So Long a Letter

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Mariama B's pioneering debut, So Long a Letter is an epistolary novel that captures the private lives of women in 1970s Senegal. Winner of the 1980 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa at the Frankfurt Book Fair and recognised as one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair. 'To think that I gave him 30 years of my life, to think that 12 times over I carried his child. The addition of a rival to my life was not enough for him. In loving someone else, he burned his past, both morally and materially. Recently widowed, Ramatoulaye is required to take sole responsibility for the long mourning process of her late husband. A husband she has not seen in over four years not after he married his second wife. In a letter to her friend, Ramatoulaye recalls both of their experiences as students impatient to change the world, as wives suffering in the private sphere of marriage, and as mothers witnessing the dangers of Westernisation. Undaunted by topics of polygamy, social castes, and religion, So Long a Letter is a novel rich with poetic prose and profound wisdom. 'Mariama B is in a class of her own, conveying with real power and poetry a subtle, changing world of female experience.' Guardian 'The most deeply felt presentation of the female condition in African fiction.' Abiola Irele

Reviews

Mariama B is in a class of her own, conveying with real power and poetry a subtle, changing world of female experience * Guardian *
The most deeply felt presentation of the female condition in African fiction -- Abiola Irele
One could not wish for a more politically alert and more passionately involved account of what life is like for educated Muslim women * London Review of Books *

Author Bio

Mariama B was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1929. Brought up by her grandparents after the early death of her mother, B's father fought to continue her education past primary school. After winning the first prize in the entrance examination to train as a teacher at cole Normale, B taught in Dakar from 1947 until 1959 and later became an educational inspector. A vocal activist for women's rights and class equality in Africa, her literary work often criticised the lack of educational opportunities offered to women as well as challenging the systems of polygamy and castes in Senegalese society. Mariama B died in 1981. Translated from French by Modup Bod-Thomas.