Mariama Ba
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In 1929 on the Cape Verde Peninsula in the capital city of Dakar, Senegal Mariama BĢ was born into a traditional but educated Muslim family. Prominent in French social circles, BĢ’s father was a career civil servant who became one of the first Senegalese Ministers of Health in 1956, while her grandfather was an interpreter for the French officials before Senegal gained independence in 1960. Her maternal grandparents, following the death of her mother, raised Mariama BĢ in a traditional Islamic way, which entailed learning the Quran from one of Dakars leading Islamic clerics.
During the colonial period, young women faced a number of obstacles, both cultural and religious, when deciding to pursue a formal education. BĢ’s grandparents did not plan to educate her beyond primary school, but her father’s insistence on giving her an opportunity to continue her studies eventually prevailed. BĢ’s father abandoned traditional African customs and insisted that BĢ receive the best education available in Senegal at the time.
BДў enrolled in a French-language teacher training school for girls, the Ecole Normale de Rufisque, based in Rufisque (a suburb of Dakar) to study with a woman named Berthe Maubert. Originally enrolled on a secretarial course, BĢ’s intellect and capacity were discovered early by the school’s principal, “…You are intelligent. You have gifts. Even if you do not want to go there, you will prepare the entrance examination at the Teacher training school of the young girls of Rufisque for the reputation of our School”. BДў then began to prepare for the entrance examination to a teaching career under the supervision of her school’s principal. BДў sat for the examination or вЂ?great examination’ as she called it, and obtained the highest scores of all candidates in the French occupied states of West Africa. While at Ecole Normale de Rufisque, BДў wrote a book about the colonial educational system in Senegal and published a widely discussed nationalist essay on the rejection of French policies in Africa.
At the same time, BДў engaged in work expected of a young Senegalese woman. “The fact that I went to school didnt dispense me from the domestic duties little girls had to do,” she told the Amina Newspaper in a 1979 Interview. “I had my turn at cooking and washing up. I learned to do my own laundry and to wield the pestle because, it was feared, you never know what the future might bring!” After receiving her teaching certificate in 1947, BДў started her working career as a teacher at the medical high school in Dakar before marrying Senegalese Member of Parliament Obeye Diop.
For BĢ the peace and tranquility associated with marriage proved difficult when she and Diop divorced leaving BĢ to care for their nine children. The stress of providing for such a large family plagued BĢ causing her to suffer from health problems. BĢ’s experiences provided her with substance for her two novels, which she wrote at the very end of her life. As her children grew, BĢ joined international womens organizations that were forming African chapters and the international feminist movement added another layer to her writers consciousness.
BĢ’s first novel, Une Si Longue Lettre (So Long a Letter), written in the form of a long letter, bridged the gap between African forms of spoken storytelling and the traditional structure of a novel. The central figure in the novel is Ramatoulaye, a woman whose husband, Modou Fall, has died of a heart attack. The story of Ramatoulaye resembles certain elements of Mariama (BĢ)’s years. Ramatoulaye reflects in her letter on her own life, that of the letter’s recipient, and those of other women in her circle.
Ramatoulaye emphasizes greatly her mission to