Xala

The parents of El Hadji’s third wife host the wedding reception. Griots (West African musician-entertainers) welcome the guests, who help themselves to the ample refreshments. Royal and noble guests try to outdo each other with their offerings to the bride and groom. In the middle of the room are the husband’s gifts to his bride, which include lingerie, toiletries, shoes, wigs, scented soaps, and fine handkerchiefs. In the center of this bounty “was a red casket inside which lay the keys of a car” (4). The guests gather around the table and admire these objects, these confirmations of El Hadji’s love for his new bride. In addition to the car, El Hadji also promises his new wife, N’Gone, 2,500 gallons of the best petrol.

Yay Bineta, who serves as the reception’s mistress of ceremonies, ensures that the guests “kept their places according to their rank in this welter of individuals” (5). It is she who has given El Hadji N’Gone’s hand in marriage. N’Gone’s mother, Mam Fatou, was concerned about her daughter being an unwed mother, despite this now being fashionable. Old Babacar, N’Gone’s father, had agreed that she should be married off. After all, he was having difficulty with caring for his seven children on his modest quarterly pension. Thus, they sought Yay Bineta’s help in finding N’Gone a proper suitor, to counter what they regarded as poor, ill-bred, and unworthwhile candidates.

After several months, Yay Bineta got N’Gone into her best clothes and took the young woman to El Hadji’s shop, where he also had an office. Yay Bineta introduced N’Gone as her daughter. El Hadji was pleased with the young woman, whom he called “[a] pleasant harbour [sic] for the eyes” (6). Yay Bineta pretended that she was there to get N’Gone a job. El Hadji gave them 1,000 francs for a taxi and promised to look into the matter.

Soon thereafter, Yay Bineta and N’Gone paid El Hadji additional visits to his office. Yay Bineta sometimes baited him, claiming that his other wives made the decisions for him. The purpose of this was to convince El Hadji to visit N’Gone’s home. It worked. He went with them to meet N’Gone’s parents. After this visit, N’Gone began to visit El Hadji’s office on her own. She still used the excuse of looking for a job, but El Hadji developed a desire for her. He began taking her out to tea. Other times, they went to a restaurant or to cocktail parties hosted by the businessmen’s group.

One evening, El Hadji visited N’Gone’s home for dinner. This time, he was received like a prince. The family served him superb food, and N’Gone filled her small room with the smell of incense. Yay Bineta, meanwhile, expelled her goddaughter’s other suitors from N’Gone’s circle of friends. Finally, the family announced N’Gone’s engagement.

El Hadji had been baited into marriage before he realized what was happening. Yay Bineta confronted him, saying that the neighbors were gossiping about N’Gone. To maintain the girl’s honor, El Hadji had to marry her. He felt trapped, having never considered N’Gone for marriage. El Hadji deferred the matter by saying that he had to consult his other wives. This only led Yay Bineta to goad him further by questioning his manhood. She asked if he was not a Muslim and a Muslim’s son. She equated him to a white man for his need to consult with his other wives. Again, El Hadji surrendered. He decided that he would simply tell his other wives the news.

In the following weeks, Yay Bineta made wedding preparations. Mam Fatou, meanwhile, had some concerns. She disliked polygamy and wanted El Hadji to give up his other wives. This angered Yay Bineta, who reminded her sister-in-law of how well cared for El Hadji’s other wives were. If N’Gone married him, her future, too, would be assured, as would be those of her children.

At the wedding, griots chanted and the marriers, who numbered 10 or more, entered in ceremonial dress. Yay Bineta welcomed them, seated them, and offered them many refreshments. One of them praised the wedding, while the other noted how rare weddings were those days. The elder guests stood apart from the others, talking further about modern times. The young guests, all of whom were dressed in European clothing, stood apart, appearing anxious to leave.

After all the advice was doled out and all prayers were said, N’Gone, who wore a “white crepe de Chine wedding dress, with its crown and white veil” was handed “to her escort of young people” (10). Yay Bineta was overjoyed. Outside, over 15 cars were waiting. At the end of the convoy was the two-seater car in which the bride and groom rode off. The wedding guests clapped and wished them well. 

The villas that El Hadji purchased for his wives are named for each of them. Before the wedding, Adja Awa Astou reported to her daughter, Rama, that El Hadji wanted her and Oumi N’Doye, her co-wife, to attend the ceremony. Rama was incredulous that her mother was happy with this third marriage and had agreed to it. Adja responded to her daughter’s anger with calm, claiming that the young woman would one day understand her mother’s choice. Rama disagreed, saying that she would never participate in a polygamous marriage.

Mactar, her half-brother, was there. He admired Rama but avoided any participation in the conversation. As co-wife, Adja Awa Astou was, in a way, his mother, too. Adja knew that her daughter wanted her to divorce El Hadji, but Adja said that she had nowhere else to go and was unlikely to find another husband at her age.

Rama reminded her mother that the villa belonged to her. Adja Awa Astou agreed but said that El Hadji had also bought her the villa, meaning that she could not demand that he leave it. Rama derided N’Gone as nothing more than a whore. She was embarrassed that her father had married a girl her age. Adja chastised Rama for her talk and sympathized with N’Gone, saying that she was truly a victim.

The gong rang, signaling El Hadji’s arrival. He entered the sitting room where Adja, Rama, and Mactar sat. Mactar asked his father for money for school expenses. El Hadji obliged. Rama immediately voiced her opposition to the marriage, prompting her father to slap her. She fell to the floor from the force of his blow. When El Hadji went to hit his daughter again, Mactar interfered. El Hadji reminded his daughter that, while she may have been a revolutionary at school, she would never be one at his house. El Hadji then scolded Adja for not raising Rama properly. Adja and El Hadji then left to go to Oumi N’Doye’s house. As they watched El Hadji’s Mercedes drive away, Mactar noted that their father was becoming “more and more reactionary” (13).

The second wife’s villa is nearly identical to that of the first. On the front door is a plaque that reads “Villa Oumi N’Doye.” Modu drove up to the entrance and opened the door for El Hadji and his first wife, but Adja refused to get out. She felt anger weltering inside her. She implored Allah to help her. She insisted that she would wait in the car. Her husband left her there and entered the villa.

The living room in Oumi N’Doye’s home is filled with “expensive French furniture and artificial flowers” (14). His youngest daughter, Mariem, hugged him. She was 15. He noticed that she was wearing a mini-skirt. He wondered why she wasn’t at school. Mariem told him that she had permission to be absent due to the wedding. Some school friends would also accompany her. She then asked her father for money. El Hadji gave her a few bills and crossed the room to Oumi N’Doye’s bedroom.

Oumi N’Doye was securing her black wig onto her head. She asked who had accompanied El Hadji in the Mercedes. El Hadji said that Adja Awa Astou was with him. Oumi N’Doye wondered why Adja wouldn’t enter her house. She then accused the first wife of persuading El Hadji to marry a third out of jealousy because Oumi N’Doye was younger than she. She called Adja an “old piece of dried fish-skin” and said that Adja was merely waiting outside to anger her (15). El Hadji asked his second wife to stop talking like this. Oumi N’Doye insisted that she had no intention of starting a fight at his third wedding.

El Hadji changed the subject by asking for something to drink, but Oumi N’Doye said that there was no more mineral water in the house. El Hadji went to his car and asked Modu to get him some. Meanwhile, Mariem tried to persuade Adja to enter the house, to no avail. Mariem gave up and went back inside the villa, trailed by Modu who carried an ice hamper.

As Oumi N’Doye and El Hadji left the villa, Oumi N’Doye wondered who would sit beside El Hadji. He figured that he could sit with both of his wives in the backseat. After she was in the car, Oumi N’Doye politely asked about Adja’s children. Their conversation “was distant and full of courtesy” (16). They also complimented each other’s clothes. When Oumi N’Doye asked why Adja didn’t want to enter her house, Adja insisted that she was merely having an attack of dizziness.

El Hadji went with his first two wives to the villa of his third. N’Gone’s new home is in a newly constructed suburb, tailored to the well-to-do. El Hadji walked several paces ahead of his wives and into a courtyard in which wedding guests were in the midst of festivities. Yay Bineta greeted the first two wives and took them to a room where the most distinguished female guests were gathered. Yay Bineta noted that Adja and Oumi N’Doye would be good examples to the younger co-wives by showing how united they were. Oumi N’Doye agreed, noting that their children shared the same blood. She claimed that she followed Adja’s example and was neither jealous nor selfish.

Yay Bineta left the women in the room and went to the bridal chamber in search of El Hadji. When she found him, she told him that it was time for him to change into a caftan and sit on a mortar with an axe-handle placed between his feet. He was to remain there until N’Gone’s arrival was announced. El Hadji dismissed the instruction as hocus-pocus, saying that he’d never done anything of the sort after his first two weddings. Yay Bineta reminded him that he wasn’t European and told him to do as she said. She would return shortly to tell him when N’Gone was on the way. El Hadji again refused and left the room.

Meanwhile, Oumi N’Doye asked Adja Awa Astou what they were doing at N’Gone’s villa. Adja reminded her that they were awaiting the arrival of their new co-wife. Oumi N’Doye accusingly asked Adja if she had given her blessing for the marriage. Adja asked if Oumi N’Doye wanted to leave, and the latter agreed. Yay Bineta watched them from afar, certain that they were talking about her goddaughter. Referring to Oumi N’Doye’s accusation, Adja told her co-wife that Yay Bineta was her true rival. She reminded Oumi N’Doye that, during the first years of her marriage to El Hadji, she had hardly been aware of Adja’s existence. Altogether, they had only met seven times. Adja also reminded Oumi N’Doye that she had never visited the first co-wife, though Adja had been several times to meet Oumi N’Doye.

Yay Bineta interrupted the co-wives’ conversation, inviting them to have something to eat. Then, she hurried off to announce the bride’s arrival. The crowd became frenzied as they tried to get a look at N’Gone. The president of the businessmen’s group led El Hadji toward his new bride. El Hadji’s head was covered. Adja and Oumi N’Doye went to the top of the staircase.

El Hadji and N’Gone were on the dance floor, leading their guests in a series of dances that included the tango and “a rock-‘n’-roll number” that got the young people out onto the floor (20). Then, a dozen men entered carrying a spit-roasted lamb. Adja told Oumi N’Doye that she was going to leave.

Back at her villa, Adja felt sick. She felt the jealousy that she thought was long gone. She had hidden her unhappiness about El Hadji’s marriage from Oumi N’Doye. It was easier when El Hadji had married Oumi because the wedding was in the same year that Adja “had made the pilgrimage to Mecca” (20). Islam consumed her. Becoming an adja had made her want to be free of any ill will. She focused on making herself a proper Muslim wife. She prayed five times per day and was completely obedient toward her husband. Everyone who knew her regarded Adja as exemplary.

Adja Awa Astou wanted very much to see her father, Papa John, again. He was still living on Gorée. After she became a Muslim, she began to see her family less. Then, her mother died, resulting in a complete break with them. Papa John had been a third-generation African Catholic. During the colonial era, he had been a municipal council member for numerous years. Adja’s relationship with El Hadji had resulted in immediate conflict between them. He had already known about El Hadji’s trade-union activities and his anti-colonial speeches. He was averse to having El Hadji as a son-in-law. Adja, who was then Renée, had given no thought to the problems that their different religions might cause. She avoided her father’s questions about whether she would convert, or even if she had loved El Hadji. 

Rama’s entrance broke Adja Awa Astou’s daydreams about her courtship with El Hadji. Rama asked if there were many people at the wedding. Adja said that there were, due to all the money El Hadji had spent on festivities. Rama asked about Oumi N’Doye. Adja said that she had left her co-wife at the party. Rama assumed that Oumi N’Doye had been unpleasant, but Adja dispelled that notion. Watching her mother closely, Rama thought that she saw tears in her mother’s eyes.