Novel
Maïmouna
Not translated into English
Abdoulaye Sadji · 1953
Synopsis
Louga, a bush town. Yaye Daro, a widow and trader, raises her younger daughter Maïmouna alone, pretty, dreamy and impatient for the city. The letters from her elder sister Rihanna, married in Dakar to a man of standing, turn her still more towards the capital, and her mother gives way. There, she is crowned Star of Dakar; her sister, who wants a rich husband for her, betroths her to Galaye. But the housekeeper, Yacine, jealous, pushes the girl towards Doudou Diouf, a young man she met on leaving a film screening.
Context
The book is built in two parts, the bush and then the city: two worlds and two moralities, peaceful Louga and Dakar, which seduces before it wounds. It first appeared in Dakar, from Lectures faciles, under the full title Maïmouna, petite fille noire; the date varies according to the catalogues, 1953 most often, 1952 at the BnF, which describes three instalments. Présence africaine reissued it in 1958, and it is this edition that the reissues follow. Together with the novel about the mixed-race woman published the following year, it is the most studied work of its author.
Who it is for
About two hundred and fifty pages, in two parts and twenty-four chapters, in limpid French. The lesson is explicit and the division between the two worlds remains without nuance.
Prizes and reception
Le Soleil ranks it among its author's two major works; it has prompted critical essays and numerous school studies.
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