God’s Bits of Wood

“Today, I will bring back something to eat.” 

While the striking male railway workers plan and attempt negotiations with management, the women are left in charge of the starving children. This situation eventually gives rise to a new breed of African woman. Driven by necessity, they abandon their subservient behavior patterns and become proficient in bartering, negotiating and intimidating merchants, as they scavenge food and water for their families. Their new mindset leads to the march of the women to Dakar. 

“I told you yesterday, Rama, that I couldn’t do anything more for you, or for any of the striker’s families.” 

Hadrame the Moor’s shop serves as a general store for the entire district. Prior to the strike, he extends credit to local families. Ramatoulaye visits the store in an effort to procure ten pounds of “just rice–no oil, no sugar” to feed the children. Hadrame responds that if sells any supplies to strikers’ families, or extends them credit, that the authorities will cut off his supplies. Hadrame represents the collateral damage ensuing from the strike; he takes no pleasure in denying food to his customers; however, he, too, needs to survive.

“For a young girl, a married man is like a warmed over dinner.” 

The lovely, educated N’Deye Touti is attracted to the charismatic union leader, Bakayoko, who is already married. Despite N’Deye’s philosophical objections to the practice of polygamy, she considers the possibility of becoming Bakayoko’s second wife, although he ultimately rejects this offer. Conversely, the gentle Beaugosse is in love with N’Deye and wishes to marry her. When she discusses her conflict with Mame Sofi, she makes this comment, indicating that serving as a second wife would involve less sexual passion than marrying a previously-single man.

“‘You say you believe in God and yet you would let these children die of thirst?’” 

Toucoleur is a vendor who travels a great distance, to Pikine, in order to find water to sell, and has raised his prices twice in a single month. Mame Sofi manipulates him into transferring his water into her own vessel, promising that she will pay him at some point in the future. When he is angered at having been duped, the women and children of the compound descend upon him, and he flees.

“The people among whom she lived were polygamous, and it had not taken her long to realize that this kind of union had nothing to do with love—at least not with love as she imagined it.” 

N’Deye Touti, as the result of her education and somewhat-cultivated interests, is torn between two worlds. Ultimately, she comes to realize that, despite her academic background, she will never be accepted by the French. Conversely, she loathes the practice of polygamy, and finds it to be antithetical to her romantic view of marriage.

“There is a cow in the house, walking on two feet, and all dressed up.”

N’Deye Touti sews a brassiere for herself at school in order to fit in with her classmates and avoid aging in the same way that she felt the native women did due to their lack of undergarments. At one point during a visit home, she wears the brassiere and is immediately ridiculed by Mame Sofi as a result. 

“In the smaller courtyard a few grains of dirty rice and the remains of the earthnut cakes were strewn across the ground, and fragments of gourds were scattered everywhere.” 

When Ramatoulaye sees the damage inflicted by Vendredi the ram upon the kitchen and living quarters of her compound, she is enraged; however, she also sees a pragmatic solution to the problem of starvation. Calling one of the wives to bring her a big knife, she engages the animal and ultimately slaughters it for food. 

“‘I knew that God was with me,’ Ramatoulaye said, ‘and I knew that it is possible to die of hunger, and that Houdia M’baye had no more milk.’” 

Mame Sofi, a resident of Ramatoulaye’s compound, chides her for having risked her own life in order to slaughter the ram that eats their food supplies. In response, Ramatoulaye says that she feared having those in her care die of hunger. She is also aware that Houdi M’baye, widowed mother of nine, including the young infant, Strike, had no more breast milk to feed the baby.

“They scarcely recognized the woman beside them as the Ramatoulaye they had always known, and they asked themselves where she had found this new strength.” 

The aggression with which Ramatoulaye pursues food for her extended family, particularly the children, is entirely aberrational when compared to her previous behavior. She not only slaughters Vendredi the ram, in order to feed her relatives, she also refutes the police officer’s attempts to assuage Mabigue, the ram’s owner, by taking the meat to him. Ramatoulaye is angered by this attempt. She defiantly announces that she will accompany the officers to the station voluntarily, but that having eaten the children’s food, Vendredi himself will now be eaten.

“Diara, the ticket collector, was accused of dynfa--a Bamara word that was seldom used any longer, but which nothing less than treason: betrayal of one’s own people.”

Diara is the worker who stands trial due to having returned to work on the railway after having voted in favor of the strike. As the trial progresses, it becomes clear that Diara had forcibly expelled native women from train cars when they attempted to travel. The defendant himself cannot articulate his own reason why he had betrayed his co-workers. 

“But from that time on the battle lines were drawn between Tiémoko’s commando group and the authorities.” 

Tiémoko, the union leader and Diara’s nephew, supervises the punishment of several strikebreakers. The first two are apprehended by the members of Tiémoko’s commando group and beaten in their homes; later, he chooses a dead-end street in order to administer a rough form of justice. Consequently, an escort of five police officers is assigned to protect Diara on a twenty-four-hour basis.

“If you imitate the hirelings of your masters, you will become like them, hirelings and barbarians.”

Fa Keita attends one union meeting at the request of the young, idealistic Ad’jibid’ji. Unable to restrain himself from intervening in the process, the elder gives a long, impassioned soliloquy in which he attempts to restore some of Diara’s dignity. Additionally, by appealing to the nobler instincts of the men, he persuades them to forego the notion of killing the strikebreaker as punishment.

“‘You have shamed him before his friends, and before the world, and in doing that you have hurt him far more than you could by any bodily punishment.’”

Fa Keita advocates for humane treatment of Diara, arguing that the public humiliation that the ticket collector now faces is far more painful than the options of scourging or crucifixion that are mentioned by others at the trial. He also advises Diara that he has done the workers a favor, as none of them will be willing to stop fighting after having witnessed the defendant’s shame.

“Diara bent over the figure of his son and cried aloud, like a child who has just been punished.” 

Sadio, the son of Diara, suffers shame due to his father’s betrayal of the strike. He knows that his father will experience public humiliation for the remainder of his lifeand will be virtually defenseless against it. He is also overcome by pity for Diara, who ages visibly over the course of the trial. At one point, Sadio wishes that he could take his father’s place.

“‘I didn’t know you spoke French,’ he stammered.” 

N’Deye Touti is fluent in French; therefore, she understands the derisive conversation that the chief of police, a public health inspector, and a native chief of the constabulary are having. They make sexual comments about N’Deye and discuss their opinion that native women would have sex in return for a “handful of rice” (119). The young woman advises the other members of the compound of this conversation, and it fuels their desire forrevenge upon the authorities.

“Cradling the baby gently in her arms, she asked, ‘Is she pretty—my little Adama?’''

Penda and Maimouna form an unlikely friendship when they come to share living quarters with the blind mother’s remaining infant twin, Adama. This causes the kindling of an uncharacteristic kindness in Penda, who informs the blind Maimouna that the child is beautiful, despite the fact that Adama is sickly and her eyes are excreting pus.

“Twice each week, after that, Penda supervised the ration distribution, assisted by two other women, one of whom was older than she and the other very young and constantly laughing about something.” 

The strike leaders initially attempt to distribute food rations provided by the union to the men; however, too many arguments occur. Consequently, they decide to provide the food directly to the women, but they seek a strong female personality to oversee the process. Penda’s natural leadership skills provide the best possible solution to the dilemma.

“‘You don’t seem to like men very much,’ Maimouna said, ‘and yet you are helping them with the strike […] I wonder why […].’” 

When circumstances lead to Maimouna and Penda sharing a small hut on Dieynaba’s property, they form an unlikely friendship. Mimouna provides intuitive insights into the personality of Penda, whom some of the other characters infer is a prostitute. Penda seeks to protect Maimouna from mistreatment. This exchange occurs after Penda vows to “spit” at the father of Maimouna’s children when she learns his identity, and Maimouna counters that not all men are bad.

“‘Why should the white men have ten minutes off for their tea when we don’t?’ he had demanded.” 

Isnard, the railway supervisor, approaches union leader Doudou at one point with the offer of a cash advance and a promotion if he agrees to stop the strike. This causes Doudou to reflect upon all his past grievances with the railway, including the refusal of management to allot them equal break time with the white workers. Isnard had responded that the black workers could have equal time if they made themselves white.

“‘Three million francs is a lot of money for a Negro lathe operator,’ Doudou said, ‘but even three million francs won’t make me white.’” 

Doudou rejects Isnard’s offers by reminding the supervisor of his response to the native workers’ request for equal break periods. He engages Isnard in a Socratic dialogue in which he questions Isnard carefully about his feelings regarding Negroes. 

“But he, Dejean, was not an employer; he was simply exercising a function which rested on the most natural of all bases—the right to an absolute authority over beings whose color made of them not subordinates with whom one could discuss anything, but me of another, inferior condition, fit only for unqualified obedience.”

As the strike continues and the opposition movement founded by the women grows in fervor, the inherent racism of some of the railway administrators is emphasized. Dejean engages in this reflection as he awaits the return of Edouard, the personnel director who had been charged with bringing the union leaders back to railway headquarters after meeting with them. The leaders refuse; Edouard is angered by Bakayoko’s statement that the union members were speaking French as a courtesy but should not be doing so.

“‘Now we are leaving!’ Penda cried.” 

As Penda is developed as a character, her leadership skills are emphasized. The women gather at the compound of Dieynaba, who is unable to accompany the march as her son, Gorgui, is dying of gunshot wounds inflicted by Isnard. At about 2 a.m., Penda gives what amounts to a battle cry, and the women follow her on the march to Dakar. 

“‘Sometimes,’ Bakary murmured, almost to himself, ‘I wonder if you have a heart.’”

When Bakayoko is finally introduced into the dialogue, he is revealed to be a charismatic leader with some human failings. Bakary, one of the older men in the union, advises Bakayoko that Fa Keita has been apprehended by the police, Niakoro has been killed, and Ad’jibid’ji has been injured. Bakary advises the leader that his presence is needed at home; nonetheless, Bakayoko refuses to miss the march to Dakar.