The plot—a lengthy strike by railroad workers on the Dakar-Niger railway in the late 1940s against French colonial power—initially struck me as a story I couldn’t work up much interest in. I am extremely pleased to say that I was totally wrong. This may be the best of what I have read of this prolific author, a recounting of personalities, the day-to-day costs of a strike both psychologically and physically. Time and again, Ousmane brilliantly describes the struggle of the strikers’ families to eat, the political discussions of the strike leaders…even the behind-the-scenes plotting of the French. It is not a short work and yet I found myself sorry to turn the last page, wanting to know more about the stories of the people and of their lives. Ousmane’s writing is strong and his characterizations—particularly of the many women who play significant roles in the story—are excellent. ( )

God's Bits of Wood paints a complex picture of a society in upheaval. The French colonists in West Africa try to hang on to their power and crush the railroad strike of 1948. The young men and women of Senegal rebel against both the French and the traditional ways of their elders.

My one complaint is that the French seem to be nothing more than caricatures, and Isnard's wife's Lady Macbeth moment at the end of the novel is needlessly melodramatic. ( )

Gripping recounting of the pivotal 1947-48 strike on the Dakar-Niger railway that was a turning point in West African independence. The black African railway men strike to demand basic equality with white European workers, simple things such as pensions, back pay and family allowances that have always been granted to Europeans. The strike is suppressed with a callousness and brutality that will unsurprising to anyone with a passing familiarity of the international labor movement. Not content with seeing how long the strikers can last without pay, the colonial establishment even cuts off electricity and in a particularly cruel twist, water to the workers and their families.

As one of the wives notes, “Real misfortune is not just a matter of being hungry and thirsty; it is a matter of knowing that there are people who want you to be hungry and thirsty – and that is the way it is with us.” One of the ways that I think this story compares favorably to roughly contemporaneous works by Steinbeck or Orwell is the highlighting of the pivotal role that the women played in the struggle. They stepped forward in a way that was revolutionary in a traditional Muslim society and I can’t help but wonder if they were able to hold on to their gains in the aftermath or suffered a backsliding in rights after the dust settled.

Sembène’s large cast of characters are all finely drawn individuals without a single stock character to be found. Even the French colonial officials are allowed their individual quirks and motivations, indeed the only completely unsympathetic person in the whole book was a sadistic prison commandant. And even the commandant may have only been drawn that way in order to allow his victims a moral choice of how far they would let hate and the yearning for vengeance rule them after the resolution of the strike. You have to love a story where a traditional elderly devout Muslim man and an independent young woman of “easy virtue” can be equally inspirational.


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La lucha de los trabajadores del ferrocarril por mejorar sus condiciones de vida. Las mujeres de los trabajadores se unen en una marcha hasta la capital del país. ( )

[God’s Bits of Wood] by Sengalese writer [[Sembene Ousmane] was first published in 1960. It is about the Dakar-Niger railway strike on 1947-48. The book has a political message, but is more than that.

I read this book for the Francophone theme in the Reading Globally group. It was written in French, but feels less “French” and more African compared to some of the other books I have read from this challenge. Ousmane’s style reminds me of Achebe, with it’s focus on community norms and the community story, and in the concrete story-telling mode. For example:

“It was an afternoon in med-October, at the end of the season of rains, and as was the custom at this time of day the women of the Bakayoko house were gathered in the courtyard. Only the women. As they went about their household tasks they chattered constantly, each of them completely indifferent to what the others were saying. Seated a little apart, with her back against the hard, clay wall, was old Niakoro. “

I enjoyed reading this book. The style is accessible and I grew to really care about the characters and the outcome of the strike. This book enhanced my respect for early labor leaders: the suffering for the strikers and their families was intense, but they were able to persevere.

The role of women in a traditional Moslem society is one of the major themes of this book. Women and men live in parallel worlds, which is one of the reasons, I think, that polygamy can work. As the story unfolds, we see the women taking more power and becoming more active in the strike. ( )