God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene centers on working-class people in West Africa and the railroad workers' strike of 1947–1948. Workers wanted better pay, union recognition, pensions, and family time, and when they didn't receive it from the owners, they walked off the job. This, of course, caused serious conflict that often led to violence, and the leader of the strike, Bakayoko, disappeared without a trace before the novel even begins. The local workers must carry on without him, and they do.

The novel wrestles with people's decisions whether or not to join the strike (for it involves serious risk for themselves and their families). They also have to determine how to cope with strike-breakers and with the threats and oppression of the authorities.

The novel also offers detailed, vivid descriptions of the environments in which the workers live. One working-class town, for instance, contains a jumble of “rickety shacks, some upturned tombs, walls of bamboo or millet stalks, iron barbs, and rotting fences.” Yet towns like this are at the heart of the workers' resistance to owners' oppression. The residents are tired of living in such a fashion; they are striving for something better.

The book's characters represent various sides of the conflict. Beaugosse, for instance, is condescending toward the common workers. He loves his comfort. The Islamic leaders side with the French colonists. Yet the working-class women join their men in rising up in protest, actually organizing and carrying out a march to cry out for better conditions and fairer treatment.

There is certainly Marxist ideology behind the story of this novel, for the working-class people and their common efforts are at the center of the tale. The class struggle of the labor movement and its dedication to revolution and the redistribution of wealth and power are all Marxist in nature.