46 pages • 1 hour read
Ousmane SembèneGod’s Bits of Wood
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1960A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “BAMAKO Tiémoko”
Diara, a railway ticket collector, votes in favor of the strike but then returns to work. While other offenders (“renegades”) are subjected to beating by union members, the leadership decides that Diara will stand trial in the union building. He is charged with dynfa, or “treason […] betrayal of one’s own people” (78). The author provides descriptive details illustrating Diara’s shame, noting the loss of his “normal dignity [and] […] splendid bearing” (80). His son, Sadio, feels that he is dying along with his father. Tiémoko, the strike commission record keeper, favors the trial but is conflicted about judging the accused, as Diara is his uncle. He also misses Bakayoko’s presence and guidance.
The story of Diara’s offense is told in retrospect. Striking workers receive mobilization orders mandating their return to work. Subsequently, Tiémoko realizes that five of the orders are missing, and that these men have returned to work; he proposes a “punitive expedition” (81). The idea is embraced by the committee, particularly since twenty of the strikers have been imprisoned under barbaric conditions. Tiémoko and several comrades beat the initial duo of strikebreakers in their homes, but Diara has been awarded constant police escorts and is harder to apprehend.
During his attempt to apprehend Diara, Tiémokois approached by countrymen who explain the hardships caused them by the loss of train service and discourage the strike by asking, “Do you think the trains belong to you?” (83). Niakoro, Bakayoko’s mother, discourages the trial whenTiémoko visits her in order to borrow one of the leader’s books, asking, “How can you judge a man who is respected by everyone?” (87). Niakoro feels that the world she’s known is disintegrating.
Upon obtaining police uniforms, Tiémoko and some other union members arrive at Diara’s house in disguise, in order to apprehend him early the next morning.
Chapter 8 Summary: “BAMAKO The Trial”
Tiémoko sums up the story of apprehending his uncle, Diara, who stands at trial. He reminds the workers that Diara voted for the strike and received help from the union during the time that he was presumably unemployed. Most significantly, Diara has informed on the female supporters of the striking workers and “has forced them to get off trains whenever they have tried to use them” (91).
Several local women address the group with stories of Diara’s misdeeds. A workman asserts that Diara, as an elder, should have guided the workers, rather betray his colleagues and the women who have supported them. The workman opines that Diara should be imprisoned, but others object that “the prison belongs to the white man” (93). Others demand adherence to the Koran by having Diara scourged. The defendant sits motionless during the debate ruminating about his motivation for breaking the strike.
Fa Keita (“the Old One”) is an elder who resides with Bakayoko’s family and refuses to sit on the jury. He sits through the trial with Bakayoko’s stepdaughter, Ad’jibid’ji, and addresses the group. He compliments the manner in which Tiémoko is conducting the tribunal. While acknowledging Diara’s wrongdoing, he emphasizes that Diara should not be killed because “it is a sacrilege to kill” (95), and he notes that the damage wrought by public humiliation exceeds that of any corporal punishment. He concludes by exhorting the accused to lift his head; it was “the owners of the machines” (95), rather than Diara, who are on trial.
Despite the Elder’s compliment, Tiémoko feels berated by the speech.
Fa Keita engages in an isolated spiritual retreat upon return to the family compound, while the elderly Niakoro contemplates the mortars used to grind grain prior to the strike-related food shortages. All the other women leave on a trip of several days to attempt to obtain food. Ad’jibid’ji spends time with Niakoro, who poses a philosophical question to her: “What is it that washes the water?” (101). The young girl resolves to find the answer.
Several days later, police and militia enter the compound, demanding to know the location of Fa Keita. They strike Niakoro, who subsequently dies of her wounds, and injure Ad’jibid’ji. Upon finding the Fa Keita, they drag him from the compound. Meanwhile, the strikers learn that management is ready to negotiate. Tiémoko arrives at the compound and finds the girl and her dead grandmother. The women return and mourn Niakoro and Fa Keita, despite Tiémoko’s insistence that Fa Keita is incarcerated, but alive.
Chapter 9 Summary: “DAKAR Mame Sofi”
The police who visit the N’Diayene compound retreat quickly from the irate crowd, and the victorious women patrol the neighborhood with their sand-filled bottles. They ask all men whom they encounter whether they are soldiers or policemen and act threateningly toward them. Mame Sofi encourages the group to move towards Mabigue’s house, where they forcibly remove all food from the kitchen. In the interim, Ramatoulaye and several women discuss their coup of the preceding evening. N’Deye Touti expresses her disapproval of their lawlessness, stating that they should have “put in a complaint” (111) regarding Mabigue’s ram.
Ramatoulaye states that she will cooperate with the police in the future to prevent further trouble. As they hear the sound of mounted troops approaching, Mame Sofi suggests that the women brandish sheaves of flaming straw, in order to terrify the horses. The spahis (cavalry troops) are dismounted by the rearing animals, and the women then beat and degrade the soldiers.
Sparks ignite the surrounding tarpaper huts and fire decimates most of the neighboring houses, though the N’Didayene compound is spared. Beaugosse rests there from his firefighting efforts, and he is advised that he must travel to Thiès immediately as a union delegate. When he requests water for bathing, Ramatoulaye responds that none is available, and that they“couldn’t even bathe the dead” (115). N’Deye, taking a solitary walk, overhears a conversation regarding the attempt to arrest Ramatoulaye between the director of public health, an officer of the native constabulary, and the district police chief. They humiliate N’Deye by ordering her to depart while making degrading sexual comments about her.
Mame Sofi and the women get ready to attack when the police arrive to apprehend Ramatoulaye; however, she offers to accompany them, in order to avoid further violence. The police chief wrestles with a decision: Ramatoulaye’s immediate release might indicate weakness, but her incarceration could incite riots. The protesting women gathered outside are sprayed with firehoses, and Houdia M’Baye (mother of the infant, Strike) is killed. The women overturn the water trucks in retaliation.
The Imam arrives and castigates the women for their protest, stating that “the communists […] are directing the strike” (124). He encourages them to live in peace with the French. He enters the station and advises Ramatoulaye, in the presence of the police, that she is “pig headed and stubborn” (125). He advises the police, while speaking in French, that Mabigue has withdrawn his complaint, and they respond that she may leave the station. The imam wishes to “teach her a lesson” (125). Taking advantage of Ramatoulaye’s inability to understand French, he advises her that the police demand she apologize to Mabigue in order to obtain release. N’Deye encourages her to comply; in response, Ramatoulaye “slapped [N’Deye] across the face” (126), stating that she would prefer to be burned alive. They depart unimpeded. Upon seeing Houdia’s dead body, Ramatoulaye notes that, ironically, her desire to protect this mother and her infant motivated all her actions, and she requests one of the nearby union members to stop the strike.
Chapters 7-9 Analysis
The union workers resent the European encroachment upon their culture; nonetheless, they seek to emulate the tradition of a trial by jury of peers when deciding the fate of Diara. A ticket collector who broke the union strike by returning to work, and who bullied native women who attempted train travel, Diara is accused of the betrayal of his people. He is depicted as a Judas figure, deeply impacted by his public humiliation and the anticipation of retribution. Participation in his trial causes evolutionary growth on the part of the other union workers who will determine his fate. Although they regard Diara’s betrayal with contempt, “their hearts constricted at the sight of him, as if they were in the presence of a dying man” (80).
The strike is not supported by all members of the community, as illustrated by the group of men who surround Tiémoko at the railroad station. The aged Niakoroalso opposes the trial, stating that the “honor of […] a good man” will be “dragged through the mud” (87). The continuing theme of the emergence of women as a societal force is repeated in the description of various women who testify against Diara at his trial, describing the circumstances under which he expelled them from the railway cars. One woman, Hadi Dia, has never before spoken in a meeting of men and suffers a harelip; she is full of pride after testifying.
The debate among the men as to a fitting punishment for Diara may be viewed as symbolic of the societal conflict between traditional and modern values that occurs throughout the novel. While one workman advocates for imprisonment, this is a theoretical solution, as it is noted that “the prison belongs to the white man” (93). Opponents support scourging, the traditional punishment advocated in the Koran.
Subsequently, Fa Keita, the elder whom Ad’jibid’ji refers to as “Grandfather,” speaks to the crowd in a manner evoking a Christ figure. Wise and philosophical, he appeals to the nobler instincts of the workers, stating that, “I know you will not kill Diara […] for godly men, it is a sacrilege to kill” (95). The Elder affords Diara his dignity, indicating that he has been an “instrument of destiny” (95). Upon his return to the compound, Fa Keita enters his room for a spiritual period of isolation and cleansing. He had not wished to attend the trial and did so in exchange for a vow from Ad’jibid’ji that she would refrain from further attendance after this meeting. While alone with her grandmother, Ad’jibid’ji struggles to answer the question she poses: “What is it that washes water?” (101).
Once again, traditional acts of reflection and spirituality are juxtaposed with those of violence and aggression. While the wives are revolutionized by their need to scavenge surrounding towns to procure food for their starving children, Ad’jibid’ji is experiencing a radicalization born of witnessing injustice. N’Deye undergoes a similar epiphany when she overhears three local officials making sexual remarks about her. This diminishes her previous idealization of European society and obviates her prior contention that the women should confine themselves to lawful protests.
