Worth the Meddle

Abstract

This article presents a (post)colonial literary analysis of Ousmane Sembène’s God’s Bits of Wood [1960, Les bouts de bois de Dieu], vis-à-vis Jean-Paul Sartre’s “hexagonal cadre” for littérature engagée outlined in “What is Literature?” and “Black Orpheus.” Sembène’s novel evinces both a model of African committed writing and a nuanced (post)colonial embellishment and extension of Sartrean orthodoxy, whose requisites include: [1] genre and style; [2] audience; [3] risk; [4] situational critique; [5] ontological inquiry; and [6] existential themes. This article identifies these features in Sembène’s novel in general, and in the stand-alone chapter on the character Sounkare specifically.