38 pages • 1 hour read
Cheikh Hamidou KaneAmbiguous Adventure
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Tradition and Modernity
Many of the novel’s characters exist in a state of limbo between tradition and progress. From the Diallobé perspective, westernization threatens the future of their traditions as much as outright colonial conquest. This westernization is treated as synonymous with modernity and is symbolized by the foreign school. While all of the Diallobé agree that the presence of the foreign school is problematic for keeping traditions alive, the Most Royal Lady believes that it is necessary for the Diallobé to understand what has made Western colonialism successful so that they may learn from their mistakes going forward. In this sense, the loss of tradition is the compromise necessary for preserving the future of the Diallobé. The people could physically die with traditions intact or accept progress and survive.
Aspects of westernization, such as modern technology, are deeply alien to the Diallobé. The fool’s vivid descriptions of the mechanisms that the “white man” uses, as well as Thierno’s horrified reaction, indicate that the Diallobé society has lived without much of the technology that the Western world uses. Yet their reaction is not one of curiosity and delight but instead of repulsion and horror, and after the fool’s explanation, they pray together. Several of the fool’s descriptions seem to refer to modern warfare—for example, he references “the clattering of a thousand hard shells” (83)—and this association between westernization and death appears throughout the novel. While the Diallobé are more overtly focused on death, the novel suggests that Western society embraces a kind of materialism that is deadening, symbolically killing everything that makes people human.
The fool prophesies that the death of Thierno will ultimately lead to the increased modernization of the Diallobé community, which is plausible given that Thierno’s successor, Demba, announces that he will encourage attendance at the foreign school. Although the story does not clarify the fate of the Diallobé people specifically, the history of postcolonial nations in Africa demonstrates the heavy influence of colonizing powers in terms of language, local government, and educational systems.
Religion and Secularism/Science
As an extension of the dialogue between tradition and modernity, the duality of religion and science/secularism is another important theme within the novel. Furthermore, science is synonymous with secularization in the novel, which associates the absence of religion in a society with increased scientific knowledge and influence.
As the discussion between Samba’s father and Paul Lacroix demonstrates, religion and science approach the search for truth differently. For Paul, science assuages fear in providing answers, whereas Samba’s father questions the idea that science can discern truth. For these men, no balance is possible between science and religion, which are antithetical in nature. Likewise, an important turning point for Samba is his thought that prayer and life might be contradictory ways of existing. This thought is foreign to him and causes him great concern; however, he takes comfort in his father’s words that with God, life, work, and prayer are all forms of worship.
Samba’s experiences in Paris trouble this equilibrium. In Lucienne’s communism, Samba encounters another philosophy claiming to reveal the truth of the world and its history. While he admires her convictions, Samba finds he cannot reconcile her beliefs with his faith; as he notes, she would view her work as complete in a postrevolutionary world, whereas he can never attain this sense of finality because he looks beyond the material world to God as the ultimate reality.
At the end of the novel, Samba is no longer a fervent follower of Islam and does not complete his daily prayers. The fool finds this disrespectful and murders him in a frenzy. For the fool, Samba was the teacher, so he is enraged by the idea that the new “teacher” is not religious but secular. Samba’s murder is an attempt to prevent the loss of religion and the Diallobé tradition, but Samba has not in fact abandoned spirituality, as his ecstatic experiences in the moments after his death demonstrate.
Life and Death
The duality of life and death informs the characters of the novel. Samba embodies both, although over the course of the novel he shifts from focusing primarily on the preparation for death to the desire to embrace life fully. For the Diallobé, death is a crucial and honorable component of an individual’s life. Thierno’s reflection on the Most Royal Lady’s father is particularly revealing in that it shows how one of the most respected teachers in the region views a well-handled death, embracing suffering and remaining gracious and humble until the end. Ultimately, Thierno believes that Samba has the natural tools to “dominate life, and death” (25), echoing his hope that he can strike a balance between preserving the Diallobé way of life and allowing elements of it to die in the interests of long-term survival.
The Western focus on life and progress does not necessarily equate to happiness and contentment. In Paris, Samba realizes that death in the Diallobé sense is a rejected and forgotten aspect of life in the West. However, Samba does not feel more alive or even at peace in Paris; rather, he feels lonely. He shares this sentiment with Pierre-Louis and his family at the dinner party, and Pierre-Louis concurs.
One question posed throughout the novel is the possibility that memory lives beyond death and is more powerful than physical life. This is something Samba considers at the grave of Old Rella as well as in discussions with his father about Thierno. This idea brings him comfort and is a way for Samba to personally reconcile himself to death. Applied to the broader discussion of the Diallobé and colonization, this idea indicates that the memory of traditions can live beyond the death of their performance; it is a possible way to reconcile the loss of a traditional way of life with the pressures to modernize.
In his death, Samba recognizes the duality of his spirit, as well as the oscillation of the “voices” within him. The novel suggests that death resolves these and other “ambiguities” in its revelation of an infinite spiritual reality.
