nt.
This cultural miscegenation leaps out at the reader from the first few pages of the book, then. The white man is in charge of reality, in charge of the life of the black man. Ti Noel is a thing to his own, a thing which is useful in terms of his knowledge of horses, but is not useful as a reading individual who thinks for himself. Miscegenation in cultural terms, then, can be seen as, at least in part, the mixing or non-mixing in all things cultural on the terms laid down by the white man, and the black slave will adhere to that set of laws and guidelines, or he will suffer the consequences.
In other words, the slave is most welcome if he and his knowledge and wisdom can be used to benefit the white man, but the same slave is not welcome in schools or in any setting in which he might learn to read and begin to absorb dangerous ideas and even begin to act on those ideas.
The black man in such a white-controlled culture is effectively reduced to the level of a thing. In other words, a man without a culture of his own is, in a sense, not a human being at all.
Ti Noel does have a culture, but he has been stolen from that realm and forced to live in stark contrast to the mighty African warriors of his homeland:
Although Ti Noel had little learning, he had been instructed in these truths by the deep wisdom of Macandal. In Africa, the king was warrior, hunter, judge and priest (14).
Ti Noel is also aware that while the white man has the political and physical power, the white man and his white leaders are soft and weak in contrast to the mighty kings of Africa. Nevertheless, as a slave, Ti Noel is a man stolen from his own culture, and yet deprived of taking any advantage of the white culture which has enslaved him. His mixing with the white culture is carried out only in the terms laid down by the white man. If he is tempted or able to avoid those restrictions, he takes his life in his hands. In fact, it is the v...