Xala

The xala had, over several weeks, become a topic of general conversation. El Hadji had consulted numerous facc-katt healers who had given him various ointments, liquids to drink, and charms. He was also pressed to slit the throat of a red rooster. All of the healers knew from El Hadji’s car and European-style of dress that they could charge him high fees. They all also gave him detailed explanations about his condition. Some of them, predictably, blamed El Hadji’s other wives. Convinced most by the latter theory, El Hadji began to believe that Oumi N’Doye was the culprit. Another healer offered the theory that one of El Hadji’s business associates was to blame.

More weeks passed. El Hadji went to work but could not focus on it. He no longer lustily eyed his secretary, Madame Diouf, whose rounded figure “was a great source of jokes and laughter among his friends” (38). Instead, he suffered. He felt inferior to his peers. He imagined that they quietly derided him and talked badly about him. He felt unable to communicate with anyone in his life.

El Hadji wondered again if he had ever been in love with N’Gone. Perhaps he was simply an old man hungering for young flesh. Was he a sensualist? Was he just tired of his first two wives? He posed these questions to himself, but he never sought answers.

The president of the businessmen’s group was sympathetic to El Hadji’s concerns. He insisted that they would find a good marabout to cure the problem, even after they repeatedly failed to do so. Before his wedding, El Hadji had secured the agreement of his first two wives that he was to spend 30 nights with his new bride. Now that this time was officially over, he was required to pay his conjugal duties to all of them in their rightful order. As he returned to his moomé cycle, Yay Bineta gave El Hadji her blessing, thinking that it might help him figure out who had cursed him.

El Hadji first went to Adja. She talked to him only about life in the villa, never mentioning the xala. But, they never had sex. After Adja’s aye was over, El Hadji left for his six nights with his other wives.

Adja Awa Astou was lonely and had no friends. She thought of her father, whom she missed very much. She remembered how she used to go every Friday to her mother’s grave. The caretaker noticed her frequent visits and wondered about them. Then, Papa John, whom he knew well, arrived, and asked why “the everlasting flowers had been removed” (39). The caretaker told him about the frequent visitor who wore all white. He said that she removed the flowers from the grave and put them behind a wall. Papa John knew immediately that the woman was his daughter. He returned to Gorée, though he wanted to speak to the daughter whom he still called Renée.

One Friday during Ramadan, the caretaker waited for Adja. As she was leaving, he asked about Papa John, whom he no longer saw visit the graveyard. His question made Adja nervous. She knew about her father’s frequent visits to the cemetery, but the caretaker had not seen him for several Sundays.

When she returned to her villa, Adja asked Rama to go see about her grandfather. Rama had been keeping her mother company to ease Adja’s loneliness. Rama said that she hardly saw her own father anymore. Also, everyone was talking about his xala. Adja wondered what to do. Rama remained quiet. Though she loathed polygamy, she also knew that her mother remained in the marriage for her and Rama’s siblings.  

Several days earlier, Rama had gone to the hospital to visit her fiancé, Pathé. Having finished his studies in psychiatry the year before, he was now a practicing psychiatrist. Before she arrived, El Hadji waited for the young man near the waiting room. He expressed a wish to see Pathé again soon, as he had noticed that Pathé visited Adja Awa Astou’s villa less often. Pathé insisted that he had simply been busy.

After he left, Pathé entered the registrar’s office, asking if El Hadji had donated money to the hospital. The registrar told Pathé that El Hadji had only come to ask a question about his third wife. Pathé wondered if the young woman was already pregnant. The registrar who, like everyone, knew about the xala, found this laughable. He said that El Hadji had come in search of “a pick-me-up” (41). Pathé believed that the impotence was caused by something psychological. The registrar reminded Pathé that they were in Africa, where people were more likely to believe irrational explanations for such problems.

Pathé left to meet Rama. They drove off on her motorbike. She loved to speed, which caused them to get stopped by a police officer. The officer spoke to Rama in French, asking for her driver’s license. She responded in Wolof, claiming that she didn’t understand. The officer then wondered how she had obtained a license without knowing French. The officer then recognized Pathé, who had once attended to the officer’s wife. Pathé did not remember the woman, but the officer thanked him profusely for his care. When the policeman asked who Rama was to him, Pathé introduced her as a sister whose mother he was going to examine. The officer said that he hoped that Rama’s husband would be able to correct her behavior. Pathé agreed. The officer told Rama in Wolof that, if it weren’t for Pathé, he would have revoked her driver’s license. He then told them they could go.

They drove on to the beach. Sitting down at a bar, Rama asked Pathé if they would one day marry. He said that they would. She reminded him that she was opposed to polygamy. She then asked if he knew about her father’s third marriage. Pathé said that he did but knew few details. Rama talked about the fortune that El Hadji spent, about “the car he bought his Dulcinea on condition she was a virgin” (44). This last point outraged Rama, who believed that N’Gone was no more virginal than she was. Pathé wondered what Adja Awa Astou thought about the situation. Rama said that her mother simply accepted the situation, and that she is also bearing the xala. Rama told Pathé, too, about the time her father had slapped her for questioning his morals. She said that, when they were married, she would do all she could to get Adja divorced and have her mother live with them.

Rama thought again later about her conversation with Pathé. She wondered if there was a medical solution to the xala. Later, she asked her mother if she had caused her father’s xala. Adja swore that she had not. Rama then asked her mother why she felt guilty. Adja said that the first wife was always blamed for such things. Rama told her that she should have spoken to El Hadji about the matter. Adja said that she could never, which prompted Rama to offer to speak to him herself. Adja was outraged by her daughter’s immodesty. She left the room, slamming the door behind her.

El Hadji continued to follow the instructions that the healers gave him. He also went back to the psychiatrist’s hospital and confessed his symptoms to the registrar. The latter took notes and asked El Hadji to return later.

El Hadji continued to avoid his business associates. He was too distracted to work, which resulted in his business falling apart. Still, he had to maintain his high standard of living and those of his wives and children. He started writing bad checks.

Old Babacar suggested a seet-katt—a seer—who lived just outside the city. El Hadji went with his father-in-law to visit the man. The seet-katt was known as “a hermit mystic” (47). He invited El Hadji and Babacar to sit on a goatskin. El Hadji, worried about his clothes, hesitated for a moment before lowering himself to the ground. Babacar sat comfortably cross-legged.

The seer “spread a piece of bright red cloth between them and took some cowrie shells from a small bag” (48). He uttered some incantations then tossed the shells. He then quickly collected them again. He looked carefully at El Hadji and Babacar. Suddenly, he thrust out his fist. When he opened his palm, he asked El Hadji to take the shells and breathe over them. El Hadji did as he was told. The seer took the shells back, closed his eyes, muttered to himself, then roared, flinging the shells back onto the red cloth. The seer counted the cowries and threw them down twice more. He smiled, saying that El Hadji’s particular xala was strange. Babacar asked who had caused it. The seer said that he couldn’t see the culprit, but that he could see El Hadji very clearly. El Hadji said that he wanted to be cured, but the seer said that his job was to see things, not to heal. So, El Hadji asked who had cursed him. The seer said only that it was someone close to El Hadji. The latter demanded to know who it was, telling the seer he would pay any price for a name. The seer asked if all he wanted was to know the name of the person who had rendered him impotent. El Hadji insisted that it was. All he wanted was to be cured. This statement annoyed the seer, who simply gathered up his things without speaking further and asked for 500 francs. El Hadji handed the man a 1,000-franc note and let him keep the entire sum.

El Hadji kept thinking about the seer’s clue that someone close to El Hadji had cursed him. He suddenly felt that he could trust no one. It was now time to see Oumi N’Doye. El Hadji knew that he would be unable to perform. He put off the visit for as long as he could, arriving late in the evening.

Undeterred and spirited with a sense of rivalry, Oumi N’Doye prepared an elaborate meal in French style. She had gotten the idea from a women’s magazine. During the dinner, she chatted away. She mentioned that, though N’Gone was younger, if one sat them alongside each other, they would seem like sisters. She teasingly scolded El Hadji for not calling her, saying that something could have gone wrong with one of the children and he wouldn’t have known. She, on the other hand, had no demands.

El Hadji rose from the table and went to sit in the armchair. Oumi N’Doye then asked why she didn’t have a car as his other wives did. El Hadji wasn’t listening. He was thinking only about his impotence. As Oumi N’Doye chattered on, he thought of Adja and felt gratitude for her habitual silence. Oumi N’Doye awoke him from his daydream by demanding an answer. El Hadji ignored her once again and asked her to pass his mineral water. Oumi N’Doye asked if she should run him a bath. El Hadji was surprised by her sudden deference, but she had read about this tactic, too, in one of her magazines. El Hadji agreed and took his bath.

Afterward, El Hadji climbed into bed with Oumi N’Doye. She ran her hand along his body and pressed her body against his. El Hadji felt as though he were being tortured. He perspired. He felt like he wanted to cry. Oumi N’Doye interpreted his behavior as disinterest and became enraged. They went to sleep, though El Hadji slept uneasily. When he awoke, he heard the beggar’s chant.

The next morning, El Hadji had breakfast with his second wife. El Hadji tried to explain what had happened the night before, blaming it all on being busy at work. To ease things between them, he gave her a wad of money. The gift did the trick and she softened toward him. El Hadji then told Oumi N’Doye that he wouldn’t return that afternoon because he and the president of the businessmen’s group were meeting with “some toubab businessmen” (53). This was a lie, but Oumi N’Doye agreed to it, on the account that he would return home early so that they could go to the cinema.

Modu, meanwhile, noticed that El Hadji seemed dispirited. After dropping his boss off, Modu went to the car-washer as usual. He sat on a stool and listened to the beggar chant.

Yay Bineta went to visit El Hadji with the old woman who had carried the rooster into his bridal chamber for the “cloth of virginity ceremony” (53). She asked if El Hadji was impotent with his other wives. He said that he was. Yay Bineta concluded that, if the other women weren’t complaining about the problem, then they had caused it. She said that they were dangerous to N’Gone. Quietly, the Badyen wondered if El Hadji was really father to his children. She then suggested that El Hadji go to see Babacar, who knew a good seer. El Hadji reported that he had already visited the seer. She encouraged him to do something quickly about the xala, as she and N’Gone were “looking forward to [their] moomé” (54). The two women then prepared to leave. El Hadji asked Modu to drive them home. Before they drove off, she got El Hadji to promise to see them that evening.

The Badyen revolted El Hadji. He was further annoyed by how his impotence had hurt his business. It had been weeks since he had replenished his grain stock. The import-export shop was really a large warehouse in the commercial district. He rented the store from “a Lebanese or a Syrian” (55). When business was good, the space was stuffed with bags of rice from Thailand (then, Siam), Cambodia, South Carolina, and Brazil. He also carried imported foods and domestic goods from England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, and Morocco.

It was lunchtime, but El Hadji had nowhere to be. He decided that he would spend the afternoon alone. He went to a restaurant where he usually took girls. The owner, a Frenchman, obsequiously welcomed him. He congratulated El Hadji on his marriage and offered an aperitif. After the meal and coffee, El Hadji felt like sleeping. He wondered where to go. Then, he decided to go to a hotel. Modu had left, so he took a taxi. The manager of this hotel, where El Hadji also sometimes took girls, was a Syrian who greeted his usual client warmly. The proprietor asked El Hadji what alias he wanted to use today. El Hadji said that he was alone for this visit. He went up to a room and fell fast asleep. When he awoke, it was 7:00pm. El Hadji exited the hotel and found Modu outside waiting for him. Modu wondered why his boss was asleep at a hotel when he paid for three villas. Of course, Modu knew about the xala. He also knew about a good marabout who lived near Modu’s village. The chauffeur thought of a way to broach the subject.

El Hadji had Modu drive him toward N’Gor. When they reached the top of the cliffs, El Hadji asked Modu to stop the car. He got out and looked at the glittering sea below. Dakar was in the distance. Modu suddenly worried that El Hadji might jump. El Hadji then turned away from the sea and back toward Modu. He asked the driver to take him to N’Gone. When he arrived at the villa, Yay Bineta introduced El Hadji to N’Gone’s two young siblings, who had come to live with her. The purpose was to relieve her parents of the additional expense of caring for the children.

El Hadji went into the bedroom. The white bed remained untouched. N’Gone sat there. She asked about his other wives and children. The conversation bored him, though El Hadji was no better with finding things to discuss. Yay Bineta entered with some lemonade. She said to no one in particular that El Hadji must have been thirsty after a day of work. She ordered N’Gone to serve her husband, saying to El Hadji that young women didn’t know their duties. After taking a sip, El Hadji announced that he had to leave. Yay Bineta reminded him that N’Gone needed lessons to learn to drive her car. She said that Modu could teach her and El Hadji agreed, but N’Gone said that she preferred a driving school. Yay Bineta yelled at her, telling her that she was to obey her husband. She then left the couple alone.

Alone in the bridal chamber, N’Gone talked for a while about different types of cars. Before, El Hadji had appreciated N’Gone’s childish manner, how she had made him feel youthful again. Now, she “seemed to be the embodiment of mental and physical torture” (59). She initiated a clumsy sexual encounter which went nowhere. N’Gone threw herself back and opened her legs, but El Hadji ignored her. He left her there in that position.