God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane

I know this isn't on the list of 1,001 Books, but I had to read it for my Gender in 20th C. Africa class. It's totally worth writing about, even though it's not on the list (and, in my opinion, rightfully so). Still, I liked the book a lot.

The basic premise of the book is the description of the various people and groups involved in a railway strike in colonial Senegal. Written by an extremely politically active man, it puts faces to the history read in more "historically-geared" books. Like most historical fiction, he takes liberties with the history involved to help push his own political agenda, particularly in dealing with the Women's March to the city. He does, however, embellish for a reason; there is a strong undercurrent of support for women's equality within the nascent independent Senegal. (Ousmane wrote the novel on the cusp of Senegalese independence.)

I really believe that this book is worthwhile for one major reason: it puts individuals within the history. Often historians discuss "the strikers" or "the Africans" when discussing African history, especially in regards to protests, strikes, etc., but this book, even though the characters in the novel are either entirely fictional or based loosely on major historical leaders, really highlights the idea that this strike, and others, was led by people, and people were involved in every element of this strike. Each dealt with it in their own way, depending on their personal level of agreement with the strikers, their gender, their economic standing, their relationship/position in the company and in greater Sengalese culture and society, and so on. The strikers and their supporters were not a homogenous group of faceless Africans; each person individually helped shape the strike itself and the aftermath according to their needs and expectations.

Yet, I thought, personally, that there was something missing from this book; Ousmane is, in my opinion, not Achebe or Ngugi. He writes well, but there are some elements to the story that are unclear, and his use of some characters tends to be artificial; for example, I think the inclusion of the character Sounkare didn't advance the story much. He acted more as a symbol that didn't necessarily advance the story and had much more to do with Ousmane's push for worker solidarity (after all, he was a member of the Communist Party in France). In general, though, the book was a good supplement to my class (the role of women in the strike was similar to the roles of women in other strikes and protests in other African colonies during this time period) and provided a more individualized view of African-led protests against white colonizers.

My rating: 9.5/10