This book isn’t set in France’s national borders but rather in the French colony of Martinique. One of the burning geopolitical questions of the last 500 years is the relationship of current and former colonies to the nation that colonized them. Colonies will never be what they were before the takeover, but what will they be during and after? Texaco, by Patrick Chamoiseau addresses that. Chamoiseau wrote the book in both French and Creole, and I read it in translation.
The short version is that this is the story of the native people of Martinique trying to establish a community amidst the takeover of the island by the French and the business interests that they brought in. The Texaco of the title is a neighborhood next to a fuel depot operated by the Texaco oil company. It is a settlement founded by people forced off of their land by colonial enslavement and now looking for a place to build the small hutches that serve as their housing. Texaco’s residents identify with France, but they also identify with the place where they live. A key part of the story is Charles de Gaulle’s 1964 visit to the island, when the Texaco residents hope that he will fix their problems and stabilize their community.
The longer story is one of generations of storytellers creating a new culture that reflects their indigenous heritage and new contacts the arrival of French settlers and enslaved Africans.
Martinique is still a French department, with about 340,000 people. It has experienced several attempts at independence, but the French have increasingly given the people of Martinique more rights and freedoms.
A few times, I went to look up words or history mentioned in this book, and I discovered that students in an honors class at Southern Illinois University created a wiki that gave the backstory of many of the people, places, and events. I appreciated it, because as much as I loved Texaco’s story, it’s not the easiest read.
