Longman / Prentice Hall

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God's Bits of Wood
Sembene Ousmane

ISBN-10: 0435909592
ISBN-13: 9780435909598

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 1996
Format: Paper; 248 pp
Published: 08/01/2008

Suggested retail price: $13.95
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'Ever since they left Thies, the women had not stopped singing. As soon as one group allowed the refrain to die, another picked it up, and new verses were born at the hazard of chance or inspiration, one word leading to another and each finding, in its turn, its rhythm and its place. No one was very sure any longer where the song began, or if it had an ending. It rolled out over its own length, like the movement of a serpent. It was as long as a life.'

 

This classic African novel, first published in the 1960s, is set during the Dakar-Nigeria railway atrike of 1947-8 and is seen through the workers' eyes. Sembene Ousmane, in this vivid and moving novel, evinces all of the colour, passion and tragedy of those decisive years in the history of West Africa. Translated from the French by Francis Price.

Sembene Ousmane, film director and writer, was born in Senegal  and worked as a fisherman before attending  l'Ecole de Ceramique at Marsassoum. He then worked as a plumber, a bricklayer and an apprentice mechanic in Dakar.  After the war he became a docker and trade union leader in Marseilles, and out of this experience he wrote Le Docker Noir (1956). He had also published Oh Pays, mon Beau Peuple (1957), L'Harmattan (1964) and the collection of stories, Voltaique (1962), which was translated as God's Bits of Wood and appears in the African Writers Series (AWS). He has made several films including one of Le Mandat (translated as The Money Order with White Genesis AWS). His film of Xala met with a great success in the New York film festival.

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This title is a member of the AWS African Writers Series, which also contains the titles below . You can also visit the AWS African Writers Series page.

    This anthology of  twenty different writers, with an interesting blend of well known and newer, lesser known writers, represent all over Africa. They stories have been grouped geographically into four different sections: West, East, North and Southern Africa. It is a wonderful a pleasure to read.

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    © 1987 | Longman | Paper; 159 pages | Instock
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    • A sequence of Botswana village tales about subjects such as the breakdown of family life and the position of women in this society told with unique skill. Drawing on the rich oral tradition of Southern Africa, Bessie Head uses the language and imagery of the story-telling tradition. The collection is carefully sequenced, focusing on village people from Botswana, and the status and position of women in Africa.

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    • Capturing the diversity of African writing from across the continent, this important  anthology draws together well-established authors and the best of new writers.

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    Includes a new Introduction by Dr Elleke Boehmer, Oxford University

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    • Mine Boy has remained a central influence in South African fiction for over forty years.

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    Mine Boy is widley read in both Literature and African History courses.
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    • One of Africa's Best Books of the 20th Century.

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    Brief Description | Buy from myPearsonStore

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