Set on an African banana plantation, White Spirit follows three innocents: Victor, a young Frenchman running a supply store; Lola, a mulatto prostitute desperately seeking to lighten her skin; and Alexis, a chimpanzee who does not know he is a monkey. A barrel of mysterious powder christened white spirit for its bleaching effect unleashes an obsession with whiteness that exposes the perverse system of desires and hatreds binding colonizers and colonized alike, spiraling toward catastrophe. With caustic language, fierce irony, and enormous tenderness for human frailty, Paule Constant portrays a nightmarish postcolonial Africa while sparking a light of hope amid torment and suffering.

A whip-smart postcolonial satire illuminating the absurdities of colonialism with dark comedy and profound tenderness.