200 Bambara, Toni Cade
BAMBARA, TONI CADE The Salt
Eaters (1980)
Toni Cade Bambara’s novel The Salt Eaters is a story
about possible rebirth in the individual life of the
protagonist Velma Henry, the predominantly black
town of Claybourne, and the planet as a whole. Vel-
ma’s attempted suicide, the specter of armed conflict
in Claybourne, and the environmental and economic
effect of a nuclear plant nearby place the novel on a
precipice between disaster and transformation dur-
ing what Toni Cade Bambara (1939–95) calls the
“Last Quarter” of the 20th century.
The Seven Sisters, a traveling collective of heal-
ers and artists made up of women of color of dif-
ferent backgrounds, journey toward Claybourne for
an annual festival hosted by the holistic community
school, Academy of the 7 Arts. A literal and cosmic
storm, which seems to come out of nowhere, dis-
rupts the planned festivities, throws the bus carrying
the Seven Sisters off course, and redirects everyone
to the Southwest Community Infirmary, where
Minnie Ransom is calling on spiritual and ancestral
guidance to help Velma return to the land of the liv-
ing. The process of healing suggested through Bam-
bara’s exploration of memory, violence, trauma,
and love teaches readers that the “storms” of life
always have a source. The literal storm in the novel
is a response to the environmental degradation of
the nuclear era. The eruption of the community is a
result of gendered tensions in community institu-
tions. The personal storms in lives of the community
members are a result of unhealed trauma. The healer
Minnie Ransom’s first question to Velma Henry
is “Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be
well?”—and her inquiry applies to the whole com-
munity. If the interconnected characters in this novel
“want to be well,” they will have to learn how to take
care of each other, their community, and this planet.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
lOve in The Salt Eaters
Velma Henry’s nervous breakdown cannot be allevi-
ated by a knight in shining armor. The profound dis-
connection that Velma feels from both her husband
and her lover show that romantic heterosexual love
cannot provide the self-esteem or wholeness neces-
sary for complete healing. The love between Velma
and her husband, Obie, is threatened by the sexist
violence that Velma has experienced. It becomes
clear early in the novel that Obie, who does not
even know about Velma’s attempted suicide until she
is already in the infirmary, has to journey through
several encounters with male figures who are strug-
gling with the same gender roles that have been
oppressive to Velma. Even though he moves toward
her physically and spiritually throughout the novel,
he will not be able to save her.
The Seven Sisters, including Velma’s real sister,
Palma, model another form of love: that between
women who are chosen sisters, connected by their
shared vision to transform the world. The Seven
Sisters, representing different communities of color
from around the world, bridge their different cul-
tural heritages into a wealth of resources, which
they practice by healing each other, loving each
other, doing each other’s hair, creating art together
and talking about what is important to them. This
form of sisterly love is an important counterexample
against the male-dominated establishment that
Velma remembers as a painful feature of the Civil
Rights movement. Velma’s sister Palma has a dream
that her sister needs help, and her first priority when
they arrive in the town of Claybourne is to find her,
but Palma cannot save Velma either.
Mother love is another resource that has helped
to sustain Velma throughout her life. However,
neither Velma’s birth mother nor her godmother
Sophie can save her from herself. In fact, Sophie is
herself traumatized by Velma’s suicide attempt, as
it reminds her of the police violence her son expe-
rienced, and she has to leave the room early in the
novel.
Velma and the readers learn that it is only
Velma’s love for herself that will allow her to get off
the stool in the infirmary at the last moment of the
novel. Self-love is the power that makes romantic,
sisterly, and community-wide love possible. Bam-
bara reminds the community that only a deep love
for self, enacted through community accountability,
will allow healing to occur. Community is the con-
text for a sustainable transformative love during the
“Last Quarter” of the century, when everything is
at stake.
Alexis Pauline Gumbs