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.
Part 2, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2
Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary
Some years later, Samba is attending a dinner party at the home of a classmate, Lucienne. Her parents remark on his ethnic background but otherwise seek to make him feel welcome in their home. As he almost accepts a drink from Lucienne, he stops halfway and informs her that he does not drink alcohol. Lucienne’s cousin, Pierre, is intrigued, questioning Samba’s decision since he personally knows of Muslims who drink. Lucienne’s father, Paul, is impressed with Samba’s response, remarking to himself that “He made his chahâda wave like a banner in the wind!” (99).
The discussion move on to Samba’s study of philosophy. He shares that his future, like that of many Black African students, is undecided because those who leave home experience a metamorphosis along the way. After being asked his opinion of Western philosophy, Samba replies that “this history has undergone an accident which has shifted it and, finally, drawn it away from its plan” (101), citing philosophers such as Descartes, Pascal, St. Augustine, and Socrates; he says that while the core questions of philosophy have remained the same, the approaches to answering them have changed. Paul is pleased with Samba’s answer and says he should keep this opinion. Paul shares his dream of starting a ministry in Africa but says that this was not able to happen. While Samba shares his condolences with Paul, Lucienne remarks on the importance of sending in medical assistance rather than religious educators. Samba notes that he is grappling with this dilemma himself and says, “I should admit your doctors and your engineers only with many reservations, and I do not know whether I should not have combatted them at the first encounter” (104).
Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary
Despite the increasing physical difficulty, Thierno persists in performing his daily prayers. As he reminds his students of his insignificance compared to God’s word, he begins to tell them a story of a man who must move beyond the fear of death to worship and take care of his family. The fool is present and assumes the story applies to him, to which Thierno replies that it is about himself. Demba, Samba’s peer from Part 1, has been named to take the place of Thierno. Demba, the Most Royal Lady, and the chief, all separately think of Samba in this moment and consider how Samba would have guided the people of the Diallobé differently than Demba. As the fool and Thierno laugh together, Demba announces that he will change the timetable of The Glowing Hearth so that the children may also attend the foreign school if they wish.
The chief writes to Samba lamenting the woes of these changes for the Diallobé community. The chief recalls the evening that Thierno and the fool visited him and Thierno announced that he would pass his place on to Demba. Thierno then spiraled into a discussion of his role in keeping happiness from the people of the Diallobé as well as the possibility that men use God for their own purposes. Exasperated, Samba stops reading and exclaims that he also has “the right to do as this old man has done: to withdraw from the arena of their [the community’s] confused desires” (112). After preparing for bed, he realizes he forgot to complete his own prayers and gets up to do so, after which he falls asleep.
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary
In Paris, Samba is walking down the street engaging in a meditative practice when a Black man who introduces himself as Pierre-Louis interrupts him. The two go to a nearby cafe to become acquainted, and Samba learns that Pierre-Louis worked in the Diallobé region as well as Cameroon and Gabon in the field of law. He remarks to Samba that “all the Blacks ought to study the law of the Whites—French, English, Spanish, the law of all the colonizing peoples, as well as their languages” (117). After discussing his work with the Germans, Pierre-Louis notes that contrary to popular belief, they are “no more racist than the civil or military settlers of all nationalities” (117), as others have committed racist acts using religion or law as their justification. At the end of their meeting, he invites Samba to his house to meet his family.
Part 2, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Moving on to a new phase (i.e., graduating from the foreign school) and a new place (i.e., leaving Africa and living in Paris), Samba embodies the duality of new French customs balanced against his Diallobé upbringing. His references to both Christian and ancient philosophers indicate that he has seriously pursued his education in philosophy since leaving the foreign school. However, his presence in Paris does not translate to an abandonment of his religious and traditional upbringing. At the dinner party, while reaching for the glass, he stops himself and refuses the alcohol based on his religion. Nevertheless, the discussion regarding the ministry and health professionals reveals some tension between the two cultures or worldviews: Samba regards the situation as a dilemma, seeing the merits of both ways of thinking and unable to decide which is correct.
Chapter 2 highlights two important turning points in Samba’s relationship with his community and his religion. First, as he reads the letter from the chief, his urge is to withdraw from rather than engage with the community’s discussions about its future. Furthermore, he forgets to pray—something that in Part 1 would have been highly unlikely. The two are related, as his departure from the Diallobé community indicates a significant change in his relationship with his religion; while before he would have had constant reminders of traditions and rituals (e.g., the time of prayer), now he is managing his relationship with his religion alone.
In Chapter 3, Samba meets another well-educated African man, Pierre-Louis, in Paris. Pierre-Louis’s belief that colonized peoples should study the law and language of their colonizers echoes the beliefs of the Most Royal Lady. Pierre-Louis is the first character Samba meets in Paris who shares a similar background and point of view with Samba. This is also one of the first dialogues in the novel structured principally as a conversation about two people as opposed to a philosophical oratory.
