38 pages • 1 hour read
Cheikh Hamidou KaneAmbiguous Adventure
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1961A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Foreign School
The presence of the foreign school in the Diallobé community is the primary source of conflict in the novel, as well as the catalyst for Samba’s “adventure.” The preferred education for the Diallobé until this point was the Glowing Hearth school, which teaches the Koran in a severe, disciplined environment and represents not only religion but tradition broadly. For the people of Diallobé, the foreign school represents the end of their traditional way of life; from the perspective of the colonizers, the school introduces modernity and technology to the community. The first chapter frequently compares the foreign school to a house, conjuring images of protection and solidity; it implies that education involves building a solid dwelling within oneself. However, the foreign school also encapsulates an unknown secular and westernized future, which most of the Diallobé fear.
Eventually, the Most Royal Lady convinces the chief and Thierno to allow Samba to attend the foreign school so he may learn the ways of the colonizers and bring this information back to the Diallobé. For Samba, the foreign school is the first step in his journey to Paris and an important catalyst for his growth.
Meditation
Meditation is a key motif within the novel because most of the key themes emerge while characters are in a meditative state. The philosophical nature of this book means that much of the content takes the form of inner monologues. For example, many of the Diallobé, such as Thierno and Samba’s father, are in dreamlike states when they consider issues like religious devotion, only for external reminders of modernity to wake them from their reveries. One example is Thierno’s meditation on traditional life in Part 1, Chapter 2, which the Most Royal Lady interrupts in order to discuss Samba’s education. Meditation is also a way for Thierno to remove himself from his physical ailments as he prostrates himself in his daily prayers. Samba’s father frequently meditates as a part of his prayers and, even when speaking with others, gives the impression that he is still meditating as he converses. This motif is present moreso in Part 1 of the novel than Part 2; this is due to the fact that many of the Western characters do not engage in these kinds of inner monologues, reflecting their different (and, the novel suggests, more superficial) orientation toward the world around them.
Medieval Imagery
The two most notable medieval images in the novel are “the knight” and “the citadel.” Jean Lacroix first likens Samba’s father to a knight, an image that the novel afterward repeatedly references. The image conjures direct connections with war and battles, alluding to the underlying concept that while there is little violence within the text itself, the Diallobé are very much in a war to preserve their traditions and cultures. The fact that the imagery is of medieval rather than modern warfare is a quiet reminder that the battles that were fought between the colonized and colonizers were largely lost by the colonized due to dated weapons (a fact briefly mentioned in the historical overview in Part 1, Chapter 5). The citadel refers to a structure that is difficult to penetrate and that Samba, as the chosen one, will open the gates to; his father hopes that doing so will save humanity from the sterility of Western modernity.
