DISPLACEMENT AND THE POLITICS OF SPACE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DIASPORIC CONSCIOUSNESS: A STUDY OF SEGU AND I, TITUBA: BLACK WITCH OF SALEM

Abstract

This article examines displacement and the politics of space in the
construction of diasporic consciousness in Maryse Condés novels Segu
and I,Tituba: Black Witch of Salem. Situating the analysis within
postcolonial spatial theory and diaspora studies, the study interrogates
how geographic rupture, forced migration, and ideological reterritorialization shape fragmented, yet resistant subjectivities across
African and transatlantic contexts. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s
theorization of the production of space, Homi Bhabha’s notion of the
“unhomely,” and Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic paradigm, the article
argues that Condé reconfigures space not merely as physical
geography but as a contested ideological terrain where power, race,
religion, and gender intersect. In (Segu), spatial disruption emerges
through the collapse of precolonial African sociocultural structures
under the pressures of Islamization, slavery, and European imperial
expansion, producing diasporic consciousness as historical awakening
and existential dislocation. Conversely, (I, Tituba), dramatizes the
racialized and gendered politics of space in colonial America, where
forced migration and carceral environments transform the body into
a surveilled and marginal site of resistance. Across both texts,
displacement becomes both a condition of trauma and a generative
space for reimagining identity beyond fixed national and cultural
boundaries. The article contends that Condés narrative strategies
reclaim silenced histories by mapping transnational trajectories that
connect Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas, thereby  constructing

a multidimensional diasporic consciousness grounded
in memory, resistance, and spatial negotiation. Ultimately, this study
contributes to postcolonial literary discourse by foregrounding the
centrality of spatial politics in understanding Black diasporic identity
formation.