El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye was what one might call a synthesis of two cultures: business had drawn him into the European middle class after a feudal A… - Ousmane Sembène

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."

It is worth knowing something about the life led by urban polygamists. It could be called geographical polygamy, as opposed to rural polygamy, where all the wives and children live together in the same compound. In the town, since the families are scattered, the children have little contact with their father. Because of his way of life the father must go from house to house, villa to villa, and is only there in the evenings, at bedtime. He is therefore primarily a source of finance, when he has work. The mother has to look after the children's education, so academic achievement is often very poor.

Just as nature re-imposes its life on ruins with small tufts of grass, the ancestral atavism of fetishism was being reawakened in El Hadji.