XALA

I do have to admit that Xala by Ousmane Sembène, is probably one of my favorite books that I have read so far regarding post-colonization in Africa. After reading the different books regarding pre-colonization and the things that actually happened during colonization. It is refreshing to read another book that is more of a story. I am not one for reading actual history books. And this book tells a very interesting story the depicts how certain thins worked after Europe supposedly left Africa.

It was interesting to read that even after Europe, and France, came and left their influence on all of Africa. That there were still parts of the African ways that managed to survive. That is something that actually surprised me highly. With the strong impact of the Europe culture and way of life, I was pretty sure that Africa would lose the majority of there own cultures. Though this book shows how people tried to hold on to certain parts of their own culture, while still having remnants of the European culture.

In Xala, you see that one major thing that was still prominent is polygamy. The idea of having more than one wife was something that was and actually still is a part the african culture in many different parts of Africa. And this book is one that shows it in a very unique light as compared to some of the other books that I have read. Though I personally do not agree with the whole idea behind polygamy. It is still an interesting thing to learn about.

In Xala, the relationship between the three wives and the husband were very unique. Each wife is so different from another and have very separate lives from one another, which is odd to me. In other books that I have read such as Things Fall Apart, the different wives have their separate home yet they still have a relationship with each other. Another big difference to me, was that in Xala, the first wife's oldest daughter Rama, was against Polygamy. Rama even acted more like how most people her age act now. But I was very surprised that she was against polygamy, given that her family took part in it. But I guess that like most cases in life, children do not always agree with the things that their parents do.

In general, after I started reading this book. It is one that I am going to have to keep in my collection of books. It was nothing like what I expected it to be like. It had its own drama, "xala problems", and sarcasm that I was not expecting. Especially from a book that was given to me to learn something. So if anyone happens to come across this book I do advise to pick it up and give it some of your time. You won't be disappointed!

One thing that is also funny to me is that I have yet to learn about there ever being any female polygamist. Then again I guess this comic explains it well...