To better understand Fa Keita’s questioning of God, on page 236 he is being mistreated by a guard named, Bernadini. The guard orders Fa Keita to pray near the barbed wired fence and as he kneels Bernadini kicks him in the kidney and plunges him head first into strands of barbed wire. As Fa Keita frees his hands from the wires again he is commanded to pray and is pushed back into the barbered wired. Bernadini shoves his foot into Fa Keita’s neck and mocks his faith. Finally the guard loses interest and leaves to torture others.
Fa Keita’s breath came out in a sigh. ‘God knows I was not for this strike, for I do not like violence in any form, but if God is just, how can He let men be treated so? In all my life, and in the lives of my parents, we have done no wrong to anyone – why then should we be treated so? I do not know if the strike should go on, I do not know what must be done, but I know that something must be done so that we are treated with respect as men…’ page 237.
This passage introduces the questioning faith during a period where evil is dominating the people. Ousmane does an incredible job luring the readers in with his themes and the characters are easily relatable that they connect to the readers. Fa Keita’s statement: “… if God is so just, how can he let men be treated so,” reminds me of a video I saw at an Austrian Nazi camp called Mauthausen. Before you enter the camp they place everyone in a room and play a video. They show interviews of survivors, actual footage of the torment, and at the end there is a slide show of pictures. And they showed this clip of a cell where they kept a woman there to die. She had engraved on the cement wall: if there really was a God then none of this would happen. It was a very moving statement and after the survivors agreed that they too felt that same way. It just goes to show how real Ousmane’s characters are and the choice of words he uses is very effective and believable. It was a very moving part in the novel because anyone who has had tragedy in their life can relate to Fa Keita’s questioning of God. It is a question that has been asked for several years through several tragic events.
Then Fa Keita states that he and his family has never done any wrong to anyone and just can’t understand why this oppression is happening to them. In this world it really doesn’t matter how well you live your life or how well you treat others. There is always going to be evil in this world which is past down generation to generation. From what I understood is the one must keep faith alive although it is hard to do under Keita’s circumstance. For example, if Fa Keita loses his faith at a time of despair the oppressors are not only talking his freedom away, but he is also letting them rob him of his faith. In any situation Ousmane is trying to help the reader better understand that it takes an even stronger person to hold onto their beliefs in a time of chaos.
This expressiveness opens the doors of connecting to all. Although there are numerous ethnicities in this world and some might think that we are different because of our backgrounds, bottom line is that we all feel. We all cry the same way and bleed out the same color and it is important to stand strong. Ousmane ends Keita on a strong note of knowing. Although Keita can’t answer his questions of ‘why’ he does in fact know that everyone man deserves to be treated with respect and that is what needs to be taught to future generations.
3 comments:
Hi Jacquelyn,
You picked a tough paragraph to write about. I remember feeling so much rage and the brutality and inhumanity that Fa Keita was going through, as he was entangled in the barbed wire - all he was looking to do was to find a small piece of earth and a few minutes to pray. His internal strength and fortitude may have faltered little, yet in his ever-so peaceful way, he was as you said, able to absolutely know that every man deserves to be treated with respect and that is what needs to be taught to future generations.
Nelson Mandela once said, For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
ALL men are created equal.
Jacquelyn,
You picked a powerful passage, well done! I was so frustrated to see him mistreated, especially since he is such a great man, a man that has preached for peace and no one really listened. It is neat that you mentioned the realism in his character, though, because Sembene could’ve easily created him as a flawless character, one that unequivocally believes in God regardless of what happens (I wouldn’t like him if he was like that, though).
The cruelty of the strike really hit home after seeing a peaceful man get hurt so much. However, his reaction (or the lack of) is what touched me the most: the fact that he never preached for violence or for the strike despite of his experience with torture and pain, makes him that much fascinating. It reminds me of 100 Days, when the two women (Josette and the other girl) talk of how all Hutus must be killed, just like they did to the Tutsis. It is a matter of (a difficult and gut-wrenching) choice to retaliate when faced with violence, not a matter of reflexes.
Great work.
Eeesh, this is an emotional paragraph! I agree with Gayle on that point. I felt such rage when I read this, which is interesting because that is precisely the emotion Fa Keita is struggling against. It reminds me of the works of great heroes like the Dali Lama or Nelson Mandela. When we hear of their experiences we are flooded with such anger, but each of these people strive to tell us to forgive those who do these horrid things. Fa Keita is no exception. Indeed he is the one who in the end helps to bring reconciliation to the strikers when they considers the wrongs done to them. Bravo for remembering the question "why"! You are completely correct in your analysis, the why doesn't matter. The only thing of importance is to teach the correct lesson to those future generations
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