Super Short Summary

In Xala by Ousmane Sembène, El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye, a wealthy Senegalese businessman, faces impotence on the night of his wedding to his third wife, N'Gone, due to a xala (curse). His desperate attempts to cure this condition lead him to neglect his business, resulting in financial ruin and the loss of his social standing. His plight culminates in a public and humiliating confrontation with a group of beggars he wronged, exposing the corruption and failures of the postcolonial elite.