God's Bits of Wood

I've just finished a brilliant book called God's Bits of Wood by my favorite African artist, Ousmane Sembene (at that time, Sembene Ousmane).

Sembene wrote this book after his own personal experiences with a 1940s strike on the Dakar-Niger railroad in Senegal. The book takes place in a few cities (notably Thies and Dakar) and tells the story of the strike through the individual experiences of a dozen or so highlighted people.

One paragraph in particular stood out to me. The opening paragraph of the chapter entitled Thies; Doudou (p. 143) is important simply because of the literary adeptness with which it was written. It is not a place of a particular plot turn within the book. No action is described in the paragraph, and no major understandings are reached. But somehow this paragraph is able to convey much more than the simple words it is made up of.

What I appreciate most in this paragraph is everything it relates that is not specifically stated.

Firstly, this paragraph provides a timeline. Sembene says, "In the six weeks that had passed since the battle with the troops on the first day..." There has been little difinitive timing up until this point. This emphasis on time marks an interesting point in the story. As we have seen from other African novels (most notably No Sweetness Here by Ama Ata Aidoo) the importance of time is a Western notion. It is interesting that Sembene chooses to place time in this part of the novel. It does help we Western readers to understand the scope of the strike. But, more importantly, it emphasizes how the character Doudou is struggling with the railroad itself, a distinctly Western invention. On the one hand he is attempting to support his own culture by participating in the strike. On the other, he is the "secretary-general of the union." The very title "secretary-general" invokes a Western concept. By inserting the idea of time, Sembene has subtly shown the coming together of these two cultures.

By the same token, Sembene is sure to remind us that these people are still African. To do this he inserts a single line, "when he walked his head drooped toward the ground, like a fruit too heavy for its branch." Over and over again in African literature we see comparisions to nature, such as the python in Sia representing old, repressive customs and the locusts in Things Fall Apart as the settling of the white men. Here, Doudou's form is being compared to a fruit. This is particularly poignant because there is no fruit, indeed nothing to eat at all, in the village. The fact that Doudou is represented as the fruit signifies the fact that it is actually the people themselves who are being eaten (alive) by this experience.

Another point that stands out in this paragraph is the use of repetition. Since the inception of the strike, each character in the novel has continually pointed out the devastating monotony of their situation. The men gather in front of their old workplace but do nothing. The young boys pretend day after day to be soldiers but have grown tired even of their play. The women search for food and water. The same thing, day after day. And in this paragraph we see rhetorical examples of this endless repetition. Doudou is "more and more" aware of his responsibility. The people have, "no food, no money, and no credit." Each day for the strikers is a redundant rehearsal of the last, a point which Sembene is making clear even in his very language.

Finally, the structure of the paragraph itself seems to embody the very struggle Doudou is faced with. The beginning of the paragraph is very straightforward. It established Doudou's place in the strike, his title, and exactly what his problem at present is, namely that, "the difficulties had been even greater than he feared." Each of these is stated as an unwavering fact. Yet as the paragraph continues, this surity falls apart. By the end, Doudou can, "only see the hunger etched around the rim of the children's eyes." He no longer has hold of the simple facts. He can only concentrate on the harm caused to those around him. He, "asked himself constantly if he was in the right" showing that he is no longer holding firm to his beliefs. Rather, he now goes back and forth about his decision. This unraveling into confusion holds true for all the people participating in the strike. They no longer are sure it was the correct decision. They have lost food and water and loved ones. Yet, like Doudou, they perservere. Thankfully, at the conclusion of the strike, they are rewarded with a happy ending.