When Solibo dies, his body is covered with manioc ants, and this image comes to represent Resistance Against Colonial Authority and Rationality. Manioc ants are tied to the manioc plant, surviving on it despite the fact that the plant itself is highly poisonous. Thus, the ants represent the resilience of those who manage to survive despite the challenges of an inherently toxic environment. Manioc is also representative of the cultural ties between members of the Black diaspora throughout the Caribbean, for as the novel points out, manioc ants are only found on the French colony of Guadeloupe, not on Martinique. This detail points to the primordial ties between the various cultures of the Black diaspora, even when these groups are separated by geography.

When the ants first appear, Patrick notes that there are “fifty-six manioc ants […] marching on Solibo’s body” (61), but they quickly multiply to “a thousand manioc ants” (70). By the time of Solibo’s autopsy, they have entirely invaded his body, and this fantastical event is designed to represent the power of populist anticolonial movements. Ants may be small, but these powerful creatures can survive in harsh conditions, and when they act in concert, they are capable of evading the brutish power of much larger forces. In this instance, the ants symbolize the Martinican people’s collective resistance to the oppressive French police state. By taking over Solibo’s body, the ants symbolically make him part of the lineage that ties anticolonial movements throughout the diaspora together.

The symbolic logic of the manioc ants is also an example of the author’s use of magical realism to dispel the typical colonial disenchantment of nature. The authorities are baffled by the ants’ presence, as this event upends their beliefs about the world. Ultimately, the authorities must resort to taking an illogical, absurd position in order to explain what they see, and they therefore posit ludicrously that the ants must be “ants disguised as manioc ants” (102).