Mademba has been stabbed in the stomach by a German who had pretended to be dead and then suddenly attacked him. We actually first meet the young men on the battlefield of France.

It is she who helps ease Alfa’s departure. Alfa is sold.īoth boys had been interested in Fary Thiam but she has chosen Alfa, as he is he more handsome. In order to entice Alfa, he tells him that they can earn enough money to buy back Penndo from her kidnappers. When they grow older, it is Mademba who says he wants to see the world and that means fighting for the French, becoming French citizens and setting up successful business and making money. She never returns, with rumours of a kidnapping.Īlfa, of course misses her but he becomes very close to Mademba Diop, so much so that he transfers to Mademba’s family and is adopted by Mademba’s mother. She is accompanied part of the way by her young son. She gets more and more depressed and finally tells her husband that she must go and look for them. However, she can just about settle down, provided her family make their annual visit. Penndo, however, is a nomad and loved roaming the region with her father and brothers. Yoro Ba has a beautiful daughter, Penndo, and, in gratitude to Bassirou for welcoming him, he offers his daughter to him, dowry-free, though Bassirou is quite old and already has three wives. He is on particularly good terms with Yoro Ba. His father, Bassirou Coumba Ndiaye, was a Senegalese farmer and unlike others in the village, he allowed the nomadic Fula herdsmen access to his artesian wells. This is the story of a such a troop as they faced the Germans in the trenches and, in particular, of two of them.Īlfa Ndiaye is our narrator. It is perhaps not generally known, at least in the English-speaking world, that Senegalese soldiers fought in World War I and, indeed, served in the trenches.

Home » France » David Diop » Frère d’âme (At Night All Blood Is Black) David Diop: Frère d’âme (At Night All Blood Is Black)

At night all blood is black book