novelists-from-senegal

"“Try explaining to them that a working woman is no less responsible for her home. Try explaining to them that nothing is done if you do not step in, that you have to see to everything, do everything all over again: cleaning up, cooking, ironing. There are the children to be washed, the husband to be looked after. The working woman has a dual task, of which both halves, equally arduous, must be reconciled.”"

"Whenever he felt himself beginning to fancy any girl, after the Ouleymatou experience, the memory of her mocking indifference and his own disillusionment had made him fiercely determined to nip any emotional attachment in the bud."

"Ousmane Gueye, who had mistrusted all women, threw himself at the mercy of a woman, and a white woman at that."

"Was he a possible partner for Mireille? Could he assume such a mutation."

"A Toubab can’t be a proper daughter-in-law. She’ll only have eyes for her man. We’ll mean nothing to her."

"We saw everything through the same eyes before we were married… But now we seem to be divided over everything."

"Love knows no bounds, but sometimes society does."

"The truth can be a harsh and cruel reality."

"In the face of misogyny and injustice, the only hope is escape."

"“Friendship has splendors that love knows not. It grows stronger when crossed, whereas obstacles kill love. Friendship resists time, which wearies and severs couples. It has heights unknown to love.""

"“The flavour of life is love. The salt of life is also love.”"

"“Each life has its share of heroism, an obscure heroism, born of abdication, of renunciation and acceptance under the merciless whip of fate.”"

"“The most humble of huts is pleasing when it is clean; the most luxurious setting offers no attraction if it is covered in dust.”"

"“Teachers – at kindergarten level, as at university level – form a noble army accomplishing daily feats, never praised, never decorated. An army without drums, without gleaming uniforms. This army, thwarting traps and snares, everywhere plants the flag of knowledge and morality.”"

"“Books saved you. Having become your refuge, they sustained you. The power of books, this marvelous invention of astute human intelligence. Various signs associated with sound: different sounds that form the word. Juxtaposition of words from which springs the idea, Thought, History, Science, Life. Sole instrument of interrelationships and of culture, unparalleled means of giving and receiving. Books knit generations together in the same continuing effort that leads to progress. They enabled you to better yourself. What society refused you, they granted.”"

"“The word ‘happiness’ does indeed have meaning, doesn’t it? I shall go out in search of it.”"

"“A nervous breakdown waits around the corner for anyone who lets himself wallow in bitterness. Little by little, it takes over your whole being.”"

"“A woman must marry the man who loves her, but never the one she loves; that is the secret of lasting happiness.”"

"“In a word, a man’s success depends on feminine support.”"

"Daughter, don't you know that in this country the man who is in gaol is better off than the worker or the peasant? No taxes to pay and in addition you are fed, lodged, and cared for.""

"In effect, he had three villas and three wives, but where was his real home? At the houses of the three wives he was merely 'passing through.' Three nights each! He had nowhere a corner of his own into which he could withdraw and be alone.""

"Papa John spoke about his life on the island. He talked about old times and the Feast of St Charles. [...] That year the feast had passed unmarked. There had been nothing to distinguish that Sunday from all the other Sundays. Holiday-makers, including many Europeans, had come to sunbathe on the warm sand of the beach. Papa John couldn't understand it at all: these Europeans who abandoned God's house for idleness. Hadn't they brought Catholicism to this country?"

"Today, for the first time in three months since he had slapped her on the afternoon of his wedding, they had had a serious conversation. Rama had been the only one who dared oppose the marriage. Pity she was a girl. He would have been able to make something of her had she been a boy.""

"All right. We are a bunch of clodhoppers. Who owns the banks? The insurance companies? The factories? The businesses? The wholesale trade? The cinemas? The bookshops? The hotels? All these and more besides are out of our control. We are nothing better than crabs in a basket. We want the ex-occupier's place? We have it. This Chamber is the proof. Yet what change is there really in general or in particular? The colonialist is stronger, more powerful than ever before, hidden inside us, here in this very place. He promises us the left-overs of the feast if we behave ourselves. Beware anyone who tries to upset his digestion, who wants a bigger profit. What are we? Clodhoppers! Agents! Petty traders! In our fatuity we call ourselves 'businessmen'! Businessmen without funds."="

"Striking brutally through the cloud curtain, like the beam from some celestial projector, a single ray of light lashed at the Koulouba, the governor's residence, poised like a sugar castle on the heights that bore its name."

"The faces seemed to have lost all trace of personality. As if some giant eraser had rubbed out their individual traits they had taken on a common mask, the anonymous mask of a crowd."

"God forgive me, I had forgotten Maimouna."

"Today, I will bring back something to eat."

"I told you yesterday, Rama, that I couldn’t do anything more for you, or for any of the striker’s families."

"El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye was what one might call a synthesis of two cultures: business had drawn him into the European middle class after a feudal African education. Like his peers, he made skillful use of his dual background, for their fusion was not complete."

"To his surprise he found himself already regretting this third marriage. Should he get a divorce this very morning? He put that solution out of his mind. Did he love N'Gone? The question brought no clear answer. It would not upset him to leave her. Yet to drop her after all he had spent seemed intolerable. There was the car. And the villa. And all the other expenses. To repudiate her now would hurt his male pride. Even if he were to reach such a decision he would be incapable of carrying it out. What would people say. That he was not a man."

"Just as nature re-imposes its life on ruins with small tufts of grass, the ancestral atavism of fetishism was being reawakened in El Hadji."

"In our country, this so-called 'gentry', imbued with their role as master—a role which began and ended with fitting out and mounting the female—sought no elevation, no delicacy in their relations with their partners. This lack of communication meant they were no better than stallions for breeding. El Hadji was as limited, short-sighted, and unintelligent as any of his kind."

"It is worth knowing something about the life led by urban polygamists. It could be called geographical polygamy, as opposed to rural polygamy, where all the wives and children live together in the same compound. In the town, since the families are scattered, the children have little contact with their father. Because of his way of life the father must go from house to house, villa to villa, and is only there in the evenings, at bedtime. He is therefore primarily a source of finance, when he has work. The mother has to look after the children's education, so academic achievement is often very poor."

"What is important to me In my work is to exceed my limit to set myself challenges and be able to achieve them"

"I'm happy when I finished my novel and seen my family after a good day of very exhausting works"

"I wish Dakar is a clean city much more cultural"

"Art is a way of externalising this that I feel deep inside me that this"