God forgive me, I had forgotten Maimouna. - Ousmane Sembène

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."

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.