ABSTRACT
A crucial part of the political and cultural formations that pass under the shorthand of modernity is secularism. Each novel recounts a transition from a pre-modern understanding of religion and the world to one defined by secular modernity. Cheikh Hamidou Kane takes a more focused approach, detailing the internal shifts in understanding the world as Samba Diallo, the protagonist and son of the chief of the Diallobe, begins to transition into secular modernity. Despite the fact that secularism is differently inflected in different contexts, these elements are clearly visible in the rural villages of Egypt and suggest that the villages are remnants of a pre-modern world where some of the old attitudes are not beyond recovery. In Samba there is no simple shift into secular modernity. In this regard, the final comment of Samba's father to the principal is vital.
