Crossing the River: Family, Cross-Culturalism, and Shared History

Caryl Phillips’ 1993 novel Crossing the River overlaps 4 historically and geographically distanced stories about the African diaspora over the last two hundred and fifty years. The novel is framed by an African father guilt-ridden for selling his three children to a slave trader, two boys and a girl, represented by Nash Williams, Martha, and Travis. These three characters are the protagonists of “The Pagan Coast,” “West,” and “Somewhere in England” respectively, and the fourth story is “Crossing the River” which consists of journal entries and letters by James Hamilton, a captain of a slave vessel. Together, these four stories intermingle to show the connected histories of black people around the Atlantic, and how the colonial and post-colonial structures still endure within Western society. Anthony Ilona’s essay “Crossing the River: A Chronicle of the Black Diaspora” analyses and discusses the persistent theme of parental guilt and the destruction of the family unit present in this novel, which is influenced by Phillips’ background and contributes to the discussion of Black identity in Britain. This paper suggests that Ilona’s essay develops Phillps’ ideas about complicated cultural histories that are based on a shared collective memory of oppression spanning centuries, and how ‘re-telling’ stories of the marginalised can assert agency and authority over their history if not complicate the validity of ‘master’ history.

This paper will begin with a summary of the main points argued by Ilona in his essay and how they relate to Crossing the River. It will then consider complementary ideas to Ilona’s essay; cross-culturalism and the complexities of social categorizations in Phillips’ novel. Finally, it will connect back to Ilona’s notion of the deconstructed family in the novel.

Ilona discusses three main ideas in his essay: black Britain, the chronicle, and parental guilt. Ilona briefly considers Phillips’ background as an immigrant and a post-war black British writer riddled with a complicated cultural identity and history shared by many others (Ilona 5). It influenced Phillips’ concept of a historically-based narrative to establish a connection to his roots, and so the black diaspora’s roots as well, and a regain of agency over their shared history (6). He then quickly differentiates between historical stories and chronicles to establish Crossing the River as a chronicle for the black diaspora. He argues that fitting to the definition of a chronicle, the reader can only understand the full significance of the novel and its intertwined narratives after reading it in its entirety rather than linearly (6).

Ilona then begins his main discussion about the theme of parental guilt within the novel. He defines this theme as “the remorse or self reproach of a parent caused by the feeling that he or she is responsible for an offence done to the child” and that it is an umbrella over the experience of the Western imperialist deconstruction of black families across the African diaspora (6). Firstly, in “the Pagan Coast,” while both Edward and Nash feel a sense of loss and disconnectedness to one another after Nash’s repatriation, Edward feels a desperation to find himself through finding Nash, and Nash, on the other hand, gains a sense of identity and community which he was forcefully declined in America (7). In his unanswered letters, Nash explains his shame for being disgusted by African society to his legal father with whom he shares his last name, blowing up the Westernised colonial structure of a forced family that is founded on breaking up families. Edward’s insecurity and anxiety are “synonymous with the wider historical guilt of the African father in the prologue at having sold his children into Western slavery. The only difference here is that it is the empowered choice of the child, Nash, and not the father, Edward'' (7).

Secondly, in “West,” Ilona compares Martha’s sense of familial loss as a parent to Edward’s. This form of parental guilt, exclusive to the victims of this oppressive history, is submerged in guilt, shame, and secrecy for their survival. Neither Edward nor Martha had a reunion with their lost family member, apart from Martha’s hallucination of walking into Eliza Mae’s house after an intense hope and desperation for finding her (7). Thirdly, in “Crossing the River,” an objective cold light is shone on the process of ripping members of families apart by simply considering them as commodities for sale incapable of having meaningful roots worthy of consideration (8). Lastly, in “Somewhere in England,” the snatching of Joyce’s child with Travis by the County Council highlights how even after the end of slavery, broader long-established systems of familial and social intervention and the imposition of racial divide continues to separate families under the guise of civility (8). Ilona ends his discussion on parental guilt by suggesting that Phillips’ encourages us “into reinterpretation of the stories and the past” and engage in broader historical discussions so that the “fertile histories on the underside [the African diaspora] come to the surface” (8).

The haunted collective memory of slavery and oppression is inherited through family lineage, like a genetic predisposition which shapes familial and social relations. This is strengthened by the literary device of polyphony used by Phillips. The novel itself is framed by the memory of the African father selling his children which spans over two centuries, clearly foreshadowing the importance of memory and the inheritance of loss across generations. In “West,” Martha suffers from her memory of losing Eliza Mae her entire life which influences the degradation of her dignity and wellbeing, leading to the ultimate reunion hallucination. The post-slavery society of Dodge too is shaped and haunted by the memory of slavery there, resulting in its black inhabitants leading fragmented lives and disconnected communities and families (McInnis). The use of polyphony in the novel highlights and strengthens the collective experience and memory of black people and brings their shared story to light, front and centre, and pushes aside the master imperialist narratives about their history. It also acts as a push back against Western literary structures of linear narratives allowing the novel to be a literal representation of cross-culturalism and collective experience of the African diaspora around the Atlantic.

Concerning Ilona’s description of Phillips’ personal background of having confusing connections, and discussion of Phillips’ depiction of that in the novel suggests a level of complication in social categorizations. As witnessed by Nash in “the Pagan Coast,” black people like himself that settle in Africa are called “white men” by the natives, and black people in the West of America are called “dark white men” by the indigenous people (Phillips 32, 91). Moreover, in “Crossing the River,” the white captain of the slave vessel, James Hamilton, is called “a slave to a single woman” because of his love for his wife (109). The swapping of terminology in these situations not only asserts “the mutability of identities,” but also questions the validity and reliability of such social categorizations because “there is in each man a plurality of interacting selves” (Ledent 58). The flip side of a racialised view on people is Joyce’s description of Travis in “Somewhere in England.” The audience does not realise Travis is a black person until much later in the section, showing genuine colour-blindness in Joyce’s relationship with people of other races. The consequences of this naive perception resulted in social intervention in her family, and through this, the novel also demonstrates that a rejection of acknowledging racial differentiation and the history behind it is just as destructive as a forcible imposition of racial division.

The collective experiences, histories, and memories of slavery and oppression amongst the black diaspora highlighted in this novel show how black people are trapped within the social roles assigned to them by the colonial structures present in the countries they reside in, preventing a sense of equality and inhibiting social progress in racial relations. The cross-cultural identities and memories of the characters within the novel are drowned in histories of displacement and fragmented communities. Martha and Joyces shared grief in the forced separation of their respective children pre- and post-slavery display the limited societal change that has taken place and a shared sense of familial fragmentation over a century. The idea of family is also complicated by Edward’s position as Nash’s father and master, muddling the supposed easy-to-understand dynamics of master-slave and parent-child. Edward, a white man, is able to consider Nash, a black man, his legal child after his repatriation, however, Joyce, a white woman, is unable to consider Greer, a mixed boy, her child due to patriarchal standards mingling with racial standards. All four stories emphasise that regardless of gender, social position, or race, if even a drop of black blood is present within the child, some sort of familial disruption and displacement will take place. The only consistent form of lineage is the inheritance of oppression, both in reality and in memory.

Anthony Ilona’s essay works hand-in-hand with Caryl Phillips’ novel Crossing the River to engage in discussions about the contribution family, rather lack thereof, in shaping the identities, cultures, and histories of the black diaspora across the Atlantic. Ilona’s particular attention to paternal guilt develops Phillps’ ideas about complicated cultural histories that are based on a shared collective memory of oppression spanning centuries, and how ‘re-telling’ stories of the marginalised can assert agency and authority over their history if not complicate the validity of ‘master’ historical narratives that have neglected the multiplicity within their shared history.

Disclaimer: This work is original and the property of Aroni Sarkar. It is not authorised for any use, copies or dissemination.

Works Cited

Ilona, Anthony. “Crossing the River: A Chronicle of the Black Diaspora.” Wasafiri, vol. 11, no. 22, 18 July 1995, p. 3-9, https://doi.org/10.1080/02690059508589440

Ledent, Bénédicte. “‘Overlapping Territories, Intertwined Histories": Cross-Culturality in Caryl Phillips's Crossing the River.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 30, no. 1, March 1995, pp 55-62, doi:10.1177/002198949503000106

McInnis, Gilbert. “The Struggle of Postmodernism and Postcolonialism in Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River,” accessed 4 December 2020,

http://www.postcolonialweb.org/caribbean/phillips/mcinnis2.html

Phillips, Caryl. Crossing the River. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1993.