After the group decides that Samba will attend the foreign school, the Most Royal Lady takes him away to her home for one week in order to pamper him; when Samba returns, the chief and Thierno treat him with severity to compensate for this luxury.

Believing that most of the village is now treating him differently, Samba takes refuge at the grave of a woman named Old Rella. As he speaks to Old Rella, he wonders whether memory can preserve life beyond death. Reflecting on both “the eternal mystery of death” as well as paradise (38), he falls asleep at the grave. He wakes first to the chief, who is concerned for him, and second to the sounds of the tom-tom drum, which heralds the Diallobé community to a convocation called by the Most Royal Lady. She addresses the community about the foreign school, announcing that while she hates the school, it is crucial for the Diallobé community to allow their children to attend even though it will undermine Diallobé traditions and estrange future generations from their past.