Bâ, Mariama (–)
Senegalese novelist who won Africa's first Noma Award.Name variations: Ba or Baâ. Born to Muslim parents in Dakar, Senegal, in ; died after a long illness in Dakar in ; daughter of a civil servant; attended the École Normal for girls in Rufisque; married a Senegalese politician (divorced); children: nine.
After suffering the loss of her mother at an early age, Mariama Bâ grew up under the traditional tutelage of her well-to-do maternal grandparents. Her father, believing in the importance of a French education, then sent her off to the École Normal in Rufisque. There she was considered a brilliant student and began writing. Upon graduation, she worked as a secretary before becoming a grade-school teacher in Forced to resign after 12 years because of ill health, she joined various Senegalese women's organizations and wrote essays on such topics as polygamy and clitoridectomy. In , in her epistolary first novel Une Si longue lettre (So Long a Letter), Bâ wrote of her chosen profession: "Teachers—at kindergarten level, as at university level—form a noble army accomplishing daily feats, never praised, never decorated. An army forever on the move, forever
Ba, Mariama –
Senegalese novelist Mariama Bâ (–) was catapulted to international prominence with the publication of her first novel, Un si longue lettre, which appeared in when the author was 51 years old. At the time, the novel was a rarity in that it had been written by an African woman, and it was especially noteworthy because of Bâ's origins in the predominantly Islamic country of Senegal.
Viewed from a wider perspective, Bâ was a writer who made valuable explorations of the terrain where African traditional cultures met influences brought by European colonialism. As a so-called "postcolonial" writer with a feminist orientation, Bâ gained wide attention from Western critics and students of literature, and the influence of her work increased following her death. Bâ wrote only two novels, but they stand as vivid portraits of the difficult situations faced by women in African societies, and they remain relevant beyond a purely Senegalese context.
Descended from Civil Servants
Mariama Bâ was born in in Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, on Africa's Atlantic coast. Senegal at the time was a department of French West Africa; it had been under French control for several c
Biography of Mariama Bâ by Lauren Daugherty
Context
In the s, Senegal was a new, independent nation. It had previously been ruled in succession by the Portuguese, the Dutch and finally the French, becoming a part of French West Africa around half a century earlier. With independence, Senegal struggled to create its own cultural identity. In , the young nation wrote its first constitution, and three years later its only political party became the Senegalese Progressive Union. About a decade later, a three-party political system was introduced.
After being citizens of French West Africa for many years, many individuals had assimilated to aspects of French culture with its norms. As a result, the nation created a unique blend of Islamic religious beliefs and practices, African cultural norms and French influence, resulting in the Senegalese values that are still a hybrid of practices today. While different, all three cultures – African, French and Muslim – have traditionally viewed women as a subordinate sex whose primary responsibilities are domestic and who live in the shadows of their husbands. Mariama Bâ used her novels, influenced by her personal experience as a Muslim
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Mariama Bâ was a Senegalese francophone author, teacher, and feminist who was born in Dakar to a well-off Muslim family. A feminist, she began to criticize gender inequality in African society from a young age, while being raised in a very traditional household and having to fight to gain an education. As she grew older, she became involved in women's organizations and advocated for social change in Africa as well as women's education. She married but then divorced a member of the Senegalese parliament, caring for their nine children as a result. This tumultuous life and struggle with tradition are well represented in So Long A Letter (), her first novel, which won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Tragically, Bâ died a year later after suffering from illness, before her second novel, Scarlet Song, could be published.
Study Guides on Works by Mariama Bâ
Scarlet SongMariama Bâ
Scarlet Song is a novel by notable author Mariama Bâ published in (2 years after her death). The novel, about a couple with ethical and cultural differences, garnered international and critical attent
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