African child chapter by chapter summary

Chapter 1 Summary

Laye's autobiographical novel The Dark Child follows one boy's journey from his earliest memories at age five or six to his first moment of definite adulthood—the day he leaves his native Guinea for Paris, where he will study and ultimately decide his destiny.

Camara Laye's earliest memories revolve around his father's forge, where he listened to the sounds of anvils and customers. He remembers seeing a snake and being fascinated with its glittering eyes. He offers a reed to the snake. The snake takes the bait and the boy's fingers are nearly consumed before his father notices the danger and sweeps the little boy off his feet and away from the danger. Laye remembers his mother's shrieks and a few hard slaps.

The forge is a busy place, for Laye's father is well known far and wide for his superior skills as a blacksmith. Parents send their sons to him as apprentices, and customers come every day requesting delicate mechanisms, tools, and even jewelry. Some linger around the shop just to watch him work. Laye enjoys crouching in a corner of the workshop to see the comings and goings and to watch the fire blazing.

Laye's father is a generous man and his mother is forever having to feed unexpected visitors. To complicate her work, their huts are located close to a railroad, and sparks from the trains frequently set fire to their fence. These fires must be put out quickly so the entire concession doesn't catch fire.

After the snake encounter, Laye finds it amusing to yell to his mother, "There's a snake!" She runs to him to see what kind of a snake he's found and then she becomes a woman possessed, beating the snake to a pulp. One day, when Laye finds a snake to report, his mother says that this snake, a little black one with a strikingly marked body, is a special snake and should never be harmed.

Everyone in the concession seems to know about this snake. Laye's mother explains that this snake is his father's guiding spirit. Laye is confused, so later in the day he asks his father about the black snake. Laye's father doesn't answer right away but seems to be considering how much to tell his son.

Finally he says that the snake is the guiding spirit of their race, that it has always been with them, choosing one of their race to guide. In their time, the snake has chosen Laye's father. The snake first appeared to Laye's father in a dream and explained that he would be coming to visit the next day. That next day, the snake did appear, but Laye's father was initially afraid of it. The following night, the snake once more appeared in his dreams, asking why he had been received unkindly. After that, the snake appeared on a regular basis, helping Laye's father know the future and guiding him in all of his endeavors.

Laye's father attributes all of his good fortune and prestige to the snake. He explains to his son that he tells him all of this because he is the eldest son and fathers should keep no secrets from their eldest sons. He also explains that Laye ought to conduct himself in a careful manner if he is to inherit the gifts of the snake. He fears, however, that Laye will not have the gift and that he hasn't spent enough time in the presence of his father.

That night, while waiting to fall asleep in his mother's hut, Laye feels sad and recognizes some sadness in his parents, too. He wishes he could be in his father's hut. That day is the last time they speak of the black snake.

Chapter 1 Analysis

By opening the novel with his earliest memories, Laye sets the structure for the rest of the story. The story is told chronologically, beginning with early childhood and ending as the main character officially enters adulthood and leaves home for good. This structure allows readers to better relate Laye's experiences to their own. As Laye goes through developmental stages, the readers remember their own childhoods. If Laye had written the novel in a series of flashbacks, the theme of growing up wouldn't be as obvious.

Laye claims that he has always been familiar with the supernatural; nonetheless, he is surprised by his discovery that his father has a God/prophet relationship with a snake. In the novel, Laye never actually uses the word prophet, but that is exactly what his father is. The snake reveals the future to his father and people acknowledge and seek out his father's spiritual gifts because they have learned to trust and rely upon his prophet status.

Even as a child, Laye seems to understand that his father is special, and this knowledge makes him feel both proud and nervous. Laye realizes that his father's gifts may not be passed down to him, possibly in part because he does not fulfill the requirements necessary to be a spiritual leader among their people in Kouroussa.

This element of the supernatural is a theme that is followed throughout the book. In later chapters, Laye describes his mother's supernatural powers and tries to explain how such things could be. However, he seems content and humble enough to accept the supernatural for what it is. He does not require empirical knowledge to back up his acknowledgement of the supernatural. His faith is enough.

The chapter ends with the black snake curling up near his father in the blacksmith shop. In this image, the snake represents Laye's father's power. His father is powerful enough to not be afraid of a snake, which is highlighted by the fact that earlier in the chapter Laye's mother hacks a snake to pieces for fear it will hurt one of her children. Laye's father has no reason to fear the snake. In fact, he seeks out the snake and treats it like a treasured friend. Laye paints his father as larger than life

Chapter 2 Summary

Laye watches with great curiosity and satisfaction as a woman brings some gold into the blacksmith shop. Such an occurrence happens from time to time as people in the village find gold in the mud, sometimes spending months on end gathering the gold grains. This woman, a representative of all the women who come to the shop with gold, wants the gold made into a trinket. Generally, the women want trinkets made for a special occasion, such as the festival of Ramadan or the Tabaski. In order to have the trinket made well and on time, the women hire a praise-singer to act as a go-between.

In Laye's culture, praise singing is a full-time, respected profession. In this chapter, the praise-singer pulls out his harp and begins singing the praises of Laye's father. The praise-singer tells of the lofty deeds of Laye's ancestors, going on and on about people Laye has never even heard about.

As soon as Laye's father's vanity is sufficiently stroked, the praise-singer begins making arrangements for the trinket, discussing the fee, how long the process will take, and other details. The woman assures Laye's father that she is in a great hurry. Laye's father remarks, "I have never seen a woman eager to deck herself out who wasn't in a great hurry."

The deal is struck and all the apprentices and workers in the blacksmith shop turn their attention to the production of the trinket, for gold work is both rare and fascinating, though difficult and expensive. Laye's father always does the gold work himself, never leaving it to the apprentices or other workers. Nobody argues with this, for Laye's father's special powers are readily acknowledged and everyone believes that a man must be not only a good blacksmith to work with gold, but also a good man. He must have purified himself with a special ceremony for such a task. Laye's father has already dreamt about this specific task, so Laye assumes that his father underwent the rituals of preparing to work with gold before he even stepped foot in shop in the morning.

Such preparatory rituals include washing himself all over and abstaining from sex during the whole time he will be working with the gold over several days. His body would be smeared with secret potions hidden in his numerous pots of mysterious substances. Laye's father is unbending in his respect for ritual observance.

Laye himself, though a child, finds a way to watch the process and wants to shout for joy when he sees the gold begin to melt in the clay pot. Laye finds it extraordinary and miraculous that the black snake is always present, coiled under the sheepskin, when his father works with gold. His father breathes unknown cantations as he works with the gold, and Laye knows these mysterious words must have something to do with the black snake.

After the trinket is completed, the woman returns to the blacksmith shop and trembles as it is presented to her. The men like to watch the women in such a state, and they laugh at them. The praise-singer at this point can no longer contain himself and bursts into the douga, the great chant and dance reserved only for celebrated men. The douga is rarely sung, for evil genies may be set free. However, when Laye's father hears the douga he cannot keep from dancing.

Laye leaves the blacksmith workshop to tell his mother about the gold and the douga. His mother is not impressed and worries that her husband will ruin his health. Gold causes his eyes and lungs to suffer, for there is so much smoke and blowing involved when working with the metal. Although she is a strictly honest woman, she does not complain about the custom that the blacksmith leaves half of the gold out of the final product because other metals have been mixed with the gold to strengthen it.

Chapter 2 Analysis

After having shown his father to be almost godlike in the last chapter, Laye shows his father to be human when gold arrives on the scene in chapter 2. Still, Laye's father recognizes worldliness and its effects on people when he comments on the great haste shown by the woman who wants her gold trinket as soon as possible. He recognizes her vanity and even points it out, but then, when the praise-singer flatters him, he succumbs to the flattery, even dancing the douga, which is reserved for exceptional achievements.

Laye is ever impressed with his father's uprightness and integrity. He whole-heartedly believes that the snake has shown his father that this woman would come into the workshop requesting a gold trinket, so he assumes that his father has already performed all the rituals required to properly work with gold. Ritual and spirituality are inextricable to Laye, so the stricter the observance to ritual, the stronger Laye believes convictions to be.

Also striking in this chapter is the awe exhibited when people see gold. Gold is treated reverentially, but nearly worshipped. This theme appears several times in the book as characters can't help but feel blessed by the beauties around them. It is logical to Laye that the omniscient godlike snake should be present when the gold trinket is being produced

Chapter 3 Summary

Laye's mother grew up in a tiny village west of Kouroussa called Tindican. Laye loves to take the two-hour walk to Tindican to stay with his grandmother and uncles. His youngest uncle, a teenager, comes to fetch him occasionally from Kouroussa, and together they turn a two-hour walk into a four-hour walk, enjoying the peaceful trip in the countryside.

When Laye arrives in Tindican his grandmother embraces him and asks about his health and how his parents are doing. She always tells him that he's too skinny from being in the city. She takes him around her village, telling everyone that her "little husband" has arrived and shows him off.

Laye's uncle Lansana inherited the concession when his grandfather died. Lansana has a twin brother but was born first. Under Lansana's jurisdiction, the concession has grown large and prosperous. He is a quiet man, content to spend his time alone in the fields with his thoughts. Lansana's twin, on the other hand, is restless and never stays in one place very long. He has a taste for adventure, and when he shows up at Tindican, Laye loves listening to the stories of his adventurous uncle.

While in Tindican, Laye stays in his grandmother's hut. He notices that it is almost exactly like his mother's hut. It is clean and has ropes hung in exactly the same way for hanging garlands of ears of corn to keep them away from the farm animals. His grandmother also has a calabash just like his mother's for storing milk.

Laye's grandmother always washes him as soon as he arrives. She soaps him down from head to foot and rubs him vigorously until he is pristine. After he is clean, Laye finds his friends. The boys talk about how they look and whether or not they've grown since Laye's last visit. They play with their slingshots and do their best to keep the birds away from the crops.

Laye feels self-conscious in his school clothes because they look different from the other boys' clothes. He wears a short-sleeved khaki shirt, khaki shorts and sandals. He also has a beret, but he hardly ever wears it. While in Tindican, Laye despises his school clothes, for he has to be very careful with them. He can't get too close to the fire or help clean the lizards the boys catch and cook over live coals. He has to take care that his clothes don't get caught on the rungs of ladders, while the other boys run around with abandon, never worrying about their clothes. Laye doesn't have such freedom because he doesn't have anything else to wear besides his school clothes.

In the evenings, Laye loves to sit with the whole family at mealtimes and study everyone. He wonders what his Uncle Lansana is thinking about now and what he has thought about all day long by himself in the fields. Laye's grandmother urges him to eat more and more. Laye does eat a lot and then gets drowsy sitting around the fire.

Chapter 3 Analysis

The story switches scenes in chapter 3, transporting the main character from a city to a rural setting. The foot journey with his uncle between his city home and his grandmother's country home makes a wonderful transition. Laye expresses his childlike wonder at the animals and plants he sees along the way, and his uncle finds great amusement in this.

Once in Tindican, Laye's compare and contrast method of writing continues. He notices how similar his mother's hut is to his grandmother's, establishing a firm family connection in this somewhat foreign place. The reader also notices similarities between the characters of Uncle Lansana and Laye's father. They are both strong, humble men, successful and well respected.

The greatest contrast is seen in Laye's comments about his school clothes. His clothes are a constant reminder that he is different from the rural boys of Tindican. They can play and work as carelessly as they want to without worrying about spoiling their clothes. Laye, however, because he attends a structured school where uniforms are worn, must always be careful lest he ruin his clothes.

It's telling that Laye doesn't have another set of clothes besides his schoo