God's Bits of Wood: Amazon.ca: Sembene Ousmane: Books

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Book Description

In 1947-48 the workers on the Dakar-Niger railway came out on strike. Sembene Ousmane, in this vivid, timeless novel, evinces all the color, passion, and tragedy of those formative years in the history of West Africa.

About the Author

Sembene Ousmane, film director and writer, was born in Senegal and worked as a fisherman before attending l'Ecole de Ceramique at Marsassoum. He then worked as a plumber, a bricklayer and an apprentice mechanic in Dakar. After the war he became a docker and trade union leader in Marseilles, and out of this experience he wrote Le Docker Noir (1956). He had also published Oh Pays, mon Beau Peuple (1957), L'Harmattan (1964) and the collection of stories, Voltaique (1962), which was translated as God's Bits of Wood and appears in the African Writers Series (AWS). He has made several films including one of Le Mandat (translated as The Money Order with White Genesis AWS). His film of Xala met with a great success in the New York film festival.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Average Customer Review

4.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful African story, July 22 2005

By

Jones (IL) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: God's Bits of Wood (Paperback)

This book should be used in schools here to help the children who descended from Africans of all backgrounds to learn about the way of life and culture and traditions of Africa before the influence of foreign values and colonialism. The Usurper and Other Stories, A grain of Wheat, Disciples of Fortune, No Longer at Ease, are some of the other African titles I enjoyed.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of African Literature by the Father of African Film, Nov 10 2002

By

Arthur Camara (Waukegan, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

Ce commentaire est de: God's Bits of Wood (Paperback)

Sembene Ousmane's third novel, God's Bits of Wood, was originally written and published in French as Les Bouts de bois de Dieu. The novel is set in pre-independence Senegal and follows the struggles of the African trainworkers in three cities as they go on strike against their French employers in an effort for equal benefits and compensation. The chapters of the book shift between the cities of Bamako, Thies, and Dakar and track the actions and growth of the men and women whose lives are transformed by the strike. Rather than number the chapters, Ousmane has labeled them by the city in which they take place, and the character who is the focal point of that chapter.

As the strike progresses, the French management decides to "starve out" the striking workers by cutting off local access to water and applying pressure on local merchants to prevent those shop owners from selling food on credit to the striking families. The men who once acted as providers for their family, now rely on their wives to scrape together enough food in order to feed the families. The new, more obvious reliance on women as providers begins to embolden the women. Since the women now suffer along with their striking husbands, the wives soon see themselves as active strikers as well.

The strategy of the French managers, or toubabs as the African workers call them, of using lack of food and water to pressure the strikers back to work, instead crystallizes for workers and their families the gross inequities that exist between them and their French employers. The growing hardships faced by the families only strengthens their resolve, especially that of the women. In fact, some of the husbands that consider faltering are forced into resoluteness by their wives. It is the women, not the men, who defend themselves with violence and clash with the armed French forces.

The women instinctively realize that women who are able to stand up to white men carrying guns are also able to assert themselves in their homes and villages, and make themselves a part of the decision making processes in their communities. The strike begins the awakening process, enabling the women to see themselves as active participants in their own lives and persons of influence in their society.

This book is wonderful yet sadly under-appreciated. Ousmane's handling of issues such as the politics of language, indigenous resistence, the cultural costs of forced industrialization, and the changing role of women really has the power to change the way people think. And yet, maybe the book's reach and resonance are the reasons that God's Bits of Wood is not widely read and taught in schools.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful African story, July 25 2005

By

Peter Jones (Springfield, IL) - See all my reviews

Ce commentaire est de: God's Bits of Wood (Paperback)

This book should be used in schools here to help the children who descended from Africans of all backgrounds to learn about the way of life and culture and traditions of Africa before the influence of foreign values and colonialism. The Usurper and Other Stories, A grain of Wheat, Disciples of Fortune, No Longer at Ease, are some of the other African titles I enjoyed.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth a read
Gives an amazing portrait of Senegal and the tumultous forces shaping it in the mid-twentieth century.

Published on April 11 2004 by J. Jacobs

5.0 out of 5 stars "God's Bits Of Wood" a Transcendent Novel of Excellence
In Sembene Ousmane's "God's Bits Of Wood" there is a detectable apect of human rights that surpasses all distinction. Lisez davantage

Published on April 14 2003