At Night All Blood Is Black: A Novel

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

After Alfa returns with a seventh severed hand, Captain Armand orders him, through a terrified older Black translator, the “Croix de Guerre Chocolat” Ibrahima Seck, to spend a month resting in the Rear (43). Alfa is aware that Seck’s fear stems from the idea that he is a dëmm who will resent being sent away from his hunting grounds. The captain and Seck attempt to learn where Alfa has hidden the severed hands, but he refuses to tell them.

Alfa explains that he preserved his second through eighth severed hands by salting and drying them in the kitchen fire. His first severed hand was stolen by his friend Jean-Baptiste, the “trickster, the joker” while he was returning with the second (46). Jean-Baptiste is introduced as Alfa’s “only real white friend” and the only person who consoled him after Mademba’s death (48). After stealing the hand, Jean-Baptiste plays with it, saluting the other soldiers with it, using it to shake their hands, and telling them they will all be court-martialed for shaking hands with the enemy.