Summary
Eventually Laye reaches the age of circumcision. He is now one of the older boys at school, and others consider him a baby among them. Laye speculates that all his time at Tindican delayed his maturation in Kouroussa. He is apprehensive about the painful procedure, but will go through with circumcision if he is to be made a man through the ritual. In the week before his circumcision, Laye goes every day to a public square and dances the soli, the dance of those who are to be circumcised.
Laye wears a boubou, a garment specially woven for the occasion, and it is dyed a reddish brown to conceal the blood stains to come. All the boys wear the same. They have long openings that allowed freedom of movement. The only individualized flair in the outfits are the silk kerchiefs the boys tie around their genitalia. These kerchiefs are often hair scarves gifted by their sweethearts. While dancing, the boys swing their boys so the slits in their garments reveal glimpses of their silk-wrapped loins, hoping to impress the crowd through their association with their sweethearts.
After the week of dancing, Laye and the other boys go to stay in a hut where they will convalesce. The day of the operation, they put their boubous on to discover the long slits have been sewn shut, making it difficult to spread their legs. The boys are marched to a clearing. Older men watch the ritual, and the boys are sure not to show any fear, knowing a future father-in-law might be among the spectators. The operator appears suddenly and circumcises the boys one after another in rapid progression. Laye later learns he is related to Laye’s mother and is known for his swiftness, circumcising hundreds of boys within an hour during large festivals.
The blood flows from the cut on Laye’s foreskin with such volume that he worries he will be drained of blood. However, the flow slows enough and a man puts a bandage on him. The boys return to the hut to convalesce. The boys are not allowed to so much as see a woman during their healing period, as any sexual excitement would be detrimental. Over several weeks, they are made to lie on their backs in the hut while men act as nurses. A healer cleans the wound twice a day using water in which bark has been steeping.
After three weeks, Laye’s mother visits. Laye is allowed to greet her from a distance in the yard. He feels oscillating sadness and joy at the sight of her. He has never been away for her so long, and knows it must be difficult for her to see him have this second birth into manhood. At the same time, he is pleased to be a man now, and knows he could still hug her if it weren’t for the absurd rules of his convalescence.
At four weeks, Laye begins venturing into public and is celebrated everywhere he goes. His parents are congratulated for his bravery. No longer weary of food, the newly circumcised boys have healed enough that they develop strong appetites. The boys remain living together as a group, proud of what they have undergone together. Eventually the healer declares the boys fully healed, and they are sent back to their parents. Back at their concession, Laye’s parents present him with his own hut to live in, just across from his mother’s. Laye is delighted to still be so close to her and to have new clothes befitting a man laid out for him.
At fifteen, Laye leaves for Conakry, the capital of Guinea, to take a technical course at the École Georges Poiret, known as the Technical College. His mother sends him off with lots of food and an elixir he is meant to sip every morning. It is made by holy men who write Koran transcriptions on a board, pour water over them, and then mix the water with honey. His father gives him a goat horn, meant to have protective properties. Laye’s goodbyes are bittersweet. His father makes Laye promise to make the most of the opportunity before him, reminding him he was an orphan and treated cruelly by those who had authority over him. Laye’s father hugs him longer than ever and turns away quickly, presumably to hide his tears.
Laye walks to the train station accompanied by his siblings and Fanta. He feels as though they are on their way to school. Fanta, with whom he has been in love, barely smiles when he makes this comment. As the train pulls away, Laye is struck by the sight of his little brothers running along the platform. He has never given them much attention.
Laye marvels at the mountainous landscapes he passes through on the train trip. The air is colder and purer than it is in Kouroussa. He is afraid the train is too close to the cliff edges as it rounds corners. Eventually, he arrives in Conakry to stay with his uncle Mamadou, who lives in a European-style house. Laye sleeps poorly, unused to the humidity and the very soft bed. He misses his hut. On his first day, Laye explores the town, becoming amazed by the sight of the light reflecting softly over the ocean, which he has never seen in full. Laye respects and reveres Mamadou. He is a more orthodox Mohammedan (i.e. Muslim) than Laye’s parents. He wears European clothes to work as an accountant but changes immediately into his boubou at home. He has two wives, who each live in their own room with their children. There is no quarreling in the house, only unity.
Laye is disappointed by the education he receives at the Technical College. During his first week, he is astonished by how poorly the other students write and by their lack of knowledge. It is as though he has been sent back several grades. He complains about this to his uncle on the weekend. His uncle insists that being trained for a trade is better than his own path, and says Laye shouldn’t aspire to be a clerk. Laye says he may as well have stayed at his father’s forge. Laye stays on at the school, soon developing an ulcer and going to the hospital. The ulcer doesn’t improve. He is not well again until the holidays, when he is impatient to return to Kouroussa.
Analysis
In Laye’s Malinke-Guinean culture, circumcision—the removal of the foreskin from the penis—is not carried out close to birth, but when a boy is a teenager. In Laye’s community, there isn’t a set age for the ritual, meaning many of the boys in his class are circumcised earlier than him, leading Laye to feel babyish and inadequate in contrast. This is because ritual circumcision marks the passage from childhood to adulthood.
Far more complex than a simple operation, circumcision in Laye’s community first involves dancing in public for a week. While doing so, Laye wears a specially made outfit called a boubou, a long dress-like garment worn by men and women in various regions of Africa. Laye notes that his boubou is dyed reddish-brown to hide the bloodstains that will come with his surgery.
While surgical privacy is taken for granted in the French society Laye is writing from, Laye’s and the other boys’ circumcisions are a public spectacle. Elder men watch as the operator moves down the line of boys, quickly making the incisions. Laye is conscious not to show his pain for fear of being judged by men who could be future fathers in law. And while the cut itself is quick, the blood loss Laye experiences is overwhelming, causing him to worry he will be completely drained. However, the flow abates, and a bandage is applied, leaving Laye to undergo the long convalescent period.
The ritual of circumcision continues for several weeks after the operation. Laye and the others spend their healing period living in a designated hut together. They are attended to by men who act as nurses and encourage them to be brave while recovering. It is part of the custom that the boys must not see any females. Writing cryptically, Laye implies that the risk of sexual excitement at the sight of a woman would be detrimental to the convalescent process, as the erectile expansion of one’s penis could break the healing skin. Laye goes along with the process, but he finds it absurd that he cannot go hug his mother when she visits after three weeks. The distance between them makes him reflect on how their relationship will be forever changed now that he is seen by his society as a man. This is a bittersweet revelation, as Laye feels simultaneous grief over what is lost and pride to have faced his fear and gotten circumcised.
The distance between Laye and his mother grows even greater when Laye moves to Guinea’s capital city, Conakry, so he can attend the French Technical College. The theme of respect for family arises as Laye describes his kind uncle Mamadou and the voluble Sékou. He also appreciates that Mamadou’s two wives treat him as though he is another of their sons in the house, which is quite unlike the property where he grew up. An orthodox Muslim living in a European-style house, Mamadou is emblematic of the intersection of Guinean and French cultures, wearing European business clothes to his job as an accountant and changing into a boubou immediately after he gets home.
Laye is also mesmerized by the vistas of the ocean he sees in Conakry and which were not possible in landlocked Kouroussa. However, Laye is disappointed by the poorly run Technical College. His uncertainty returns as he wonders whether he should have simply stayed at his father’s forge. He experiences a bout of illness that lands him in the hospital for most of his first year, and he is homesick for Kouroussa.
