Banjo · Chapter
XVIII: Banjo’s Return explained
Banjo returns to the Vieux Port after a disappointing stint with wealthy people, finding his old gang dispersed.
What happens
Banjo returns to the Vieux Port after a disappointing stint with wealthy people, finding his old gang dispersed. He loses his banjo to a trick by two Senegalese men, forcing him to seek work. With Dengel's help, he bribes Sarka, a Senegalese section boss, with a silk shirt and tie to get a job on the docks. Banjo becomes a steady coal worker, a grim change from his carefree past, and reunites with Chère Blanche. Ray tries to persuade him to return to his old ways, but Banjo feels the gang has broken up and accepts his new life.
Themes in this chapter
Race and Identity
Banjo reflects on the 'skin game' of life, where race and skin color are used for exploitation and survival.
Displacement and Homelessness
The dissolution of the gang and Banjo's loss of his instrument leave him rootless, forced into hard labor.
Freedom vs. Survival
Banjo trades his carefree, free-spirited existence for the drudgery of coal work, highlighting the tension between freedom and survival.
Characters to notice
- Banjo
Returns to the Vieux Port, loses his banjo to a trick, and takes up coal work, becoming a steady laborer.
- Ray
Sees Banjo working in coal and tries to convince him to return to his carefree ways.
- Malty Avis
Present with Ray and Latnah, comments on Banjo's return.
- Latnah
Giggles at Banjo's coal-blackened appearance, remarking he looks good working in coal.
- Dengel
Helps Banjo find work by introducing him to Sarka.
- Sarka
Senegalese section boss who accepts a bribe from Banjo to give him work.
Key passages
“Because I wasn’t any monkey business... It was like a ole conjure-woman business with debbil fooling in hell that didn’t hit mah fancy right noneatall, so I jest haul plug outa it and here I is.”
Banjo explains that he left the rich people because it felt like a fraudulent, unnatural situation, so he returned to the Ditch.
Banjo rejects the artificial life with the wealthy, preferring his own community.
“Life is a game a skin; black skin, white skin, sweet skin and all skin and selling one another is living it.”
Banjo reflects that life is a game of exploitation based on skin color, where people use each other to survive.
This highlights the theme of race and identity as a social construct used for power.
“The gang’s done broke up, pardner, and I done lose mah instrument. Good fun like that kain’t last forevah. Everything works out to a change.”
Banjo tells Ray that the good times are over and change is inevitable.
Banjo accepts the end of his carefree days, showing his resignation to a new reality.