Chapter 7 Summary

Laye is now a teenager and must prepare for his culture's important rite of passage: circumcision. Along with other twelve, thirteen and fourteen year olds, Laye begins the ritual one evening before the feast of Ramadan. As soon as the sun sets, the tom-tom begins to beat and the crowd of villagers follows the tom-tom player from hut to hut as he gathers the boys to take them away. The tom-tom strikes fear into Laye's heart because he has heard the tales of Konden Diara.

Konden Diara is a terrible bogeyman, a lion that eats little boys. Laye isn't sure if Konden Diara is a man or an animal or maybe half-man, half-animal, but he is certainly afraid of it. Laye's father asks if he is afraid and then tells him he must not be afraid, reminding his son that he, too, went...