So Long a Letter

by Mariama Bâ

Paperback, 2012

Status

Checked out

Publication

Waveland Press, Inc. (2012), Edition: 1, 96 pages

Description

This novel is in the form of a letter, written by the widowed Ramatoulaye and describing her struggle for survival. It is the winner of the Noma Award.

User reviews

LibraryThing member TadAD
Mariama Bâ's first novel is a short but extremely powerful look at the inequality between men and women in Senegalese society. It is couched as letter from a recent widow, Ramatoulaye, to her best friend, the divorcée Assiatou, in which the author examines their respective marriages. Though both
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started happily enough, both ended in distress for the women as their husbands took younger second wives under Islamic law. Ramatoulaye chooses to stay in her marriage and cope as best as she can while Assiatou walks away from her husband, but neither woman achieves happiness in her decision. Society is too stacked against them: the men virtually abandon their first wives for the younger, more exciting brides; the new mothers-in-law plunder the family income to line their own nests; friends offer nothing more than, "it is a woman's lot."

What makes this particularly striking is that there is no sense that either husband is particularly immoral or appalling by the norms of Senegalese society. Ramatoulaye gets her first inkling of her situation when friends of her husband stop by to say, "Your husband won't be home tonight because he married your daughter's friend this afternoon and must consummate the marriage"—all said as if there was nothing uncaring or callous about it. In fact, even Ramatoulaye seems to accept this standard, for she remains friends…or, at least, close acquaintances…with Assiatou's former husband.

This is a story whose content begged for a "one of the best reads of the year" rating. Unfortunately, the format pulls it down a notch. Posing it as a letter from Ramatoulaye to Assiatou is cumbersome. While the portions dealing with the death of Ramatoulaye's husband might reasonably take that form, the extensive portions detailing Assiatou's life obviously would be known to Assiatou and, therefore, seem rather odd. The reality is that Ramatoulaye is speaking to us, the readers, and the book would have been served better simply by doing that. Having made this complaint, let me say that I found the effects more pronounced in the early part of the story. As I became engrossed in the lives of the two women, I ceased to mind the awkwardness.

This is a very powerful story; I think it would be hard to read it and not feel that something is very wrong. Of course, it then raises the question that, while most readers are unlikely to live in Senegal,how much of that complaint can be justly extended elsewhere?—that there's a reason that terms like "trophy wife" exist and books/movies like The First Wives Club are popular.
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LibraryThing member GlebtheDancer
This short novel takes the form of a letter from Ramatoulaye to Aissatou, two muslim women from Senegal. Ramatoulaye is ostensibly writing to inform her friend that her husband, Modou Fall, has died. Both women have had unhappy married lives with husbands who contracted polygamous marriages to
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younger women, and both women have repeatedly been made to feel relegated to the status of non-people by a very male dominated society. Ramatoulaye's letter is an examination of their lives and the forces that shaped them.
This is a beautifully crafted, subtle examination of a misogynist society. Its focus is not on overt sexual or physical abuse, but rather on the painful emotions associated with the women's needs and desires being relegated to irrelevant. There is an almost comical shock among the husbands when the wives do not take easily to polygamy (as they are expected to), but the real strength lies in the examination of the female roles, from the manipulative mothers-in-law who exploit the polygamous system to further their own financial aims (thereby implicitly condoning it) to Ramatoulaye's ultimate rebellion of not marrying a man who she likes, admires and respects because she realises that none of theses things is the same as love.
My only criticism would be to question why the book was written as a letter. Although the communication between two similarly wronged women is emotionally quitge powerful, it leads to clumsiness in places, such as Ramatoulaye starting chapters with 'I know you know all of this already' when doing a bit of scene setting, or occasionally stretching the credibility of what a letter writer is actually likely to include (e.g. lots of dialogue). This, however, is a realtively minor gripe, and I found the book to be well written (and translated), and both powerful and subtle in equal measure.
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LibraryThing member banjo123
[So Long a Letter] by [[Mariama Ba]] is a short epistalory novel written in French by a Sengalese author. It is written from a recent widow to a dear friend and gives a review of their lives. Both women are struggling with the issues of polygamy in this Muslim country, as both husbands had taken a
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younger wife.
This was very hard on the narrator and her friend, and also on the younger women, who are then stuck with older husbands. In both cases, the younger women’s families pushed the marriages for economic reasons.
The book is well written and interesting, though didactic at times. The women in the novel are educated, and economically independent, and so pretty easy to identify with.
In thinking about the book, I wondered whether it’s worse for a wife to be usurped by a younger woman in a polygamous society, versus what frequently happens in our own culture where men may take a younger wife or mistress. I am not sure.
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LibraryThing member TiffanyAK
This is definitely a riveting account of cultural traditions and perceptions in a land very different from our own. Essentially, it is a fictional novel written as a set of letters from one woman to another, outlining the experiences, feelings, and troubles that each are facing. I personally found
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it to be very intriguing and enlightening as a glimpse of a culture that can only just begin to be understood if one is open to being told about it in such ways. The style is very different from anything I have ever read before, and it does very much leave you initially feeling like the outsider that we all are, struggling to get a handle on what we are assumed to already know, but by the end it begins to feel as though the world being depicted is rather familiar after all, which is a definite sign of great narrative crafting in and of itself.
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LibraryThing member akeela
This short novel is written in the form of a letter from Ramatoulaye to her childhood friend, Assiatou, on the death of her husband. These two women have a deep-rooted friendship cultivated over many years of shared life experiences: from good, happy marriages, and the birth of their several
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children, to the tribulations (emotional, but also financial) when their long-term husbands reveal that they have taken young, second wives.

Although polygamy is acceptable in Senegalese society, the two women are dazed by their husbands' actions, mostly because they've had meaningful relationships with their spouses – and their reactions are markedly different.

Ramatoulaye reminisces and her outpouring of the heart is thoughtful, and considered. She is an intelligent, educated woman, a devoted teacher who values and insists on educating her children, both girls and boys. The letter depicts postcolonial Senegalese society, especially the reduced role of women, slowly coming into their own. The writing is simple, yet profound. It is wise, and moving, and there were numerous paragraphs that resonated with me.
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LibraryThing member laydonstorm
This novel describes the life of a Senegalese woman and her struggles to survive in her religious society after having her husband taken from her by death and her co-wife. Ba does a decent job on characterization and exposition, however, leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied.
LibraryThing member dragonflyy419
So Long A Letter is a very heartfelt story taking place in Senegal, Africa and with the translation from French to English published in 1981. It is written in the form of a long letter from a recent widow to her dear school friend. Both of the women in this story, the narrator (Ramatoulaye) and her
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friend (Aissatou), have undergone hardships in their marital lives – in the nature of polygamy.

Though the story is told only from the perspective of Ramatoulaye, you understand how vastly different each woman reacted to this marital strife and the addition of another woman to their marriage. One rejects it completely and one reluctantly embraces it. Throughout the book Mariama Ba points out the difficulties that the Senegalese woman faces in a very male dominated world. The widow talks about the stresses of being a working mother trying to support her household and twelve children, especially after her husband abandoned her for his second wife, her co-wife.

This is the first book that I recall reading from the African continent and I am thankful to have picked it up. There are so many wonderful things to say about it. The imagery was incredible, Ba had a way to describe the scenes so that you smell the ocean or hear the trees swaying in the wind.

The emotions in this were honest and the book was beautifully written. This is a short book and if you have a few hours to spare, I would highly recommend reading it.
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LibraryThing member Petroglyph
This was a solid read. Short, but impactful.

Ramatoulaye, a middle-aged teacher in 1960s post-independence Sénégal, looks back on her life, which fell apart after her beloved husband of many years took a new, younger wife. Islam technically allows for this, but Ramatoulaye cannot but see this as
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an act of betrayal that merits a break-up, emotional as well as in terms of living arrangements.

The book is less concerned with the trappings of fiction and of narrative throughline than it is with sketching the lay of the post-colonial land and the clash between traditional, islamic conceptions of families and the Western ones, both of which come with uncomfortable baggage and neither of which feels fulfilling. Cultural ideals and taboos come into conflict, and navigating them is a matter of staving off the inevitable failing as long as possible -- a situation made even more complex across generational gaps and class divides.

Consequently, the text feels more like a mulling over of large-scale societal issues, though it thankfully steers clear from preachiness. The fact that this novel takes the form of a long letter to a friend helps a great deal: addressing an Other, a ‘you’ lends the book the flavour of a discussion rather than a lecture. It treats the reader as a sounding board with which the author can clarify her own thoughts to herself as much as to her audience. Furthermore, Bâ drew on events from her own life, and that, too, goes a long way to grounding the plot in real life. So long a letter definitely has an agenda, but it’s not obnoxious about it.
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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
What does it mean to be a Senegalese woman living in a society dominated by male attitudes? Where does self worth and fulfillment fit in? Just because a society condones polygamy doesn't mean every individual expects it, embraces it, or even wants to practice it. When Ramatoulaye's husband of
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thirty plus years takes a new (much younger) wife her emotions run the gamut. Baffled (Wasn't she a good wife?). Stunned (They have twelve children together. Wasn't she a good mother?). Embarrassed (What will the community think of her being replaced?). Insecure (Exactly what is her place in society now?). When Madou leaves her a widow, in a long letter to her friend Aissatou, Ramatoulaye recounts her life with Madou. She is, at times, reminiscent and even wistful for a life gone by. In the end, it is a new tragedy that sets Ramatoulaye on a new path of acceptance.
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LibraryThing member wandering_star
At the start of this book, Ramatoulaye is just beginning a 130-day period of mourning for her husband - who died about five years after taking a second wife and moving out of Ramatoulaye's house. To pass the time, she writes a lengthy letter to a lifelong friend, starting with a description of the
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funeral, then entering a long reminiscence about her life - musing about politics and the relations between men and women as well as her own role as a 'modern African woman' (she comes of age shortly before independence), wife and mother.

The book was an interesting if slightly odd mix of the personal and the political. I enjoyed the passages which dealt directly and personally with her own story - the pages, for example, where she finds out about his second marriage (he leaves the house in the morning, saying "don't expect me for lunch", and later the imam comes by, in his best clothes, and says cryptically "there is nothing we can do when Allah the almighty puts two people side by side"...). Some of the 'political' parts were very interesting: Ramatoulaye has a strong sense of herself as a 'modern' woman in a society which is in transition, she is a feminist and a socialist, and she is much more confident and less passive than I expected from the start of the book. But unfortunately these parts are sometimes clunkily didactic.

However, the book grew on me. It's not an easy read - although a short book, it takes a lot of concentration. But despite the difficulties in Ramatoulaye's life, the book ends with hope for the next generation of women growing up, as society finally catches up with their aspirations.
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LibraryThing member annecheryl
An epistolary novel, 'written' by a first wife to her friend, giving an account of her husband's taking of a second young wife and its consequences for the writer. Very moving and insightful. It deals with the so-called liberation of women in a newly independent Senegal, and also with the
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traditions that in fact bind them.
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LibraryThing member meggyweg
Meh. I just CANNOT get into African fiction. This is like the fifth African novel (by which I mean, novel by an African writer) I've read and disliked. I think it's a matter of personal preference though, and not the quality of writing. So Long a Letter provides great insight and detail into the
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culture of Senegal and polygamy in general. It's just Not For Me.
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LibraryThing member eairo
So long a letter is what the title promises: a Senegalese, recently widowed woman, passing the appropriate 40 mourning period at home, writing a letter to her best friend, who has emigrated years ago.

The things she writes range from little everydayish happenings to memories of their common youth to
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commantary on the state and the developments of the society; her late husband's betrayal, which consists of abandoning his youthful ideals and his first family and taking a second wife, arouses a few bitter comments (on men and their ways), and the family matters with 12 kids are also worth mentioning.

The range of themes is fun, it feels authentic, letter-like (though this feel of authenticity suffers a bit of explaining things that should be obvious to the supposed reader of the letter (though maybe not of the book), and fresh.

The book is from the early 1980s, the writer is of the generation who were young and active during the first years of the independence of Senegal. She also belongs to the first generation of educated women in her culture. This background shows, there is talk about ideals and sacrifice, and of work for the future ... and wondering of what happened to that future they---the writer, her husband and their friends---were building, supposedly together.

The only thing that bothered me was that there were some, a few, too many direct statements of what's right or wrong. I had no problem with ideas and ideals of the writer, just the way they were expressed felt a bit preachy.

The writing is good, though, clear and easy to read. Just like you would expect from a teacher of about 50 years of age who takes herselft seriously.
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LibraryThing member astrologerjenny
This is a small, poignant novel from Senegal, in the form of a letter from one woman to another, an old friend. It roams through love, marriage, family life, and the particular problems of a polygamous society. The writer is restrained and dignified, but her feelings emerge clearly.
LibraryThing member JBarringer
As a story that shows what it is like to be a woman in Senegal, this is a great novella. Mariama Ba shows aspects of Senegal society that Western women may find more distasteful- polygamy, marrying off teenagers to much older men, and various other disturbing customs- but these unpleasant sides to
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Senegal are tempered by other more universal and humanizing scenes that make it easy to relate to the characters. I also like the way the author works in themes of feminism and colonialism, not as philosophical arguments, but as everyday questions for an ordinary woman as she goes about her life.

I am not so fond of the structure of this novella, though. I know that the letter structure used in this story has a long tradition, but I find this style of storytelling too artificial. I am not the woman to whom the protagonist is writing and know too little about this unseen recipient to relate to her, so it feels more as if I am snooping, reading someone else's stash of sappy, personal letters that were never meant for my eyes. I am sure my reaction to this style of storytelling is an artifact of my own cultural background, but for me this was enough of an annoyance to not give this book a full 5 stars.
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LibraryThing member japaul22
This is a short book that I expected to really like. It's written by a Senegalese woman, reflecting on her life as a woman in Africa married to a man who takes a second wife after they've been married for thirty years. When he dies suddenly, she writes "so long a letter" to her dear friend,
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Aissatou, reflecting on their marriages, lives as Muslim women, and the role of women in their society.

I'm not sure why, but I couldn't connect to this. The letter format didn't work for me; it seemed like an unlikely way to actually speak to a friend. And maybe it was too short with too little development for me to get into it? I'm not sure. I would expect many people love this and it's very short, so no reason not to give it a try. It just wasn't the right book for me at the moment.
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LibraryThing member tronella
One I chose from A Year of Feminist Classics' reading list. It's pretty short, but it packs a punch. This is a (fictional) letter written by a Senegalese Muslim woman (Ramatoulaye) to her friend (Aissatou), as she goes through a 130-day mourning period after the death of her husband. It was
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published in the early 80s, and the writer of the letter is definitely a feminist character. To me, the interesting thing about this book is the focus on the effects of polygamy on the lives of the main characters - both writer and recipient had to deal with their husbands marrying a younger woman, and both dealt with it differently.

Maybe it's just a translation issue, but the epistolary style of this book didn't quite work for me all the time. Ramatoulaye spends as much time describing Aissatou's life as she does on her own, and it was a little weird to me reading "Dear Aissatou, you did this and this and then this happened to you" all over the place. But it's definitely worth the read.
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LibraryThing member heinous-eli
Easy to read and yet packed with insight into the life of African women, this is a book that does what it does well and in remarkably little space. Great introduction into the vast and rich world of African literature.
LibraryThing member Wosret
What a stunning, moving novel! Set shortly after the decolonization of Senegal, the story is written as a letter from one friend to another. I wasn't sure how much I'd have in common with the protagonist; we live in different times, on different continents, have different religions, and come from
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different races. But the ideas within the novel, such as the examination of the changes in Senegalese culture before, during, and after colonization, are still very much relevant today, and resonated with me across the Atlantic. I haven't connected with a novel like this in years. Who has not experienced heartbreak? Which parent has not worried for the well being and happiness of their child? Who has not struggled with the expectations of your culture, or fought to find happiness within yourself? Absolutely fantastic.
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LibraryThing member moukayedr
A relatively short novel that deals with the challenges facing women in Africa or any traditional society. The novel is in the form of a letter written by recently widowed Ramatolaye to her friend Assiatou. Both are middle-aged Singalese women who have been friends since childhood.

Ramatoulaye
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meanders in her narrative, detailing her suffering when her husband abandoned her for a younger wife. She goes through the histories of wives who have gone through similar experiences, including Assiatou herself, and the choices they made as a consequence.

Very interesting insights into the social and economical conditions of West Africa. The focus here is on the situation of women especially, and how they deal with the conflict between tradition and modernity.
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
Reason Read: TBR takedown 1001
This is a work of feminism by Senegalese author. I enjoyed reading this story of a woman who is in the period of mourning following the death of her husband. This is a story of a woman who’s husband had taken a younger wife. It explores what this meant to have a
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cowife. It also explores what it is like to be a part of a husband’s family. In her writing, or journal, she writes to her friend whose husband also took a second younger wife. That woman chose to divorce. Both women are very strong women who live up to their own standards. Many good thoughts in this book. Recommended.
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LibraryThing member jonbrammer
Mariama Ba's epistolary novel of Ramatoulaye's correspondence with her friend Aissatou offers a modern perspective on being a wife and mother in Senegalese society. The women in this story see polygamy as a plague, allowing their husbands the freedom to rip out the roots of their domestic life on a
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whim. Ramatoulaye is also deeply concerned with raising her daughters to be educated and independent. Throughout, she faces the pitfalls of being a single mother in a fairly conservative society and facing the reproval of her community.
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LibraryThing member labfs39
So Long a Letter is an epistolary novel and semiautobiographical. It is a series of letters by Ramatoulaye Fall to her lifelong friend, Aissatou. Both women are betrayed by their husbands, who take second wives, but they respond in very different ways. This is a gentle novel, not forceful like
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Emecheta's The Joys of Motherhood or as anti-Colonial as Nervous Conditions. Instead the reader is brought into Ramatoulaye's personal space as though these intimate letters are addressed to us, and we are invited to understand her perspective even if, like Aissatou, we would have chosen to act differently. I very much enjoyed this short novel and wish that Bâ had been able to continue writing (she died at age 52, shortly after her second work was published). So Long a Letter won the Noma Award for best novel published in Africa in 1980.
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LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
So Long a Letter by Mariam Ba is one of the books on the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die List although it seemed more like an essay on woman’s issues for Senegalese women in their ever changing world than an actual novel. Written in epistolary style, this short book is one letter written by
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one black African woman to another. During the course of the letter, their lives and their choices are discussed and analyzed and the author’s comments on the status of woman in Senegal covers many topics, from education to marriage, love, multiple wives, and equality of rights.

Considered an autobiographical novella, Ba, who was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1929, writes about her desire to see equal rights for all the people of her country. As she herself attended school so too, do the women in this story which broadens their choices in life, but also makes them targets of those who reject modern ways and wish to keep women locked into servitude.

Short and powerful, So Long a Letter is told by a strong woman who expresses her concern about the treatment of both herself and other women in their African Muslim society. Although this is a cry for reform, it is also a deeply felt, lyrically written personal story that touches the readers emotions and gives us an insight into this culture.
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LibraryThing member greeniezona
This is a classic that I have seen on so many Women in Translation lists. So when I saw a used copy at my local bookstore I had to snatch it up.

This functions as a snapshot of a society in flux. Ramatoulaye has recently been widowed, and is writing a long letter to her best friend from her school
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days. The letter recounts how she got to hear: Ramatoulaye and her friend were among the first generation of girls to pursue education past grade school as their country modernizes after gaining its independence. Both women were educated for professions, both worked and also married, and both of their husbands later took a second wife down the line. But Ramatoulaye's friend took her children and left when the second marriage happened, while she herself stayed.

This book depicts a startling amount of empathy and understanding on all sides, for all the players in these dramas and why they made the choices that they did. This was very satisfying on a level of peeking into a different society level, less satisfying on a emotional level. Ramatoulaye came off a little too perfect and long-suffering to me. Where was her anger? Her fight? She does stand up for herself in important ways, here. But I definitely left this book thinking BRING ON THE QUEERS. Between this and The House of the Spirits, I just need a little break from men being terrible to women.

(I have a whole lot of thoughts, actually, about the abundance of "men being terrible to women" in Women in Translation, but this is not the time.)
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1980 (original French)
1981 (English translation)

Physical description

96 p.; 5.5 x 0.25 inches

ISBN

1577668065 / 9781577668060
Page: 0.4854 seconds