Book Review of I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem by Maryse Conde

UPDATED: 2/5/2023

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227 pages, originally published in 1986 in French and translated to English in 1992 by Richard Philcox, who is both Conde’s long-term translator as well as her husband

YOU MAY ENJOY THIS BOOK IF YOU LIKE:

Literary Fiction * Historic Fiction * Caribbean Fiction * Books Set in Barbados * Books that Explore Gender and Racial Equality

TRAVEL INSPIRATION:

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem is set in two very different worlds: the puritanical Salem, Massachusetts, during its most infamous period in history, and the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The well-known Salem Witch Trials, during feverish months spanning 1692-1693, did in fact occur in Salem, but the puritanical town in which all the shenanigans occurred was actually about 5 miles away in the modern town of Danvers, Massachusetts, a fact I did not know prior to reading this novel. In her novel, Conde paints a vibrant picture of the muted world of this society, which was nestled among the New England forests and where its members were anything but godly in their treatment of each other.

The novel both starts and ends on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The island’s warmth and tropical setting come alive during a time period when to be Black was to be enslaved or to be part of the extralegal society of Maroons, runaways who had avoided or escaped enslavement. I do not recall having read any prior novels set in Barbados and discovered an interesting world depicted through Conde’s writing.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: maryse conde

Maryse Conde is an African-French writer from Guadeloupe, an archipelago of six Caribbean islands that fall under French rule and are considered to be part of the “French republic”. Born in 1937, Conde has lived around the world and been influenced by these experiences. After graduating high school in her native Guadeloupe, Conde attended university in Paris. From 1959-1970, she lived with her first husband in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Senegal before returning to Paris. By the mid 1980s, gaining increased notoriety for her writing, Conde and her current husband, her translator Richard Philcox, moved to the United States, where she has had numerous posts teaching at universities. She retired in 2005 and splits her time between New York, where she has is Professor Emerita at Columbia University, and Paris.

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem was Conde’s fifth published novel out of a body of 17 works of fiction, a few plays, and other writings. She often explores concepts of gender, ethnicity, and identify in her writing, themes very much invoked in this novel.

REVIEW OF I, Tituba, black witch of salem BY maryse conde

Salem, Massachusetts, is home to year-round witchery, a phenomena that shows up in most cities only around Halloween. The historic city is a mecca for those who are fascinated by the idea of witches, interested in the 330 year old history of the witch trials, and of course represents ongoing debate about the role of women throughout history and how the claim of witchcraft was used to subjugate and control the 'weaker sex', as it were.

My own interest in the witch trials goes back to elementary school, and I recall my class in, I believe, fifth grade, watching a movie that centered on Tituba. Perhaps what keeps people interested in this event from 1692-1693 is how the foundational issue - mass hysteria - is repeated time and time again. The story of Salem's witches would make for a perfect fable tied up neatly with a bow . . . if it were not for the minor detail that it truly occurred. The events of Salem continue to echo through history in various modern day examples, making its example timely and classic, if unfortunate. Real-life Tituba was born in Barbados, transplanted to the village of Salem (modern Danvers), and became an important figure in the events. The fact that she was Black and viewed as lesser in the society only increased the pile of cards stacked against her.

These historical echos to the present motivated Conde to invoke the character of Tituba for her novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem. In a transcribed interview at the end of the novel, Conde shared that, "Writing Tituba was an opportunity to express my feelings about present-day America. I wanted to imply that in terms of narrow-mindedness, hypocrisy, and racism, little has changed since the days of the Puritans." While Conde wrote the novel in 1986, this sentiment seems equally relevant 30-odd years later.

Because Tituba was Black, historical records captured few details of her life, a fact that the fictionalized Tituba discusses and anticipates happening. Factual details from Salem are included in the book, including the names of important townspeople and specific aspects of the trials. Factual details of Tituba’s life are incorporated where they are known; for example, she was born in Barbados. Conde’s goal was not to write a historical narrative - and a good thing, too, with so few records about Tituba - but to give voice to Tituba and allow her story to be told in a fictionalized setting.

The novel begins in Barbados, where Tituba has a rough upbringing and ends up living on her own, freed from slavery by default. She is educated in the ways of the spirits, learning ways of healing and seeing and speaking with the dead. This is an important aspect of who Tituba will continue to be and incorporates an element of magical realism into the novel.

Following her heart - or perhaps as Tituba shares, the demands of her body - she marries John Indian, a life decision that takes her from her beloved island nation to the chilly forests of Massachusetts. It is there that Tituba is ensconced in a world of hypocrisy and distrust that rapidly erodes into the mass hysteria of witchcraft and where she must confront her own good, trusting nature. Can goodness ensure survival or must it be given up? During a time when she is jailed, Tituba shares a cell with none other than literary character Hester Prynne, she of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850. Developing a comraderie of sisterhood, Hester and Tituba speak of feminism in modern terms. This is one of several examples in the novel where Conde plays humorously with possibilities.

I enjoyed I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem for it's colorful and varied characters and for the unexpected routes the plot took like when Tituba remarries a Jewish man and experiences the racism thrown in his direction by people out for blood. Conde is highly effective at bringing to life one of the voices of history that has been silenced. This novel left me wondering what it would be like if we did have better documented examples of a more representative population over the centuries that came before, and it underscored how important it is to ensure a variety of voices are in the mix before they are lost to the sands of time.