So Long A Letter - Mariama Bâ (Senegal)

Mariama Bâ is credited as one of the pioneers of Senegalese literature.

Born in Dakar in 1929, she lost her mother soon after, and was raised by her maternal grandmother, who was of Muslim confession and strongly attached to traditional culture. Through the insistence of her father, an open-minded politician, the young Mariama attended French school, obtained her school-leaving certificate, and won admission to the École Normale for girls in Rufisque, from where she graduated as a schoolteacher in 1947.

From a Muslim Lebou family from Dakar, she also threw herself into the women’s movement to fight for greater recognition of women’s issues. Throughout her life, she tried to reconcile her grounding in her culture, her Muslim faith, and her openness to other cultural horizons. As such, rootedness and openness constituted the two sometimes conflicting poles along her exacting journey. Towards the end of her life, her literary genius achieved full expression in So long a letter, a novel which directly confronted polygamy and the caste-system in Senegal – a predominantly Muslim country, firmly attached to its traditions, yet traversed by profound transformations, and confronted by the challenge of new models of society.

Her first published book Une si longue lettre (1979) (So Long a Letter), was awarded the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1980. She later went on to write Scarlet Song and  "La fonction politique des littératures Africaines écrites" (The Political Function of African Written Literature) in 1981. She sadly passed away shortly after at the tender age of 52.

Source: Unesco, Women in African History / Wikipedia, Mariama Bâ

 

This short novel is written as a really long letter written by the protagonist Ramatoulaye to her childhood friend Aissatou, now living in the USA.

Across the pages however we get to discover the lives of more women with different ages, tribes, social footing and education. We get to see each of them respond to the challenges that came with living through Senegal’s independence years when, like many other African nations, it still struggled to reconcile a women’s place in this new “liberated” society.

Young Ramatoulaye and Aissatou were both educated and working “city jobs” at a time when this was still reserved to men. They truly embodied the exciting agency and autonomy that traditional feminism had promised many young girls across the world. “Study hard and you will be able to make your own decisions, be a valued contributing member of society and be the pride and envy of everyone”. 

Yet overtime, we realise through individual choices and personal circumstances that our two friends find themselves marred in “situations” that degrees, money or social class couldn’t spare them from like polygamy, tribalism, patriarchal cultural expectations, traditional gender roles, depression, divorce, widowhood and much more.

In brief, the letter beautifully describes how Ramatalouye, inspite of her best efforts, finds herself struggling like many Senegalese woman before them with the reality of the prevailing and systemic patriarchy within her society. She finds her peace eventually, by reconciling herself to the fact that sometimes the best decisions for her will not be agreeable with her religion, education, society and even children.

I initially picked this up as “an essential read” recommendation on Goodreads for anyone wanting to read more African Contemporary Literature.

Given the length of this book (95 pages short) I was hesitant at first, questioning how it could be ranked so high in the award and recommendation ranks.

Needless to say, I now understand why! I would be lying if I said I didn’t cry one some occasions (or need to walk away and breath a little) when reading this long letter.

Although published in the 1970’s, the author (and her translator) beautifully described the shared and lived experience of many “modern” African women up until now (some 50 years later).

Ramatoulaye’s open letter describing her feelings of despair, heartbreak, disappointment and loneliness to her only true friend now far away in America often felt too real, and even personal. The weight of expectations placed on her inspite of her widowhood, marital issues, financial distress and much more was simply too much to bare. 

This book is a beautiful recount on just how drastic a role culture, religion, family expectations, social economic status, etc. still play on the african woman’s overall life. And just why it’s so important we all work towards her empowerment. 

If you want an easy but educating read, this is the one. Five stars!

xx 

Jolly