At Night All Blood Is Black: A Novel

Content Warning: The source material contains graphic depictions of rape and violence, including murder and torture.

Alfa Ndiaye is the narrator and antihero of At Night All Blood Is Black. He is a Wolof-speaking Senegalese man serving France in World War I. After the death of his childhood friend, Mademba, Alfa begins ritualistically murdering and dismembering German soldiers, becoming an increasingly alienated and unreliable narrator. At first, his trench mates enjoy his exploits; however, as Alfa repeats this act of violence and preserves the severed hands in salt—representing the way he is stuck in his trauma—they come to fear him, believing he embodies the racist stereotypes of “savagery, of rape, of cannibalism” (20). Alienated by both these tropes and a language barrier, Alfa is expelled from the trench and sent to the Rear to recuperate. However, he continues to deteriorate here as Doctor François’s healing methods fail to address the “uglier” sides of Alfa’s psyche. After being rejected by the doctor for drawing his collection of severed hands, Alfa experiences a mental health crisis in which he believes he is simultaneously himself, Mademba, and a dëmm, a Senegalese demon. During this crisis, he rapes and murders a white nurse and believes he is “double” (117), carrying with him his memories of his friend’s death and his uncompleted life.