Mariama BÂ An author from Senegal writing in French [Return to French — Page originale en français]

Mariama Bâ was born in 1929 in Senegal. She was brought up by her grandparents in a traditional Moslem environment. For a few years, her father was Minister for Health. She obtained her teaching diploma in 1947, taught for twelve years then, for health reasons, asked to take up an appointment at the Senegalese Regional Inspectorate of Teaching. A divorced mother of nine children, she was married to the Member of Parliament, Obèye Diop. In 1980 she obtained the Noma Prize for her first novel. She died the following year, just before the publication of her second book.

More information in : Mame Coumba Ndiaye, "Mariama Bâ ou les allées d'un destin", Dakar, Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Sénégal, 2007, 260p.

Publications

Une si longue lettre [So Long a Letter]. Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1979. (131 p.) ISBN: 2-7236-0430-6. Novel.

After the death of her husband, Ramatoulaye profits from the required traditional 40 days of mourning in order to take stock of her life and to reflect on the problems faced by her society: polygamy, castes, a woman's exploitation...

Un Chant écarlate [Scarlet Song]. Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1981) (251p.). Novel.

This novel traces the failure of a young Senegalese man and a young French woman whose marriage disintegrates and highlights the difficulties which interracial marriages often face: family opposition, husband's weakness of character, the cultural shock of the spouse who leaves her country...

Reviews

Jean-Marie Volet. "Mariama Bâ ou les allées d'un destin" by Mame Coumba Ndiaye. August 2009. Review.

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The University of Western Australia/French
Created: 25 December 1995
Modifed: 12 September 2009
Archived: 11 May 2013
https://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/BaMaraimaEng.html