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Le Nègre du Gouverneur
(The Governor's Slave)
SERGE PATIENT
"He calculated the difficulty of your intent. A language seemed to him like a bull that is not easily tamed. The Spanish expression 'mastering a language' perfectly reflects the feeling of proud dominance that the French people translate in erotic terms. Don't they want to 'possess' their language?
D'Chimbo truly wanted to possess his master's language, as he has done to his wife."
"The dust that burns in your eyes cannot be swept away by rain or wind."
SERGE PATIENT
"It was there, on the other side of the ocean. A territory so distant that to reach Guyana, a long journey was necessary until the land appeared on the horizon line wrapped in the humid gray air of the dawn. But from the depths of the hold of the slave ship, he could not see her, he could only feel her through the strident flight of gulls in the livid sky."
SERGE PATIENT
"When they looked him straight in the eye and uttered the word "black" he had no doubt that "black" would henceforth be his first and last name. He felt threatened by a ritualistic death by which he would cease to be D'Chimbo and simply become a black man."
SERGE PATIENT
"The condition of a slave did not allow recognition of individuality except through the boss's hatred. All the words she said to offend him, hurt him deep down but also constituted a way in which she recognized the human condition."
SERGE PATIENT
"However, the master was happy, noting that acculturation is imposed even in the face of the rudest nature."
SERGE PATIENT
"He was acutely aware that his stubborn and restless ambition had dimmed the vigor of youth in him. Then, relaxed, irrationally he began to laugh like Virginie too.
But she was white and he was black. This realization was fulminating, stanching the source of his laughter."