God's Bits of Wood by Sembene: novel analysis

¶ … God's Bits of Wood" by Sembene

Sembene's God's Bits of Wood presents the women characters in a striking evolution from their passive role of partner, child bearer and mother to that of supporter of their men and finally, comrades in battle. The chapter "Dakar" bears the subtitle named after an important character in the nove: Houdia M'Baye. She is just beginning to see the world through different eyes because circumstances made her. Her husband died among the first victims of the railroad strike

Houdia M'Baye went out to the veranda. She had brought nine of "God's Bits of Wood" into the World, and her successive pregnancies made her dull and listless. And now she was a widow....His other wives had already gone to their families, but although Houdia M'baye would have liked to return to her own village, she had benn unable to make the journey, because of the strike and because she was again on the point of giving birth."(Sembene, 1996 p. 51). Houdia M'Baye seems emblematic for all Senegalese women, regardless of their class. Like all the other women, she never had the conscience of being responsible for her own acts. She was never alone. When she left her parents and siblings, she went to her husband. Suddenly, certain events made her unable to turn back to natal places, after her husband's death. She is close to delivering a new baby in this world. This will turn her life around one hundred degrees. Dakar will be the place where she will find the way to herself as a human being who not only cares for herself and for her children, but finds the strength to join other fellow women like her in a fight for justice, despite her dead husband, or better said because of her dead husband. She could have walked out and turned away, but fate didn't let her.

At some point, when the action returns to Dakar, in the chapter bearing as subtitle the name of "Mame Sofi." The passive wives are here united in a battle against the police, the armed brace of the law, organized with a leader, Mame Sofi, that commands the actions. When a male servant at the house of El Hadji Mabigue, tries to convince her to return home, calling her and her group "good wives" and thus trying to restore the old order in their consciousnesses, he is brutally rejected. The heroic spirit was awaken in those women fighting for their children's and husband's lives. They are considering their actions in the fight against the police and are quite satisfied with the preliminary results. "In the meantime, Ramatoulaye, Bineta, Houdia M'Baye, and a half dozen other women who were too old or too exhausted from the battle with the police to join the groups in the streets gathered in the courtyard at N'Diayene.

The Sons of dogs, one of them said!', seating herself on the rim of the old mortar. 'They tossed me around as if I were a sack of flour.' "..."And, Bineta, that Mame Sofi is really something! Your husband must have his hands full with her! Do you know what she did? When one of them fell down, she grabbed him by his...you know what I mean... you could hear him yelling even with all the other noise.'"(Sembene, 1996, p. 110). We see the women considering their heroic deeds and taking trophies of victory, like the true heroes they are, fighting for one of the most rightful causes. This is however an exceptional situation, especially for these women that until that point only knew how to serve their families, husbands, children. In a moment of respire, Ramatoulaye even discovers pondering her own actions, but does not forget the mother role, as well. She asks if the children were fed. They have a new thing to learn they are capable of: solidarity: women's solidarity. The fight together and they take care of each other's babies together. There is a conflict here though, between generations and between educated and uneducated women. Ramatoulaye's niece, N'Deye Touti "who studied and learned at the great school" (Sembene, p 112). N'Deye Touti was taught that people should not seek for justice by themselves, but only in the court of law. Therefore, despite her participation in the fight, due to solidarity that was even in her above reason, she claims that her aunt as the reason for starting the fight with the police in the first place should take responsibility and answer for her actions so that the rest of them are spared. This is the voice of reason in an innocent young girl's mouth. She will have the answer of reason not through education in a school, but to common sense and humanity, the voice of wisdom: "You are mad, Ramatoulaye! Houdya M'Baye cried. 'You will not go!' Who knows if what N'Deye Touti sais is true? To listen to her, anyone would think that she would be happy to see the police come back! Is this what they teach you at school, N'Deye - to turn you back on your own people?'"(Sembene, 1996, p. 112). The women have learned a lesson through their bravery and solidarity that no teacher could have ever taught them. First they learned how to stick together and not be afraid when they know they are fighting for a good cause. Second, they learned how to take action. And third, they learned how to think over their actions. They found out they were human beings who besides their capabilities of feeding children and satisfying their men's desires, they could also ponder and even put things in motion by joining forces with their fellow women.