Research
Beyond Racism: A Study of SembAne Ousmaneas Les Bouts De Bois De Dieu
An essential ingredient is missing in “Art for art’s sake.†That vacuum is the functionality of the art. Art cannot solely be for its own purpose because it is a social creation. A given human society gives birth to its creation and production to reflect on human living conditions, actions, inactions and experiences among other things. For Africa and its people, functional art is the ultimate. An art, which does not only inject its aesthetic values but also teaches moral, transmits cultural values, improves vocabulary pool and heals broken hearts with a view to developing human society, is the kind of creativity or art favourable to Africa sphere. And, by extension, we believe the entire world will benefit from such art in this century, where cultural matters generate serious debates. In this study, we attempt to validate that African literature contributes to the decolonization and the eventual political liberation of African countries by examining the connection between literature and society. Using Sembène Ousmane’s Les bouts de bois de Dieu as platform and adopting sociological criticism as our theoretical framework, the paper concludes that African literature is a panacea to the development of human consciousness and consequent societal advancement.
Cultural and Political Alienations in Sembene Ousmaneas Xala
Linguistic alienation is a wall, which separates the African elite away from their fellow African brothers and sisters. This gap is what we intend to break because it is a kind of cultural alienation, which hinders development in all its ramifications. Our search light in this paper is on cultural and political segregations in Sembène Ousmane’s Xala. We demonstrate that El Hadji Kader Beye, the chief character in the story represents the Senegalese elite in a post-colonial setting while the beggars stand-in for the oppressed masses, who are more than 80% of the country’s population. The oppressed make themselves relevant in the scheme of societal affairs by being the ones that have solution to the xala, a disease of impotence which the protagonist in the story suffers. The spitting act becomes a form of freedom of speech to voice out their mind; especially by showing their displeasure over an exploitative system in the perceived new dispensation. As its purpose, the paper validates the fact that art and society are two interlocking entities. Hanged on sociological criticism, the paper ends with a warning that Africans in general should see the embracement of their culture particularly language as the root of durable and sustainable developments.
