ESSAY text by EDOUARD GLISSANT artwork by XAVIER VEILHAN Archipelagic thought: the thought of an assay, of intuitive temptation in apposition to continental thought, which is above all systems of thought. In continental thought, the mind moves daringly, but we think that we see the world as a single block, as a mass, as a projection, as a kind of imposing synthesis, exactly like seeing rolling aerial views of configurations of landscapes and reliefs. With archipelagic thought, we are familiar with the rocks in the rivers — even the smallest rocks and rivers — and know the shadow holes, that they open and close, where in Martinique zabitans [inhabitants] shelter (in fresh water, blue and gray crawfish threatened by pollution), and are called ouassous in Guadeloupe (names for the river bottom, names of belonging), (I call them resolute pleasure, everyone knows how succulent they are). We no longer wash away…