"What is truly remarkable about this scene is the way in which it stages the education of Mrs. Ba. As her responses graduate from 'deux soldats' to 'cinq soldats' to 'neuf soldats,' we learn along with her that she can only travel in the world as an abject, victimized subject. We learn that in the case of her body in particular—a black, female, and African body—her victimization must be one of the body, it must be of a sexual nature, and it must be grotesque—neuf soldats, minimum. Now you’re getting the hang of it. Only a tale of the most grotesque violations might help her escape humiliating and unanswerable inquiries about the motivations or the circumstances that bring her to be an African woman seeking a point of exit from her 'place-in-the-world,' hoping for a green light from the capricious keepers of the gates to the first world." -- Abosede A. George, in Getting the Hang of It