This paper examines·moments of historical « soundings » in Crossing the River to argue that the text articulates countermodernity through the memories, fragments, and the voices of those who witnessed the history and legacy of slavery and colonialism. By specifically making connections among specific nodal points of jarring historical events with a striking enlightenment ideology thrusting forward towards so-called « progress » - Liberian repatriation, territorial expansion towards West before and after the Civil War in the US, the British slave !rade and finally World War II - Crossing the River historicizes the black diaspora for a politicized present. The text reveals that slavery and racial terror were internai to American and European Enlightenment with its attendant ties to colonial ventures, and shows how Western « progress » from the 18th century to 20th century is deeply embedded in the enslavement and marginalization of blacks. But more importantly, through a textual explication of various moments of "sounding (s)" of countermodernity, I elucidate how the nove! imagines the diaspora and the colonial past in order to arrive at a critique of the postcolonial present, with a political commitment to making the history of slavery relevant in the present.