28 pages 56 minutes read

Ferdinand Oyono

Houseboy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1956

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

‘“Brother,’ he said. ‘Brother, what are we? What are we blackmen who are called French?”


(Prologue, Page 4)

Toundi asks this on his deathbed, signaling his confusion with his own identity and purpose in a world dominated by whites and subservient natives.

Quotation Mark Icon

“But for me, it is more than mourning. I have died my first death….”


(“After the Funeral”, Page 20)

Toundi underscores just what Father Gilbert meant to him by suggesting that he has died as well, almost Christ-like, at the death of the man who meant the most to him in the world.

Quotation Mark Icon

“I am not a storm. I am the thing that obeys.”


(“After the Funeral”, Page 22)

Toundi highlights the difference in demeanor and power between himself and the Commandant; the Commandant gets angry and rages, while Toundi must simply endure it and obey as a servant.