The concept of change and the young: A psycho-social reading of Sembene Ousmane’s Les Bouts De Bois De Dieu and Xala

Change is the only constant experience in all walks of life, literature inclusive. In the past decades, various critics have examined the selected novels of Sembène Ousmane from feminist and Marxist perspectives. However, this paper examines the selected texts from sociological perspective, with the aim of underlining some silent oversight of critics with respect to change. Pavlov's classical conditioning serves as a tool in the analyses of the selected texts. Change for positive socio-cultural, economic and political development is underlined as a quality more pronounced in the young and lacking in the older generation of characters. The attitude of the older generation in aiding obsolete traditions in opposition to the beliefs and reality facing the younger generation precisely in political representation and marital unions are examined through a close reading. The study concludes with a clarion call to African elites on the need to introduce the younger, smarter generation of youths in the helms of affairs to ensure sustainable development through the application of their technical know-how, modern ideologies and expertise if tangible socio-cultural, economic development must be realised where phallocentric ideas have failed since independence as well as foster general entente in the society.