A Comparative Study of Crime and

Punishment in Ousmane Sembnes

Le Docker Noir and Albert Camuss
Ltranger
Patrick Day

Both Camus and Sembne wrote to expose a legal system that

unjustly punishes the outsider, the other: in Ltranger,
Meursault deviates from societys norms and must be punished for it; in Le Docker Noir, Diaw Falla is a man of color
who presumes to achieve social and political equality with
whites, and for this reason, he too must be punished. In
neither case is justice served disinterestedly: Camus was
writing from a moralist-humanist perspective, and his anticapital-punishment message was meant to be applied universally; Sembne was seeking more specific social and political
reforms for Africans: for both writers, the French judicial
system was symptomatic of French society and its attitudes
as a whole.

Introduction
Senegalese writer-cinaste Ousmane Sembne is known primarily for his
contribution to African cinema. Since the mid-1980s, he has devoted his
life to directing films; he last published a novel, Les Derniers de lEmpire,
in 1981, but his prose fiction continues to be a fruitful source of study, as it
closely parallels the depiction of colonial and postcolonial injustice in his
films. Among this fiction is his first novel, Le Docker Noir ([1956] 1973).
David Murphy and Wilfried Feuser have compared the themes of
Le Docker Noir to those of the novels Banjo (1929) by Claude McKay and
Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright, but a closer and perhaps more relevant
comparison can be made between Sembnes novel and Albert Camuss
Ltranger ([1942] 1957). The similarities between Camus and Sembne and
their fictional counterparts are striking. Both authors may be considered
social and political outsiders: Camus, the French-Algerian born of European immigrant parents, was divided throughout his lifetime between his

africa TODAY
84
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

French and Algerian loyalties; Sembne, a Senegalese autodidact, worked

and lived in France from 1948 to 1960 and wrote in French, the language
of the colonizers, at whom his criticisms were largely aimed. In Ltranger
and Le Docker Noir, the protagonists, Meursault and Diaw Falla, respectively, are tried for murder; both murders are replete with extenuating
circumstances, and both men are guilty of the crimes for which they are
charged. However, neither case is tried in the courtroom, per se, but rather
in the court of public opinion. Both writers had in mind clear ideas of
social and political reform, but Camuss ideas were of a universal nature,
and were grounded in general moralist and humanist traditions, whereas
Sembne was concerned primarily with political and social reform as they
pertained to Africans under the yoke of French colonialism. If one were
to read Ltranger and Le Docker Noir in succession, one might have the
impression that Sembne used Camuss novel as a template for his own,
narrowing its concerns to those most immediately relevant to francophone
Africans before national independence.
In Ltranger and Le Docker Noir, the primary concern is not so
much the guilt or innocence of the protagonists, but, rather, the basis upon
which guilt is established and punishment carried out. Camus and Sembne illustrate what some believe to be true today: that what matters most
in determining guilt or innocence is not always the evidence provided by
the prosecutors, but how society (and the jury as a microcosm of society)
perceives the accused. Although writing independently of each other, the
two novelists arrived at similar conclusions about the French legal system
and the nature of justice in general. In fact, the two novels are so strikingly
similar that Sembne had probably read, and was influenced by, Camuss
novel.1
In Ltranger, Camus gives us one of the most memorable characters in French literature: Meursault is remarkable precisely because he is
outwardly so unremarkable; he does his job, enjoys simple pleasures, and
does not involve himself in the affairs of others. It is when one looks more
closely at Meursault that one notices in his character attitudes and actions
that seem strikingly different from societal norms. What one perceives
as the peculiarities of his character are the traits that will be cited in the
courtroom to convict him of murdering an Arab.

The Other in Society

Our first inkling that Meursaults personality is unlike that of others comes
at his mothers death. Recounting this event, Meursault is unable to specify
its exact date, and seems unconcerned about it: Aujourdhui, maman est
morte. Ou peut-tre hier, je ne sais pas (Camus [1942] 1957:1127). At the
senior-care center where his mother had been living, Meursault again seems
unmoved by his mothers death. Questions from the director of the center
bother him, and he feels he is being watched, and even judged. He wonders

africa TODAY
85
PATRICK DAY

if he can smoke, and decides to do so. When one of his mothers friends asks
how old she was, Meursault cannot recall, although he later tells his boss,
une soixantaine dannes ([1942] 1957:1143). He is not moved to tears
at the funeral, although others are weeping. When asked if he would like
to view his mothers corpse before the burial, he refuses, thinking it too
inconvenient for the concierge.
He is equally unemotional in his relations with Marie. He enjoys
her company and his sexual relations with her, but he does not love her.
Love and marriage mean nothing to him, and he admits as much to her,
who finds him bizarre ([1942] 1957:1156). Such reactions to him are
common. When Raymond Sints claims that Meursault is a true friend,
Meursaults thoughts are similar to those concerning Maries proposal of
marriage: Cela mtait gal dtre son copain et il avait vraiment lair den
avoir envie ([1942] 1957:1148). Meursault does not react as others do when
offered friendship and love: he neither reciprocates, nor feigns emotion. He
is honest, yes, but he is so emotionally detached that he is unable to participate in the part of the social contract that requires people at times to
respond disingenuously, if not dishonestly, to spare the feelings of others,
or to protect ones self-interest. His lack of ambition hampers even his
possibilities for advancement in the workplace: he has no desire to accept
a promotion and relocate to Paris, for he is content with his life in Algeria
and sees no reason to change it.
One has the sense that events in Meursaults life have instilled a
certain fatalism in him. He lives life on lifes terms, or at least on what he
perceives to be lifes terms. He seems content with his present state, but
harbors no desire to improve upon it, at least in the conventional sense. This
condition of stasis, emotional and professional, is not what most of society
expects, and therefore his behavior is alien to most of those he encounters.
He is an outsider, and it is no coincidence that Camus places him in a
milieu of other outsidersRaymond Sints, for example, whose moralit
douteuse ([1942] 1957:1196), if not necessarily embraced by Meursault, is
at least not judged by him either.
At his trial, the question is not if Meursault is guilty of killing another
human being. Clearly he is guilty, and he confesses. The prosecution seeks
to demonstrate premeditation, but not on the basis of any concrete evidence
pertaining to the crime itself; rather, the manner in which Meursault comports himself in his daily life, his perceived apathy and insensitivity, are
cited as proof that he is a pyschopath. His lawyer comments on the speciousness of the evidence presented, asking indignantly, Enfin, est-il accus
davoir enterr sa mre ou davoir tu un homme? ([1942] 1957:1193). The
prosecutor shouts in response, Oui . . . jaccuse cet homme davoir enterr
une mre avec un cur de criminel ([1942] 1957:1194).
The one relevant question posed during the trial is if Meursault had
returned to the spring that day intending to kill the Arab. This question is
posed, rightly, to determine premeditation. Meursault responds that there
was no premeditation, and when pressed, responds that it was le hasard

africa TODAY
86
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

([1942] 1957:1188). Exacerbating his case, Meursault does not justify his
having hesitated after the initial gunshot and having subsequently fired five
shots at the Arabs already inert body. Perhaps he has no valid reasoncertainly no reason that would mitigate his actions. Although he may sense that
his lack of a satisfactory response is damaging to his case, he does nothing
to disabuse the judge or jurors of his premeditation, as many in his position
might do. Without an admission of premeditation, the prosecution must
impugn Meursaults character. The director and concierge of the senior-care
center testify that Meursault did not weep at his mothers funeral, that he
had not wanted to view his mothers corpse, that he had smoked and drunk
coffee, that he had slept some. In other words, he seemed apathetic, and
it is at this moment that Meursault realizes that he is guilty: Jai senti
alors quelque chose qui soulevait toute la salle et, pour la premire fois, jai
compris que jtais coupable ([1942] 1957:1189). Comprehension of his guilt
follows directly the testimony of his comportment at the funeral, and so his
guilt is established by behaviors preceding the murder itself.
In his closing remarks, the prosecutor argues that Meursaults inability to show remorse for the crime proves that he is a cold-blooded killer, but
in fact, Meursault is incapable of regret in any circumstance, considering
it futile to rue the immutable past: Je navais jamais pu regretter vraiment
quelque chose. Jtais toujours pris par ce qui allait arriver, par aujourdhui
ou par demain ([1942] 1957:1197). We may judge Meursault in any way that
we chooseas cold, impersonal, emotionally stuntedbut this judgment
does not prove that he killed the Arab with malice aforethought.
Similarly, the protagonist of Ousmane Sembnes Le Docker Noir is
an outsider, a stranger in a strange land. Diaw Falla leaves his native Senegal
for Marseille in search of the economic advantages promised by Charles de
Gaulle to Africans in return for their service in World War II. Diaw labors
by day on the docks of Marseille and heads the labor union, Le Conseil
Gnral du Travail. At night, he works on Le Dernier Voyage du Ngrier
Sirius, his novel, a fictionalized account of a nineteenth-century French
slave ship. The novel serves as a mise en abme (a novel within a novel),
developed by Sembne as an indictment of Frances past exploitation and
abuse of Africans, just as Le Docker Noir reflects Frances present racism.
As the reader might expect, Diaw is unsuccessful in finding a publisher
for his novel. While in Paris pursuing his novels publication, he meets and
begins a relationship with Ginette Tontisane, a white French author of some
renown. After his return to the docks of Marseille, Diaw discovers that
Tontisane has published his novel to much acclaim under her own name.
He confronts her, and in a fit of rage, accidentally kills her. He is guilty of
the crime, and he does not profess his innocence. His is a crime of passion
by a man who has exhausted his alternatives.
As in Meursaults trial, Diaws trial is not founded on the events surrounding the crime; the proceedings are held not only in the French court
of justice, but also in the yellow press. To convict Diaw, the prosecuting
attorney and the French press perpetuate base stereotypes of blacks: they

PATRICK DAY

Establishing Diaws guilt is essential, not solely because of the crime of

murder, but also as a defense of other aspects of French society against
encroachments by black Africans, who had formerly seemed docile and
accepting of oppression. Diaws real crimes are his personal involvement
with a white woman and his audacity in attempting to breach a French literary tradition, one that has been the exclusive domain of the white majority
for centuries. Diaws attempt to enter that tradition and the resultant threat
to white civilization are considered abominations by the prosecuting
attorney:

87

Pourquoi ne sest-il pas adress la justice, lorsquil sest

vu grug? Cest quil pensait quon ne le croirait pas: double
complexe dinfriorit, d sa race et sa position sociale.
Cependant si lon peut dire quun individu est suprieur un
autre, on ne peut le dire dune race. Dailleurs, les savants sont
maintenant convaincus, quil y a eu une civilisation noire,
qui, descendue le long du Nil, a gagn lEgypte pour donner
naissance la ntre. 3 (1973:7273)

africa TODAY

depict him as ignorant and animalistic. A professor of the facult de mdecine at the Sorbonne, asked to assess Diaws mental stability, concludes
that Diaw is, like all black men, sexually obsessed with white women, and
that a white womans refusal to accede to a black mans sexual advances
could quite naturally lead to violence. He testifies that [c]hez les Noirs,
cest une chose naturelle, et surtout quand il sagit dune femme blanche.
Ils sont fascins par la blancheur de la peau qui est plus attirante que celle
des ngresses (Sembne 1973:54).2
According to the prosecution, it is impossible for a black man to write
a novel, for blacks lack both literacy and intelligence; and in spite of Diaws
ability to quote verbatim entire passages of the novel, the jury and the
public remain unconvinced of his authorship. His recitation is symbolic of
the African oral tradition; denied authorship of his written work, he must
resort to orality, which in the past has been the acknowledged domain of
the African storyteller, the griot.
In an eloquent defense, Diaws attorney highlights the prosecutions
reliance on racist stereotypes, stating, Mon client, par la seule couleur de
son piderme, semble faire la preuve de sa culpabilit; il est la brute capable
de tout, le sauvage qui sabreuve du sang de sa victime. Laccusation repose
sur la haine quont provoque les journaux, qui ont dform les faits pour
mieux toucher le cur des honntes gens (1973:72).
Like Meursault, Diaw does not address the jury, for he knows that it
is futile to do so. The importance of the trial is not to decide his guilt or
innocence so much as to validate French societys racist preconceptions.
Diaws attorney contends that Diaws disadvantage is rooted in race and
social standing, and yet reminds jurors that all people are members of the
human race:

africa TODAY

Ce monstre prtend tre lauteur du Ngrier Sirius! Cette

insulte nos lettres est aussi un dlit. Les lettres franaises
ont prouv une grande perte. Ginette Tontisane faisait partie
de nos grands crivains. Elle est tombe comme ceux qui
vourent leur vie la grandeur de la France, emportant avec
eux la flamme de libert et dgalit. Comme ceux qui donnrent leur vie pour sauvegarder lindpendance nationale.
Nous regrettons cette perte cruelle, ce grand esprit fauch au
seuil de sa gloire. Nous devons rparation non seulement
la victime, mais notre littrature, mais notre civilisation.
(1973:70)

88
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

The prosecutor contends that black Africans are accepted in France as long
as they know their place and do not presume to be equal to whites, and the
French press reports that Diaw is unlike the submissive, obsequious, civilized blacks, whose presence whites deign to tolerate: On a limpression
de se trouver devant un tre nayant jamais subi linfluence de la civilisation.
Il na rien de ce grand Mamadou inoffensif et candide, fort et souriant,
cher nos bons curs de Franais (1973:27).

Race, Morality, and Religion

The subject-matter of Diaws novel is central to an understanding of Sembnes objectives for social and political reform, and this narrative frame
ensures that the reader will not misunderstand Sembnes message. As
Jnos Riesz explains, written accounts of the French slave trade were quite
popular in the 1930s and 1940s in Europe, but such histories were recorded
by white Europeans and intended for their entertainment and edification.
Diaws novelization of one such voyage represents Africans reappropriation
of their own history, told from their own viewpoint.4 Denied a claim to his
history, Diaw attempts to retake it by force and unintentionally murders
Ginette Tontisane.
From a political standpoint, Le Docker Noir and its mise en abme
recall Frantz Fanons advocacy of violent revolution as a means to political
and social equality (1961), and both represent what David Murphy calls
un attentat lhgmonie politique et culturelle de la France (2000:477).
Furthermore, the passage recited by Diaw represents, not coincidentally, a
commentary on racial equality, for the catalogue of slaves and masters who
die in the ships sinking encompasses virtually all imaginable ethnicities,
languages, occupations, religions, and customs. It is, in effect, a microcosm
of the world, and ironically, only in death is equality realized. As a hurricane batters the ship, nobody is in controlneither masters, nor slaves,
some of whom free themselves of their chains. All on board are reduced
to a state of survival and become equal in the struggle against death, as if
Nature had willed it so:

PATRICK DAY

Malgr ma bonne volont, je ne pouvais pas accepter cette

certitude insolente. Car enfin, il y avait une disproportion
ridicule entre le jugement qui lavait fonde et son droulement imperturbable partir du moment o ce jugement avait
t prononc. Le fait que la sentence avait t lue vingt
heures plutt qu dix-sept, le fait quelle aurait pu tre tout
autre, quelle avait t prise par des hommes qui changent
de linge, quelle avait t porte au crdit dune notion aussi
imprcise que le peuple franais (ou allemand, ou chinois), il
me semblait bien que tout cela enlevait beaucoup de srieux
une telle dcision. ([1942] 1957:1203)

89

Diaw realizes that racial equality in the living world does not exist as it does
in death. As he is led into the courtroom to stand trial, he knows that his
fate is no different from that of the slaves he depicts in his novel: Les lvres
pinces, il tudiait ses chanes avec dgot. . . . Il se souvint des esclaves
de son livre. Pourquoi lai-je crit, ne suis-je pas pareil eux? (1973:42).
Diaw Falla is spared the guillotine, and is instead condemned to a
life of forced labor in prison; however, the sentence represents for him a
fate worse than death, for death at least promises release from suffering,
and incarceration will exacerbate his bitterness and despair. He reflects:
la prison tue tout. Cest quelque chose dinfme, dimmonde avec son
insalubrit, son venin qui fltrit tout, son fiel amer. Elle est une sangsue de
lme, elle ne rprime ni ne combat les dlits, elle les aiguise, les dveloppe,
et pour le reste de votre vie vous tes stigmatis (1973:213).
Both Camus and Sembne allow their protagonists, after hearing their
verdicts, to reflect on their fates, on questions such as justice and divine
salvation. Sentenced to death, Meursault, an atheist, refuses to see the
chaplain. He realizes how the legal system functions and refers to it three
times as machinery (mcanique, mcanisme). The cogs of the machine
of justice are set in motion the moment he commits his crime, and he must
pay with his life in spite of any mitigating circumstances, because the legal
machinery demands it. Meursault concludes that the legal system is fallible because it is a human institution, that the manner in which it reaches
verdicts in such serious cases is arbitrary and capricious, and that it thus
lacks the moral authority to sanction capital punishment:

africa TODAY

Le conflit qui sparait Blancs et Noirs ne semblait plus exister. Il ny avait plus de diffrence de langue, de croyance ou de
peau. Tous avaient peur, peur de mourir. Dans cette crainte
un fluide invisible les liait. Ils ntaient plus des antagonistes,
seul louragan dominait. . . . Ainsi prirent des hommes qui
se croyaient civiliss, entranant avec eux ceux qui ntaient
pas encore ce stade. Telle est laventure de ce dernier ngrier.
Le Sirius port perdu corps et biens Nantes: le 4 dcembre
1824. (Sembne 1973:6263)

Meursaults reflection on capital punishment presents Camuss ideas on the

subject, and Meursaults role as protagonist illustrates Camuss stance on
an aspect of the legal system that he believed to be morally wrong. As Tony
Judt rightly concludes, Camus was primarily a moraliste, in a tradition of
French moralist writers, such as Chamfort and La Rochefoucauld. The term
moraliste in the French sense is not pejorative, as it may be in the sense of
the English moralizing:

africa TODAY
90
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

A moralist in France has typically been a man whose distance

from the world of influence or power allows him to reflect
disinterestedly upon the human condition, its ironies and
truths, in such a way as to confer upon him (usually posthumously) a very special authority of the sort commonly
reserved in religious communities for outstanding men of
the cloth. . . . A moralist in France was someone who told the
truth. (Judt 1988:121122)

The truth, Camus believed, was that capital punishment was unethical,
and as a moralist he believed this to be a universal truth. Because of his
belief in the absurdity of existence and the fallibility of human beings and
institutions, he felt that capital punishment could not be justified, because
it assumes that the juridical system that renders it is perfect. In an absurd
world, where only an approximation of justice is possible, the death penalty
is indefensible.
Robert Brock and other scholars have commented on Camuss choice
of an Arab as the murder victim, positing that he is a mere prop, whose
function is to get Meursault to trial so that Camus can develop his ideas on
capital punishment. Brock concludes that Ltranger can be read as a conte
philosophique in the vein of Voltaire, and that the victim is an Arab so that
French readers would not care so much about his murder and would focus
on Meursaults plight. As Brock explains,
The question that should [be] asked is why Meursault did not
kill a European. The answer is, because the European would
have to be a real person and the Arab would not. . . . Arabs
had no real rights, and often no real identity, in the Algeria
of Camus youth. . . . If this reason bothers you, or seems
specious, answer the following questions. Why does the Arab
have no name? Why does he not have a face or age or profession? Why has he no family, no friends? Who speaks for him at
the trial? He simply does not exist[,] other than as a means to
get Meursault condemned to the guillotine. (Brock 1993:98)

To be sure, such readings as Brocks open Camus to charges of racism, and

Camuss lack of characterization of the Arab in Ltranger would seem to
validate such claims. Indeed, Europeans to whom the novel was destined

It was above all as a moralist that Camus exited the intellectual lists over Algeria. Where no one was wholly in the
right and where writers and philosophers were invited to
lend their support to partisan political positions, silence, in
Camuss view, represented an extension of his earlier promise
to himself to speak out for the truth, however unpopular. In
the Algerian case there was no longer any truth, just feelings.
From this perspective[,] Camuss deep personal involvement
in Algeria contributed to his pain and shaped his decision to
refuse to lend his support to either party. (Judt 1988:120)

Jean-Paul Sartre, whose political differences with Camus have been documented extensively, considered Camuss silence regarding the Algerian

PATRICK DAY

Camus had been critical of the French stance in North Africa in particular, and of colonialism in general, since the 1930s, when he wrote for
the newspaper Alger Rpublicainlong before his French contemporaries
became involved. His silence, as painful as it may have been to maintain in
the face of criticism, was the only response to a dilemma in which neither
side was morally right:

91

Camus was an unpolitical man. Not that he was unconcerned

with public affairs, or uncaring about political choices. But
he was by instinct and temperament an unaffiliated person[,]
. . . and the charms of engagement, which exercised so strong
a fascination for his French contemporaries, held little appeal
for him. . . . This was something that was held against him by
many; not only because of his refusal to take a stance in the
Algerian imbroglio but also, and perhaps especially, because
his writings as a whole seemed to run against the grain of
public passions. [Camus transposed] political choices and
outcomes into a resolutely moral and individual keywhich
was precisely the reverse of contemporary practice, in which
all personal and ethical dilemmas were typically reduced to
political or ideological options. (1988:104105)

africa TODAY

would have given little consideration to the victim, and would have likely
commiserated with Meursault. I disagree, however, with the notion that
Camuss intention was representative of what Alec Hargreaves claims to be
the dream of the pied noir[,] . . . to rid himself of Arabs (1992:101). Camus,
though not so vocal as his contemporaries might have wished during the
French-Algerian conflict, could not pledge full allegiance to any government whose precepts he believed to be unethical. In his opinion, Algeria
was neither entirely French nor entirely Arab, and neither people had the
right to claim it as their ownand certainly not by violent means. For him,
morality superseded politics: As Judt states,

question to be trop prudent, yet eventually seemed to recognize Camuss

most important contribution to French literature and thought: his moralism
and humanism. In an obituary of Camus, published in France-Observateur,
Sartre said:

africa TODAY
92

Il reprsentait en ce sicle, et contre lhistoire, lhritier

actuel de cette longue ligne de moralistes dont les uvres
constituent peut-tre ce quil y a de plus original dans les
lettres franaises. Son humanisme ttu, troit et pur, austre et sensuel, livrait un combat douteux contre les vnements massifs et difformes de ce temps. Mais, inversement,
par lopinitr de ses refus, il raffirmait, au cur de notre
poque, contre les machiavliens, contre le veau dor du
ralisme, lexistence du fait moral. (Sartre 1964:127)

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Camus does not attempt to exonerate his protagonist; however, he

believes the punishment for Meursaults crime to be unethicaland to put
the matter plainly, in Camuss opinion, two wrongs do not make a right.
Camus applied this principle to the trial of journalist-intellectual Robert
Brasillach for treason in 1945. Camus abhorred the antisemitism and proVichy stance expressed in Brasillachs wartime writings, and yetwith
Paul Valry, Georges Duhamel, Paul Claudel, and otherssigned a petition
for clemency from the French government, which was seeking the death
penalty for Brasillach.
Upon learning that his execution is at hand, Meursault recalls a story
his mother had told himthat his father had once attended an execution,
and had been revolted by it.5 Meursault recalls his boyhood disgust for
his fathers weakness, but in retrospect, he understands the reason for his
fathers reaction: that nothing is graver than an execution:
[Il] tait all voir excuter un assassin. Il tait malade lide
dy aller. Il lavait fait cependant et au retour il avait vomi
une partie de la matine. Mon pre me dgotait un peu
alors. Maintenant je comprenais, ctait si naturel. Comment navais-je pas vu que rien ntait plus important quune
excution capitale et que, en somme, ctait la seule chose
vraiment intressante pour un homme! Si jamais je sortais
de cette prison, jirais voir toutes les excutions capitales.
([1942] 1957:1203)

Capital punishment is the most consequential act perpetrated by humankind in the name of justice, and if a society advocates it as part of its legal
system, it must be accorded proper attention and acknowledged for its gravity, believes Meursault; without witnesses, capital punishment cannot serve
as a deterrent to crime, as its proponents argue. This stance is in keeping
with Camuss general moral stance: The centerpiece of Albert Camuss

93
PATRICK DAY

[J]e ne suis ni un athe ni un impie. Dieu mest tmoin. Mais

lui, ce prtre, que ma-t-il dit de senti, dattendri, de vibrant?
Il na rien arrach mon cur, mme pas un pincement. . . .
Jattendais de lui des paroles qui sauraient me faire pleurer. Il
ne ma gratifi que de citations en latin. Est-ce quun Ngre
a besoin de cette langue? Faut-il comprendre que le ToutPuissant ne parle quun seul idiome? (Sembne 1973:211)

africa TODAY

political thought has always been an inquiry into the moral consequences
of human action in a world of absurd, and common, pathos (Eubanks and
Petrakis 1999:293). Ltranger is just such a moral inquiry. Camuss characterization of the Arab, or lack thereof, is a commentary on colonialism
itself, which debases and denies the rights of the colonized; to blame Camus
for prevailing colonialist notions is unfair. Both the Arab and Meursault
are trangers to each other and eventually to themselves, alienated by the
majority for their differences. The formers death is not important enough
to be considered during the trial, and the latter is too different from the rest
of society to be allowed to continue living.
Just as it is essential that the murder victim be an Arab in Camuss
novel, it is equally important that the victim be a white Frenchwoman in
Sembnes. Camus intended his readers to concentrate on the issue of a
fallible legal system and the inhumanity of capital punishment. To those
ends, he created a faceless, nameless murder victim so that attention would
be focused on Meursault and his execution. Conversely, the purpose of
Sembnes novel is to highlight racism and prejudice against black Africans,
racism that had existed in France since the time of slavery, and so his characterization focuses on a black man adjudged a predator in white society.
Le Docker Noir, like Ltranger, can be read as a conte philosophique,
a rather obvious discourse on racism and social injustice, for Diaw will
suffer the same fate as myriad other Africans before him: he will be a slave.
In fact, his life in prison will not differ appreciably from his so-called freedom in France: he will labor endlessly, as he did on the docks of Marseille,
with no hope of the advancement afforded to white citizensprogress that
he had attempted to achieve through his activities as a union organizer
and writer.
Like Meursault, Diaw rejects spiritual salvation, but for different
reasons. For Diaw, the refusal is rooted not in atheism, but in the feeling
that God has abandoned him to human injustice. Diaw reflects, [J]e navais
rien faire avec Dieu. . . . Est-ce lui qui me garde en ce lieu? Pourquoi fautil sadresser lui quand ce sont les hommes qui vous font mal? (Sembne
1973:211). Sembne asserts that the Christian religion, although brought to
Africans by well-meaning European missionaries, has always been a religion of, and for, whites. This chaplains inability to commiserate with Diaw,
his absence of emotion, and his quoting of the liturgy in Latin, show how
Christianity is detached from the plight of the oppressed. Diaw expresses
his irritation at the chaplains presence, saying,

africa TODAY

The idiom of Christianity is incomprehensible, not only because of its

presentation in Latin, but because its intent is different for Africans. Unlike
Meursault, Diaw considers himself a religious man, but he is alienated by
the language used by the priest and by Christianity in general, for they have
come to represent additional aspects of colonial oppression. Sembne, an
avowed Marxist, sees religion as an opiate, which numbs its followers into
an acceptance of their oppression. As Martin Bestman explains, Africans
initially embraced Christianity in the belief that they could derive from
it the strength that whites possessed; what they discovered, however, was
that it was yet another means of oppression exercised by European colonials, and that religious leaders in general were often complicit (sometimes
unwittingly) in the oppressive mission of colonial administrations:

94
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

[D]es Africains auraient embrass la religion chrtienne afin

dapprendre le secret de la force des Blancs, mais au lieu de
leur enseigner ce mystre quils recherchent, les missionnaires leur enseignent la consolation dans la religion. . . . Encore
faudrait-il dplorer le fait que malgr leur bonne volont, les
missionnaires nont aucunement su raliser un mtissage
spirituel harmonieux. Car, comment oprer un syncrtisme
enrichissant alors quon veut tout prix supprimer une religion, voire mme une civilisation pour en imposer une autre?
Sembne Ousmane qui remet constamment en cause les
activits des missionnaires ne passe pas sous le silence le rle
compromettant jou par lEglise sur le plan politique. Sur ce
point, les personnages musulmans comme les chrtiens sont
parfois aussi coupables de complicit avec des administrations
coloniales. (Bestman 1981:3738)

Both Camus and Sembne wrote to expose a legal system that unjustly
punishes the outsider, the other: in Ltranger, Meursault deviates from
societys norms and must be punished for it; in Le Docker Noir, Diaw Falla
is a man of color who presumes to achieve social and political equality
with whites, and for this reason, he too must be punished. In neither case is
justice served disinterestedly: Camus was writing from a moralist-humanist perspective, and his anti-capital-punishment message was meant to be
applied universally; Sembne was seeking more specific social and political reforms for Africans: for both writers, the French judicial system was
symptomatic of French society and its attitudes as a whole.

NOTES
1.

Camus was, with Andr Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pierre Naville, and other French intellectuals,
a sponsor of the ngritude journal Prsence Africaine, founded and directed by Senegalese
writer Alioune Diop in 1947. It is possible, though not documented, that Le Docker Noir was
influenced directly by Camuss Ltranger. As noted above, Le Docker Noir owes much to
Wright 1940; Wright was also a sponsor of Prsence Africaine and an influential figure in the
Fanon (1952) describes the racist mythe sexuel, which posits that all black men desire to
be white, and they thus seek out sexual relations with white women: recherche de la chair
blanche (1952:86). Sembnes reference is no doubt directly inspired by Fanons text. Interestingly, according to Fanon, the same obsession exists among black women, who wish to
procreate with white men to achieve a lactification whitening of their race. In both cases,

95

much damage is done to the black psyche through futile attempts to overcome an inferiority

africa TODAY

development of francophone African literature.

2.

complex created by whites.

Sembne was most likely influenced by theories developed by Diop (1955, 1967), theories
that had a profound influence on ngritude in general. Diop seeks to explode the racist myth
of white superiority, asserting that the inhabitants of ancient Egypt, the cradle of civilization,
were black (ngres) and that le premier Homo sapiens tait un ngrode (1967:15). It is
interesting that Sembne would have the character of the white prosecutor espouse these
theories.
4.

According to Riesz, Dernier voyage du ngrier Sirius reprsente vraiment, dans lconomie
du Docker noir, la rappropriation de leur propre Histoire par les Africains, et . . . le roman
illustre travers laction du Docker noir, le fait que lHistoire des Africains leur a t vole
et ne pourra pas tre reprise sans employer la force, voire la violence (il y va dun meurtre!)
(1995:184).

5.

This incident is autobiographical, and Camus recounts it in his essay Rflexions sur la
guillotine (1947). A version of it also appears in La Peste (1947). See references added for
these works.

REFERENCES
Bestman, Martin T. 1981. Sembne Ousmane et lEsthtique du Roman Ngro-Africain. Sherbrooke:
ditions Naaman.
Brock, Robert. 1993. Meursault the Straw Man. Studies in the Novel 25(1):92100.
Camus, Albert. [1942] 1957. Ltranger. Paris: ditions Gallimard.
. 1947a. 1957. Rflexions sur la guillotine. In Camus, Albert and Arthur Koestler. Rflexions sur
la peine capitale. Paris: Calmann-Lvy, 1957.
. 1947b. 1957 La Peste. Paris: ditions Gallimard.
Diop, Cheikh Anta. 1955. Nations Ngres et Culture. Paris: Prsence Africaine.
. 1967. Antriorit des Civilisations Ngres: Mythe ou Vrit Historique? Paris: Prsence Africaine.
Eubanks, Cecil L., and Peter A. Petrakis. 1999. Reconstructing the World: Albert Camus and the
Symbolization of Experience. Journal of Politics 61:294312.

PATRICK DAY

3.

Fanon, Frantz. 1952. Peau Noire Masques Blancs. Paris: ditions du Seuil.
. 1961. Les Damnes de la Terre. Paris: ditions du Seuil.
Feuser, Wilfried. 1986. Richard Wrights Native Son and Ousmane Sembnes Le Docker Noir.
Komparatistische Hefte 14:103116.
Hargreaves, Alec G. 1992. History and Ethnicity in the Reception of Ltranger. In Camuss Ltranger:
Fifty Years On, edited by Adele King. New York: St. Martins Press.
Judt, Tony. 1988. The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century.

africa TODAY

Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McKay, Claude. 1929. Banjo: A Story Without a Plot. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Murphy, David. 2000. La danse et la parole: lexil et lidentit chez les noirs de Marseille dans Banjo
de Claude McKay et Le Docker noir dOusmane Sembne. Canadian Review of Comparative
Literature 27(3):462479.
Riesz, Jnos. 1995. Le Dernier Voyage du Ngrier Sirius: Le Roman dans le Roman [Dans Le Docker Noir

96

(1956) dOusmane Sembne]. Sngal Forum: Littrature et Histoire: Werner Glinga in Memoriam (19451990), edited by Papa Samba Diop. Franfurt am Main: Iko-Verlag fr Interkulturelle

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Kommunikation.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1964. Situations, IV. Paris: ditions Gallimard.
Sembne, Ousmane. [1956] 1973. Le Docker Noir. Paris: ditions Prsence Africaine.
. 1981. Les Derniers de lEmpire. Paris: Lharmattan.
Wright, Richard. 1930. Native Son. New York: Picador.