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Citoyen/Citoyenne
Lycée is the francophone word for secondary or high school. The lycée in the novel is an old European secondary school that is revived in the town following the country’s independence with a new curriculum dictated by the President’s government. Ferdinand attends the lycée and Father Huismans is its headmaster. The lycée’s Latin motto is “Semper Aliquid Novi,” meaning “out of Africa, always something new.”
Lycée Quotes in A Bend in the River
The A Bend in the River quotes below are all either spoken by Lycée or refer to Lycée. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
It was as a lycée boy that Ferdinand came to the shop. He wore the regulation white shirt and short white trousers. It was a simple but distinctive costume; and—though the short trousers were a little absurd on someone so big—the costume was important both to Ferdinand and to Zabeth. Zabeth lived a purely African life; for her only Africa was real. But for Ferdinand she wished something else. I saw no contradiction; it seemed to me natural that someone like Zabeth, living such a hard life, should want something better for her son. This better life lay outside the timeless ways of village and river. It lay in education and the acquiring of new skills; and for Zabeth, as for many Africans of her generation, education was something only foreigners could give.
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Ferdinand could only tell me that the world outside Africa was going down and Africa was rising. When I asked in what way the world outside was going down, he couldn’t say […] I found that the ideas of the school discussion had in his mind become jumbled and simplified. Ideas of the past were confused with ideas of the present. In his lycée blazer, Ferdinand saw himself as evolved and important, as in the colonial days. At the same time he saw himself as a new man of Africa, and important for that reason. Out of this staggering idea of his own importance, he had reduced Africa to himself; and the future of Africa was nothing more than the job he might do later on.
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Chapter 7
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Our ideas of men were simple; Africa was a place where we had to survive. But in the Domain it was different. There they could scoff at trade and gold, because in the magical atmosphere of the Domain, among the avenues and new houses, another Africa had been created. In the Domain Africans—the young men at the polytechnic—were romantic. They were not always present at the parties or gatherings; but the whole life of the Domain was built around them. In the town “African” could be a word of abuse or disregard; in the Domain it was a bigger word. An “African” there was a new man whom everybody was busy making, a man about to inherit—the important man that years before, at the lycée, Ferdinand had seen himself as.
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Lycée Term Timeline in A Bend in the River
The timeline below shows where the term Lycée appears in A Bend in the River. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...unknown reasons, sent him back to his mother. Zabeth intends to send Ferdinand to the lycée in town, recently cleaned up and reopened, but still rife with the detritus of fire...
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...and Salim grows frustrated. He is jealous of what Ferdinand gets to learn at the lycée, understanding his education as structured and not incidental and indulgent like Salim’s perusal of the...
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...outside of Africa in relation to it, filtered through the lessons and inclinations of the lycée, but in his education he is also elevated, and Ferdinand seems to have a new...
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...There is an influx of tall, regal warrior boys from the local villages to the lycée. Ferdinand begins trying on their imposing nature for himself, acting aloof toward Salim while simultaneously...
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Chapter 4
Salim goes to the lycée to look for the headmaster, Father Huismans, a Belgian priest, but finds he has gone...
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Chapter 5
...is talking and behaving more and more like the locals. Classes are suspended at the lycée and Ferdinand comes to stay with Salim and Metty until things calm down—Salim and Metty...
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...care. In fact, public opinion of him quickly sours, many of the boys in the lycée are embarrassed to have been associated with him, and Ferdinand speaks out against his colonial-European...
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