Summary and Analysis of God’s Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane

Background
Sembene Ousmane (1923-2007), a renowned writer and a film maker was born in Ziguinchor, Senegal in 1923. Ousmane received only three years of formal education, after he was dismissed for striking back at a French teacher who had first struck Ousmane. Rather than being angered by this incident of retribution, Ousmane’s father was pleased that his son had defended his dignity. Essentially self-educated, he became a fisherman just like his father. In 1938 he moved to Dakar and stayed there until the outbreak of the World War II in 1939 when he was drafted into the French army and he saw action in Italy and Germany. Returning to Senegal for a short time, Sembene realized that in order to further his literary ambition he would have to move to France. He went to Marseilles where he worked as a dock worker, joined the French Communist Party, and became a union organizer. He also began writing.