TY  - BOOK
AU  - Bâ,Mariama
TI  - So long a letter
SN  - 9781577668060
PY  - 2012///, c1981
CY  - Long Grove, IL
PB  - Waveland Press
KW  - Women
KW  - Senegal
KW  - Fiction
KW  - fast
N1  - Translation of: Une si longue lettre; Originally published in this translaton: London : Heinemann, 1981; "For further reference": p. vii-x
N2  - Written by award-winning African novelist Mariama Ba and translated from the original French, So Long a Letter has been recognized as one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences-some wistful, some bitter-recounted by recently widowed Senegalese school teacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye's emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined. Considered a classic of contemporary African women's literature, So Long a Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country
ER  -