Mariama Bâ was a writer, a feminist and an educator; in So Long A Letter she deals with the myriad tensions caused by lives caught in between modern/French values and those carried by the Senegalese Muslims. Bâ’s slim novel is a powerful testament to the inner strength of women in challenging situations which are inevitable when one world gives way to another. Bâ’s protagonist is Ramatoulaye, whom, along with her friend, Aissatou are amongst the early group of educated Senegalese women – considered oddities but also desired for those qualities. Both of them suffer the pain and betrayal of polygamy and both deal with it in different ways; this ultimately allows them to be independent women and observers of their own country and loved ones.

I found So Long a Letter to be a powerful and compelling read, particularly because the writer is not condemning her culture so much as critically examining power and the age-old problem of how the colonial parceling of Africa into different nations led to various problems which exist up till today, particularly in the oft-overlooked problems which affect women. It also provides, from a historical and cultural perspective, a good glimpse at the hybrid world which evolved after Senegal gained independence, from the music to the clothing and the nightlife. These are the things which interest me the most about reading African fiction.

So Long a Letter is a complex novel despite its slender size and I’d recommend it to anyone interested in African literature; particularly feminist African literature. Bâ explores not just the problem of polygamy and what it does to the protagonist and her children but also how positive outcomes can still be achieved with non-conformist thinking. One of the things I liked best about Ramatoulaye was her strength in making decisions that could not have been easy, and doing it without being overly emotional. Some of my favourite passages were about her going to the cinema on her own or being matter-of-fact in the way she handled the possible scandal caused by her daughter’s indiscretion.

The hopeful ending of Bâ’s story is telling; in it she speaks not just of her hope for her protagonist, but of her hope for the future of her country and her people. As such, while So Long a Letter is a powerful novel, it is not accurate (as some reviews like to refer to it) to refer to it as merely being a condemnation or an indictment. One of the reasons why it is powerful is because it carries a strong message of hope and empowerment despite the odds caused by the confines of one culture which overlaps into another.

Note: Reviewed as part of the Africa Reading Challenge. My list of books to be read for this challenge is here.