Ousmane Sembène

• “Striking brutally through the cloud curtain, like the beam from some celestial projector, a single ray of light lashed at the Koulouba, the governor's residence, poised like a sugar castle on the heights that bore its name.”

• “God forgive me, I had forgotten Maimouna.”

• “I told you yesterday, Rama, that I couldn’t do anything more for you, or for any of the striker’s families.”

• “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.”

• “In effect, he had three villas and three wives, but where was his real home? At the houses of the three wives he was merely 'passing through.' Three nights each! He had nowhere a corner of his own into which he could withdraw and be alone."”

• “Daughter, don't you know that in this country the man who is in gaol is better off than the worker or the peasant? No taxes to pay and in addition you are fed, lodged, and cared for."”

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Ousmane Sembène across IJR