I have recently finished reading an incredibly riveting novel by Senegalese author and film maker Ousmane Sembene, and I have written a short analysis in which I closely read a passage, and delicately extract the undertones and covert meanings and implications within the passage. My analysis comes from historical background and knowledge of literary symbolism, and I use these as well as other literary "clues" to extract the meaning.
I have chosen a passage late in the novel, in which a strike as occurred between the West African railway workers regarding inferior working conditions to their white counterparts. There is a meeting held "between the management and the strikers", in which both parties hope to settle the dispute. Allow me to present the passage in its totality, as a reference for you as you read my analysis.
"The meeting between the management and the strikers was to take place in a conference room on the second floor of the building. Dejean, the director, and his closest associates had been there for some time, and the waiting was playing tricks with their nerves. With the exception of young Pierre, who had had the feeling for several day that he was watching a play whose plot he did not fully understand, every man there was living through a period he had never expected to see. It was probably Dejean, however, for whom the crisis was not only the most unexpected but the most totally incomprehensible. A discussion between employer and employees presupposes the fact that there are employees and there is an employer. But he, Dejean, was not an employer; he was simply exercising a function which rested on the most natural of all bases - the right to an absolute authority over beings whose color made of them not subordinates with whom one could discuss anything, but men of another, inferior condition, fit only for unqualified obedience" (179).
At first this passage seems overbearing and extremely dense, but a few repetitive and tonal clues exist for me to examine the text. First allow me to examine the characters in the room. They are all of "management" status, all of colonialist mindsets. Almost immediately, Sembene focuses the attention on Dejean, the "head-honcho" in the room, and provides an all-too-telling internal monologue, beautifully constructed to subtly reveal the brutal inhumanity of which this man is capable. Unfamiliar with the feeling of being kept waiting, these men begin to feel nervous, implying that their perspective of reality is being challenged simply by this action of waiting. By referring to their anxiety as their nerves "playing tricks," Sembene suggests a tension in the minds of these men, in which they can sense the change in the atmosphere. This is supported by the following sentence--with the exception of Pierre, of course--with each man "living through a period he had never expected to see", suggesting the implausibility, and possibly the denial of these men's inevitable downfall. With this tension in place, Sembene returns the reader's attention to the director, who is, by the nature of his colonialist mentality, necessarily exhibits the most extreme denial among the group. Dejean's "crisis," (the ultimate dismantling of his personal 'empire') is so "incomprehensible" to him, because he holds as dogma the 'white man's' superiority over the Africans. This is stated, but with key undertones that suggest a most sinister evil within Dejean, especially since he does not consider the African railway workers as "employees," but rather as disposable, subhuman tools, their only merit being for their labor. The sinister nature of this assumption is concentrated in a single phrase: "exercising a function which rested on the most natural of all bases". In this sentence, Sembene suggests that Dejean's racist condition runs so deep, that he sees his position as a necessary utility, much like an electrician or a plumber--but in this case, the people are the tools and the only ones benefiting are the colonizers. To him, the basis for his inhumanity is "natural." When broken down into is basic implication, this idea embodies the depravity of the colonizers, their denial of the power of a people as unified human beings, and the inevitable failure of such an idea.
I hope anyone who reads this enjoys my dissection, and feel free to bounce back any ideas you may have, or if you think I'm completely off-base. Anything will do, just let me know what you think.
Regards,
N
