Ambiguous Adventure
Ambiguous Adventure (1961) by Cheikh Hamidou Kane Ambiguous Adventure discusses the duality of man within the context of colonial and postcolonial societies. The novel splits the colonized and the colonizer into two distinct and opposing cultures: The former (the Diallobé) is traditional, religious, and death-focused, while the latter (the French) is modern, secular, scientific, and life-focused. The exact historical setting of the novel is unclear; however, based on references to the League of Nations, Adolf Hitler, and different modes of technology, readers can infer that it takes place in the mid-20th century.
Quotes
[edit]- master[s] his suffering” of his beatings from Thierno
- Page 4
- waited on God with such a spirit”
- Page 5
- the work of the spirit and the work of the field”
- Page 7
- the eternal mystery of death” as well as paradise
- Page 38
- liberated” humanity from its “absurd fears”
- Page 69
- they turn their backs to the light, but they look at the shadow fixedly. Is it that this man is not conscious of his poverty?” ** page 71
- “[t]each him to check the external”
- Page 71
- world is being fused” and that all of humanity will share the same future
- Page 72
- He made his chahâda wave like a banner in the wind!” (99).
- this history has undergone an accident which has shifted it and, finally, drawn it away from its plan”
- Page 101
- no more could he avow the reason for his sudden withdrawal: the impossibility of enduring any longer the calm inquiry of those blue eyes which the girl had fixed on him since the first moments of their meeting”
- Page 122
- part of themselves which weighs them down”
- Page 126
- Your salvation, the presence of God living in you, depends upon yourself. You will obtain both these if, in mind and body, you rigorously observe His law, which religion has codified”
- Page 147
- In order to calm him, Samba asks him to speak of the “white man’s country”
- Page 78
- The Diallobé country, helpless, was turning around and around on itself like a thoroughbred horse caught in a fire.”
- Part 1, Chapter 1, Page 11
- The teacher thought that man had no reason to exalt himself, save definitely in the adoration of God. Now it was true—though he fought against the feeling—that he loved Samba Diallo as he had never loved any disciple. His harshness toward the boy was in ratio to his impatience to rid him of all his moral weaknesses, and to make him the masterpiece of his own long career. He had educated and developed numerous generations of adolescents, and he knew that he was now near death. But, at the same time as himself, he felt that the country of the Diallobé was dying from the assault of strangers come from beyond the sea. Before departing this life, the teacher would try to leave to the Diallobé such a man as the country’s great past had produced.”
- Part 1, Chapter 2, Page 21
- “Paradoxically, all this suffering, and this rebellion of his body, aroused in the teacher’s mood a gayety which left him perplexed. Although he was bent in two with pain, he had trouble in remaining serious, as if the grotesque figure he was watching were not his own.”
- Part 1, Chapter 3, Page 27
- He who wants to live, who wants to remain himself, must compromise
- (Part One, Chapter 1)
- When the hand is feeble, the spirit runs great risks, for it is by the hand that the spirit is defended..."
- The Knight (Samba Diallo's Father), Part One, Chapter 1)
- But it is also true that the spirit runs great risks when the hand is too strong"
- The School Principal, (Part 1, Chapter 1)
- The question is disturbing nevertheless. We reject the foreign school in order to remain ourselves and to preserve for God the place He holds in our hearts. But have we still enough force to resist the school, and enough substance to remain ourselves?"
- (The Teacher, Part 1, Chapter 1)
- There is no more light, there is no more weight, the darkness is no more. Feel how antagonisms do not exist"
- (The Voice of Darkness, Part 2, Chapter 10)