Xala by Ousmane Sembane

About Ousmane Sembane

Xala by Ousmane Sembane

A newly polygamous Senegalese businessman is struck impotent on his wedding night and spirals trying to reverse the curse. El Hadji, a wealthy Dakar businessman embracing the trappings of the new African elite, takes a third wife — only to find himself cursed with “xala” (impotence) on the wedding night. His increasingly desperate, costly attempts to find a cure expose the hypocrisy and corruption of Senegal's post-independence business class, making the novel as much a biting class satire as a domestic story. Sembène later adapted it into an acclaimed film of the same name.