort was necessary, but the group worked together using a variety of cultural knowledge and techniques to maintain survival (Texaco 126). “Creole” and “Noutéka” were used side by side, with both terms containing a cultural underlying that highlights forging people together. Later in that passage, the Creole quarter is referred to as a “native flower,” with everyone getting along and helping one another (Texaco 132). In this sense, the novel demonstrates how the process of creolization in Martinique can be looked at as a means of unification through a unique culture.
Furthermore, the most thorough definition of Creole culture present in Texaco appears in a journal entry of the urban planner’s notes to the Word Scratcher: “The Creole city returns to the urban planner, who would like to ignore it, the roots of a new identity: multilingual, multiracial, metahistorical, sensible to the world’s diversity. Everything has changed” (Texaco 220). This passage takes the idea of Creole outside of just language, but rather embraces an entire identity in itself. It further emphasizes how this local Creole culture is a melting pot of language, race, and history, holding unique properties while still encompassing aspects of other cultures.
Direct Presence in Texaco
The original version of Texaco before translation was written using both French and Creole language, making the novel itself a demonstration of creolization. Due to the uniqueness of some Creole terms, they cannot be smoothly translated and remain present in the English translation of the novel, with loose translations given in the footnotes. The implications of this writing style are clearer in the original French text, but this code-switching style emphasizes the differences between French and Creole Martinican culture, more accurately portraying Martinique’s creolized society. In an interview, Chamoiseau indicates his desire to include creole language due to its cultural richness and ability to display the reality of life in that specific time and place (“From Creolization to Relation”). Its inclusion was deliberate and effective in establishing the novel as an even greater cultural demonstration.
Works Cited
Chamoiseau, Patrick. “From Creolization to Relation.” Interview by Olivia Sheringham. Oxford Diasporas Programme, 2012, https://www.migrationinstitute.org/files/news/patrickchamoiseauinterview_f.pdf. Accessed 9 April 2022.
—. Texaco. Trans. Rose-Myriam Réjouisi & Val Vinokurov. NY: Vintage, 1997.
Hall, Stuart. “Créolité and the Process of Creolization.” Creolizing Europe: Legacies and Transformations, edited by Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez and Shirley Anne Tate, Liverpool University Press, 2015, pp. 12–25.
Lekka, Natali. “The Differences between French and Martinique’s French Creole.” Babbel Magazine, 11 Apr. 2019, https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/martinican-creole.
Webster, Jane. “Creolization.” Oxford University Press, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.6981.
Editorial Collective
Matéa Diekema, Arden Brady, John Morra
