Ramatoulaye pours out her frustration that in Senegal the social system is in place that a girl can either get married out of school or be destined to work in a low paying job as midwife or elementary teacher. Unable to cope with her depressed feelings, Ramatoulaye composes a long letter to her dear friend Aissatou, who broke through Senegal's glass ceiling, and is now an ambassador in America. At Modou's funeral, both women are given equal treatment even though he had been married to Ramatoulaye much longer, and in the eyes of her community, she should be receive the majority of compensation. Even though she should be afforded the rights of a head wife, Ramatoulaye does not receive anything from her husband, who is supposedly in love with a new wife young enough to be his daughter. Rather than divorcing Ramatoulaye, she becomes a co-wife, which is legal in Muslim Africa. Prior to his death, he abandoned her for a woman half of her age despite having twelve children with her. Ramatoulaye is in the mourning period for her husband Modou. So Long A Letter is an autobiographical novella, in which Ba professes her desire to see equality amongst all people come to her country. Ahead of her time, Ba fought for equal rights for men and women both inside of and outside of the home. She attended school and achieved a profession at a time when women in her country had few choices outside of marriage. I am part of the goodreads group by the same name, and I have made it a long term goal to read as many of the choices as possible. So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba is an entry in the book 500 Great Books by Women by Erica Baumeister. This short book was awarded the first Noma Prize for Publishing in Africa in 1980.īâ died a year later after a protracted illness, before her second novel, Scarlet Song, which describes the hardships a woman faces when her husband abandons her for a younger woman he knew at youth, was published. Abiola Irele called it "the most deeply felt presentation of the female condition in African fiction". In it she depicts the sorrow and resignation of a woman who must share the mourning for her late husband with his second, younger wife. Her frustration with the fate of African women-as well as her ultimate acceptance of it-is expressed in her first novel, So Long a Letter. Bâ later married a Senegalese member of Parliament, Obèye Diop, but divorced him and was left to care for their nine children.
Raised by her traditional grandparents, she had to struggle even to gain an education, because they did not believe that girls should be taught.
Born in Dakar, she was raised a Muslim, but at an early age came to criticise what she perceived as inequalities between the sexes resulting from traditions.
Mariama Bâ (1929 – 1981) was a Senegalese author and feminist, who wrote in French.
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