Ousmane Sembène (1923–2007)

3.5 stars

"But now he knew that life was a daily struggle. He learned to loathe the poets and painters who depicted only beauty, who celebrated the glory of spring, forgetting the bitterness of the cold."
This is the debut novel of legendary Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. It’s a book that draws from the experiences of its author as docker working in France. A book that’s clearly and unmistakably a socio-political novel.

The story focuses on the Black docker Diaw Falla, and his community of mostly West African immigrants living in post-Second world war Marseille, and his literary exploits: he works hard as a docker and secludes himself to work on his book about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, after he’s finished with his book he can’t find a publisher for it, is referred to Ginette Tontisanne, who is already a published writer, who appropriates the whole book and publishes it as her own to great acclaim and wins a prize for it. While confronting her about it Falla gets physically abusive, injures Ginette who dies from her injuries and is soon arrested for murder.

If I give out the premise of the book, it’s not to spoil the book, but the structure of this book is such that it is told at its beginning and Sembène unspools the story to show the conditions that led up to the tragedy while exploring racism and the horrible state Black and Arab immigrants were in, and the terrible state labourers and workers and the marginal were in. Among the social issues it explores is how individuals in the French colonies fought for France during both wars and barely got any recognition nor are they eligible for the benefits their white and native counterparts get. It’s an important book that unfortunately remains relevant to the present situation.… (more)

The plot—a lengthy strike by railroad workers on the Dakar-Niger railway in the late 1940s against French colonial power—initially struck me as a story I couldn’t work up much interest in. I am extremely pleased to say that I was totally wrong. This may be the best of what I have read of this prolific author, a recounting of personalities, the day-to-day costs of a strike both psychologically and physically. Time and again, Ousmane brilliantly describes the struggle of the strikers’ families to eat, the political discussions of the strike leaders…even the behind-the-scenes plotting of the French. It is not a short work and yet I found myself sorry to turn the last page, wanting to know more about the stories of the people and of their lives. Ousmane’s writing is strong and his characterizations—particularly of the many women who play significant roles in the story—are excellent.… (more)

The “grand old man” of Senegalese film and, to a large extent, literature as well. He’s nothing if not prolific and I think his work takes some sorting through since, as with many (most?) prolific authors, not everything is worth a reader’s time. A number of the stories here relate to the expatriate experience in France, including a particularly moving one about a young woman who accompanies a family as their maid/cook and general servant. Indeed, a number of the stories involve his championing of women’s rights. My greatest disappointment, I think, is with the variable quality of the stories. Any collection will inevitably have stronger stories and weaker ones. What distressed me here was the significant difference between stronger and weaker with some of the weaker ones being particularly pointless. In fact, I am almost inclined to say that some of them were just this side of silly.* All in all, I continue to enjoy his work but I don’t think I would particularly recommend this collection as a whole—just a small handful of stories from it (including “Her Three Days” and “The Promised Land.”)… (more)

Allowing himself to be coerced into taking a third wife who is the age of his children, El Hadji cannot consummate the marriage. He has come down with impotence and the book is the story of his resort to everything from traditional beliefs to Western psychiatry to overcome the problem. As a metaphor for Senegal soon after the country won its independence in 1960 (he published Xala in 1973), the story is at times hilarious, at other times heart-breaking. Sembène exposes the veneer of Western culture and beliefs among the elite in a work that can be read for both the enjoyment of the plot itself as well as for its deeper understanding of the difficulties besetting the nation. The end, an extraordinary, hallucinogenic scene, reminded me of nothing so much as a tableau by Fellini or Almodovar or Buñuel (forgive me, these directors are not my favorites and I rely more on a general sense of their work than particular films). But for the ending, which I am still struggling to integrate into what preceded it, I think this is one of his better works.… (more)