I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem - Paperback

by Maryse Condé (Author), Richard Philcox (Translator)

This wild and entertaining novel expands on the true story of the West Indian slave Tituba, who was accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, arrested in 1692, and forgotten in jail until the general amnesty for witches two years later. Maryse Condé brings Tituba out of historical silence and creates for her a fictional childhood, adolescence, and old age. She turns her into what she calls "a sort of female hero, an epic heroine, like the legendary 'Nanny of the maroons, '" who, schooled in the sorcery and magical ritual of obeah, is arrested for healing members of the family that owns her.

CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French

This book has been supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agencY.

Author Biography

Maryse Condé was Professor Emerita of French at Columbia University and author of the internationally celebrated novels Segu and The Belle Créole (Virginia). In 2018 she won the prestigious New Academy Prize in Literature.

Angela Y. Davis is Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Ann Armstrong Scarboro is president of Mosaic Media and producer, with Susan Wilcox of Full Duck Productions, of the series Ethnic Expressions from the Mosaic of the Americas. Richard Philcox is the English-language translator of many of Condé's novels.