46 pages • 1 hour read
God’s Bits of Wood
A 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 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “DAKAR Daouda-Beaugosse”
Three young men who have spent the night in the Dakar Union office awake and discuss their legendary leader, Bakayoko, debating his efficacy on behalf of the union. Beaugosse, a principled man, is troubled by the fact that his compatriots encourage a young Portuguese girl who is enamored of him to supply the group with coffee and meals. Deune puzzles over the fact that, “You have Europeans who have come […] to break the strike, and then other Europeans who send us money to go on with it” (38).
Meanwhile, Ramatoulaye, the matriarch of her family compound, N’Diayene, seeks food for the twenty of “God’s bits of wood” (40) who reside in her home. When visiting Hadrame the Moor’s General Store, she demands ten pounds of rice, which the merchant refuses. He explains that if he sells food or gives credit to the striker’s families, his supplies will be cut off. While conflicted, Hadrame is steadfast in his refusal. He advises her to encourage the men to return to work or “you will all die of hunger” (42).
Subsequently, Ramatoulaye meets her brother Mabigue, an anti-strike district leader, accompanied by his pet ram. She asks his help in guaranteeing credit at the store. He falsely claims this to be impossible and says the women should encourage the men to return to work. Mabigue lacks integrity on all counts, having stolen Ramatoulaye’s inheritance by claiming her to be illegitimate. She curses him and threatens to kill the ram should it enter her house. Water is being withheld by the authorities (as well as food), as illustrated by the dry street fountain that Ramatoulaye passes on her route home.
The next scene depicts Mame Sofi, her sister-wife Bineta, and the lascivious N’Deye Touti, “a lovely girl of about 20, in the full bloom of youth and health” (48) returning home via a decrepit horse cart. Ramatoulaye asks N’Deye, a student, her opinion of the strike, but the girl responds that the subject is too complicated” (47). Due to N’Deye’s coquettishness, the women were able to procure food supplies in Dakar. The older women debate the advisability of a marriage between N’Deye and the young, gentlemanly Beaugosse, as opposed to becoming the second wife of the union leader Bakayoko.
Chapter 5 Summary: “DAKAR Houdia M’Baye”
The chapter begins with a description of the N’Diayene compound, which is the home of Ramatoulaye and her extended family. Houdia M’Baye, the mother of nine, is the widow of Badeane, recently killed in the strike. Her youngest infant was christened “Strike” as a result of Mame Sofi’s inspiration. Houdia is powerless in her attempts to keep the children clean, as “there had been no distribution of water all day” (51), nor can she obtain food for them. The youngest children resort to eating dirt as an alternative. She reflects upon Ramatoulaye’s comment that true misfortune was not merely hunger, but the knowledge that there were others (the authorities) who wished them to suffer from hunger and thirst. When a vendor selling water calls at the compound, Ramatoulaye manipulates him into pouring the contents of his vessel into her own water jar, subsequently advising him that she will repay him on credit. He attempts negotiation for immediate payment and tension builds. The women band together to assault the vendor and he leaves.
As the scene shifts, N’Deye, who had attended teacher’s training school at one point in the past, prepares to go to meet the young Beaugosse. A romantic, she is appalled by the common practice of polygamy, which she views as a “lack of civilization” (57). Similarly, she recalls being humiliated by the other women when they derided her for wearing a brassiere. Her exchange with Beaugosse, who wants to marry her, illustrates his jealousy of Bakayoko, with whom N’Deye is intrigued. She shocks Beaugosse by indicating that he would be less interested in marrying her if they had already had sex. Beaugosse makes a clumsy attempt to determine whether N’Deye is still a virgin and announces his decision to withdraw from both the ill-fated union and the strike.
Chapter 6 Summary: “DAKAR Ramatoulaye”
N’Deye joins Ramatoulaye, who was denied credit at the grocers, and an illiterate young woman, Arame, both of whom are waiting for water to be released from the public fountain. Houdia M’Baye summons Ramatoulaye home to see the destruction of food stores in their compound caused by Vendredi, the ram belonging to Mabigue. Upon her arrival, the ram charges Ramatoulaye, and she drapes her body across the animal as a matador would a bull. The ram’s attack is ferocious enough to tear most of her clothing off; bloody and wounded, Ramatoulayenonetheless maintains her grip.
Another wife, Bineta, procures a knife and, upon instruction from Ramatoulaye, stabs the animal; Ramatoulaye completes the execution by stabbing the ram in the neck. Mame Sofi admonishes Ramatoulaye for having put herself in mortal danger, but Ramatoulaye responds that, “It was because we were hungry–we were all too hungry for it to go on” (69). Ramatoulaye also advises that one abdicates the right to be afraid when the lives and spirits of others hangs in the balance. A neighbor advises that Mabigue is seeking the police in order to issue a complaint regarding the slaughter of his pet. In preparation for the arrival of the police, Mame Sofi and the other women in the compound fashion weapons from empty bottles filled with sand.
The police arrive at the N’Diayne compound and attempt to cajole the women into relinquishing the meat of the slaughtered animal and then reporting to the police station voluntarily. Ramatoulaye explains that, “Vendredi ate the children’s rice […] Vendredi will be eaten” (74). The women surround the policemen while brandishing bottles. Police reinforcements arrive on the street and the sides clash violently with the women, “seizing anything that could be used as a weapon” (75).
The men exhibit great bravado as the strike commences but are eventually discomfited by idleness and their realization the railway is being run without them. They are described as akin to “rejected lovers returning to a trysting place […] they kept coming back to the areas surrounding the station” (76). The intensity of their relationship with the locomotive is revealed; it is “stronger than the barriers which separated them from their employers” (77).
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
A paradigm shift occurs within these chapters. While the introductory chapters of the novel depict female characters who are largely at the mercy of their circumstances, (the elderly Niakoro; the blind mother, Maimouna; the very young Ad’jibid’ji), the author now depicts females who react violently toward their environment and their male antagonists. The male characters, including Deune and Arroy, theorize about colonial exploitation and organize union opposition. Bakayoko, the revered but absent union leader, is still an entirely theoretical entity whose impact is limited to occasional written missives to the striking workers. It is the women, however, who experience firsthand the impact of the deprivation of the children on a daily basis, and this experience prompts them to evolve in extraordinary ways. Their desire to nurture and sustain the younger generation catapults them into more typically masculine behaviors.
Ramatoulaye, the matriarch of the N’Diaye compound, is transformed by the shopkeeper’s refusal to grant her the credit needed to procure rice for the children. Like the other characters, the shopkeeper is merely attempting to survive his current circumstances, and he encourages the men to return to work, rather than face further starvation and hardships. The matriarch encounters no success when she requests help from Magibue, her unscrupulous brother. When his pet ram wanders into her compound and destroys the children’s food, Ramatoulaye has the response of an archetypal Earth Mother: immediate, primitive and deadly. The pet is butchered in order to ensure the survival of the children. At this key moment, Ramatoulaye abandons the persona of an acquiescent woman and assumes that of a warrior. Spurred on by her example, the younger wives in the compound prepare to fight the police off with weapons. In doing so, they become more aggressive soldiers for their own survivalthan their husbands, the striking railway workers.
Houdia M’Baye experiences a similar epiphany when she manipulates and then threatens a vendor in order to secure drinking water for her clan. The women of her compound also abandon their ingrained reticence when they assault the vendor, craftily calling to the neighbors for help because, “A man is assaulting us” (75).
The dichotomous approaches of N’Diame and Ad’jibid’ji are worthy of note. N’Diame, a former student, lives in a romanticized, idealistic world and barters her own physical beauty in order to overcome the hardships of her situation and provide food for the children. Conversely, Ad’jibid’ji evokes a modernized image of young womanhood. Energized, intelligent, articulate and curious, she epitomizes the era of cultural and philosophical change in the region.
Unlock all 46 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
