The African Presence and Limits of Double Consciousness in Caryl Phillips's Crossing the River

Abstract: Set against the backdrop of the Transatlantic slave trade, Caryl Phillips’s Crossing the River can be read as a novel which explores severed family ties and the intertwined relationship between the dominant and the subdued within the African diaspora. Questions concerning “race”, identity and representation can be traced in all the narratives and are also the focus of this essay. Diasporic identities most often involve a double consciousness, seeing and/or identifying with different perspectives. All of the characters are clearly affected by slavery and/or racism directly or indirectly. This essay will argue that this is evident in all the narratives, using Paul Gilroy’s concept of the Black Atlantic to illustrate this point. However, when it comes to representation and whose voice is heard, Phillips’s choices of focalization have adverse implications for the representation of Africa and Africans. Although the novel explores identities of people of the African diaspora and one of the narratives, “The Pagan Coast”, is set in Liberia, the country remains anonymous, and no African is awarded a voice in that narrative. In his attempt at capturing the essence of African diasporic identities, Phillips has neglected the influence of Africa and Africans.