Novel · A way to begin
So Long a Letter
Une si longue lettre
Mariama Bâ · 1979
Synopsis
Ramatoulaye, a schoolteacher in Dakar, has just lost her husband, Modou Fall, who had abandoned her to marry Binetou in secret, a classmate of their daughter Daba. During the seclusion of mourning, she writes to her childhood friend Aïssatou, who left for the United States after divorcing rather than staying in a household that had become polygamous. She recounts their youth and their marriages, then the suitors who come forward as soon as the mourning is over, starting with the deceased's brother, Tamsir, and Daouda Dieng, whom she was once intended for.
Context
The book takes the form of a widow's letter to her friend, written during the seclusion that follows mourning. It discusses polygamy, caste and inheritance, and lets two responses be heard, that of the friend who leaves and that of the widow who stays. It appeared in Dakar in 1979, received the following year the first Noma Prize, awarded at the Frankfurt book fair, and was in English by 1981. A second novel appeared a few months after the author's death; Angèle Diabang brought the first to the screen in 2025.
Who it is for
Short, epistolary, easy and quick to read. There is nothing to know before opening the book.
Prizes and reception
First Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, in 1980; translated into some twenty languages and included in school curricula in Senegal.
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