God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène

First published:Les Bouts de bois de Dieu, 1960 (English translation, 1962)

Type of work: Social criticism

Time of work: 1947-1948

Locale: Senegal

Principal Characters:

• Ramatoulaye, a strong African woman who becomes the leader of the other women
• Beaugosse, one of the union leaders, an educated and Europeanized African
• Bakayoko, the union’s primary leader, a new African devoted to bettering his fellow Africans
• N’Deye Touti, a young woman torn between her African heritage and her European fantasies
• Monsieur Dejean, the regional director of the railway company and a Frenchman

The Novel

Based on the events surrounding an actual strike by African railway workers, God’s Bits of Wood presents a dramatic fictionalized account of the way in which the strike in 1947 and 1948 must have affected the lives of the African union leaders, workers, and their families, as well as the French managers of the railroad. The novel, set along the Dakar-Niger railway line in Senegal (at that time a French colony), employs a large cast of characters, moves from city to village to countryside, and develops a variety of situations. The central conflict, which stems from the strike itself, serves to unify these often disparate characters, places, and narrative strands.

The opening chapter introduces the set of characters who initiate the workers’ walkout. Soon, as their defiance of the French-owned railroad spreads along the line, the trains stop running. Once determined to stand united against the foreign management and to carry the strike to its resolution (and in a sense to reclaim their own country), the Africans resign themselves to a long period of hardship. Food becomes scarce, then the water does the same, and both are rationed by the officials. Before long, the euphoria that first filled the idle workers turns into discouragement. Faced with the struggle for survival, friends and relatives turn on one another, making cruelty and violence commonplace. The strikers and their families also face random acts of retribution and punishment carried out by the railway’s private police and strikebreakers. Even the revered family life of the largely Muslim population disintegrates.

Amid all the disruption, however, some of the strikers display heroism and kindness. In addition, the traditionally homebound women start to play a larger role in the affairs of the world. One of the most memorable sections of the novel depicts the women’s march to the city to make known the suffering they and their children have endured and the wrongs inflicted on them.

Each of these narrative elements develops through tautly constructed scenes in which numerous characters participate. These characters sometimes appear only once, in other instances several times. Although economic and political theory emerges, the narrative never descends to didacticism but at all times displays a dramatic and graphic reality; nor do the numerous characters forsake their humanity in order to mouth messages. Instead, the agony, brutality, humiliation, and torment they face with such courage make them all the more human.

Eventually, the strike ends in victory for the workers. As the novel closes, it expresses this victory in the words of a song from the native oral tradition, thus asserting the African pride for which the strike had stood:

From one sun to another,The combat lasted,And fighting together, blood-covered,They transfixed their enemies.But happy is the man who does battle without hatred.

The Characters

Considering the number of characters, Ousmane Sembène’s development of them is admirable for its economy. Each one assumes his individuality not so much through description as through actions and reactions. In some cases, interior monologues serve to tell more about the characters’ inner lives. All of them, caught up in this event, which is like no other in their experience as a people subjected to colonial rule, show their true mettle, whether it be indestructible or weak.

Of the many people who weave their way in and out of the narrative, certain ones emerge as more memorable. These personalities, to an extent, represent an entire group of lesser characters. Such a one is Ramatoulaye, a typical African woman who is devoted to her family and faithful to the restrictions that the Muslim religion places on her. Yet when the survival of the family lies in her hands, she meets the needs of everyone. As she changes, she does so in a way altogether natural, sometimes comic, always touching.

Both Beaugosse and N’Deye Touti portray another kind of African, one with education, the ability to speak the conqueror’s language and a longing to trade African tradition for European ways. Inner conflict accompanies such a division of loyalty, and the private battles that these two fight lend them a distinction in their portrayal.

Yet another sort is represented by Bakayoko, the union’s leader. Not as fully or as realistically developed as the others, Bakayoko assumes a shadowy presence. Possibly too noble in motive, too elevated in stature, he lacks the shortcomings that provide the others with humanity. Portraying the new African who unselfishly gives all for the good of his people, this hero appears in a succession of African novels. Nevertheless, the person who shows imperfections always seems more believable than the one who appears to have risen above all human follies.

Monsieur Dejean, one of several French men and women who appear at intervals, suffers from the same one-dimensional development of all the European characters. They often were a despicable lot as they exploited the country’s people and resources, treating both as commodities that were rightfully theirs. Nevertheless, they must have shown some favorable characteristics, but Sembène does not permit such traits to emerge among his French colonials. So one-sided a portrayal marks the novel’s major weakness in characterization.

In spite of this prejudice against the Europeans and the large cast he has assembled, Sembène performs an admirable feat by making most of the characters real, these “God’s bits of wood”—that is, these humans that God sends to struggle in a world beset by cruelty, injustice, and pain. Once determined to face the struggle, they discover the inner strength that allows them to triumph over the trials God has given them.

Critical Context

Sembène’s first novel, Le Docker noir (1956; the black dock worker),reflected his experiences as an African dock worker in France; his second novel, O pays, mon beau peuple! (1957; o my country, my beautiful people), chronicled the return of a Senegalese war veteran to his native village and his attempts to modernize the villagers’ farming techniques. Neither of these works gained the wide acceptance of God’s Bits of Wood, which launched his literary career, first in France and then abroad. This novel remains one of the major works of the postcolonial literature that focused on the wrongs of colonialism. Sembène moved next into this fiction’s second stage: the exposure of the political and social chaos that followed independence. Xala (1973; English translation, 1976) is considered to be the best of the novels he has written on this theme.

When Sembène returned to Senegal in 1961, he saw the limited impact African writing had on Africans and decided that the masses could be influenced more effectively through film. After studying cinematography abroad, he began to bring his own novels and other works to the screen. Sembène is recognized not only as one of the major African novelists of the twentieth century but also as a brilliant filmmaker.

Bibliography

Blair, Dorothy S. African Literature in French: A History of Creative Writing in French from West and Equatorial Africa, 1976.

Brench, Anthony C. Novelists’ Inheritance in French Africa, 1976.

Killam, G.D., ed. African Writers on African Writing, 1973.

Ogungbesan, Kolawole. New West African Literature, 1979.

Wauthier, Claude. The Literature and Thought of Modern Africa, 1966.