46 pages • 1 hour read
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God’s Bits of Wood (1960) by Ousmane Sembène is a novel based on actual events surrounding the Senegalese railway workers strike of 1947 and depicts the impact of the poverty and racism endured by the railway workers and their families. Sembène (1923-2007) was a self-educated native of Senegal. While living in Dakar as a young man, he was drafted into the French army; subsequently, he relocated to France, joined the Communist Party, and became a union organizer. His experiences inform this highly detailed, semiautobiographical novel.
Plot Summary
The book is set in both Senegal and Mali. Oppressed by the French colonial railway administrators, the railway workers union seeks to obtain family allowances and pension benefits. The lives of various extended families residing in compounds are explored, and Sembène provides the reader with descriptions of the repercussions of the strike as viewed from the perspective of various male and female characters. While the interactions of the union leaders with one another and their immediate and extended families are explored, it is the viewpoint of Bakayoko, the primary union leader, who is afforded the most attention. Although he does not make a personal appearance until the latter third of the book, the adulation with which he is regarded by the community is described at length.
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