Black Docker

3.5 stars

"But now he knew that life was a daily struggle. He learned to loathe the poets and painters who depicted only beauty, who celebrated the glory of spring, forgetting the bitterness of the cold."
This is the debut novel of legendary Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. It’s a book that draws from the experiences of its author as docker working in France. A book that’s clearly and unmistakably a socio-political novel.

The story focuses on the Black docker Diaw Falla, and his community of mostly West African immigrants living in post-Second world war Marseille, and his literary exploits: he works hard as a docker and secludes himself to work on his book about the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, after he’s finished show more with his book he can’t find a publisher for it, is referred to Ginette Tontisanne, who is already a published writer, who appropriates the whole book and publishes it as her own to great acclaim and wins a prize for it. While confronting her about it Falla gets physically abusive, injures Ginette who dies from her injuries and is soon arrested for murder.

If I give out the premise of the book, it’s not to spoil the book, but the structure of this book is such that it is told at its beginning and Sembène unspools the story to show the conditions that led up to the tragedy while exploring racism and the horrible state Black and Arab immigrants were in, and the terrible state labourers and workers and the marginal were in. Among the social issues it explores is how individuals in the French colonies fought for France during both wars and barely got any recognition nor are they eligible for the benefits their white and native counterparts get. It’s an important book that unfortunately remains relevant to the present situation. show less

Arts, British literature, Africa, French, racism, fiction