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Reading: Sister Mother Warrior
Vanessa Riley’s exciting novel set during the Haitian Revolution
In her novel Sister, Mother, Warrior, Vanessa Riley crafted an epic of historical fiction set during the Haitian Revolution, using the perspectives of two women who were central to the events to draw the reader in.
One of our narrators is Adbaraya Toya, a woman warrior of the Dahomey kingdom in West Africa who is forced into slavery and brought to the French colony of Saint Domingue (which will become Haiti after the Revolution). Toya, who is also known in the historical record as Victoria Montou or Gran Toya, served as a mentor and aide to one of the great leaders of the Revolution, General Jean Jacques (Janjak) Dessalines.
Our other narrator is Marie Claire Sainté, a free Black woman who became wife to General Dessalines and the first lady of the new nation of Haiti. Marie Claire’s mother is an “Affranchi,” a free mixed-race woman with a “Grand Blanc” father and a Black mother. Before marrying Jean Jacques, Marie Claire is married to a “Petit Blanc” woodworker, Pierre Lupin.
Through the dual perspectives of Gran Toya and Marie Claire, Vanessa Riley gives the reader insights into the perspectives of each of the various groups of people central to the Haitian Revolution.
