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 culture of Senegal and polygamy in general. It's just Not For Me. ( )

This is one of several books that were assigned in my African Religions class in college. I didn't actually end up reading many of them, so I decided to go back and read them, inbetween the other books I have to read this summer, before deciding if I wanted to keep them or not.

The story is quite good, and is essentially a one sided epistolary novel from a recently widowed Senegalese school teacher to her friend. I provides insight into the the traditional customs and changing attitudes in Senegal at the time (1970s) as well as reflections on the changing role of family. It's a relatively short book (90 pages), but nonetheless engaging and thought provoking.

I would recommend it on its own, but especially if you're looking for a change of pace from other readings.

Review copyright 2008 Elizabeth A. Schreiber-Byers ( )

So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba

"So Long a Letter" by Mariama Ba is a spectacular book. Ramatoulaye is a widow when the novel begins. We meet her while she is in mourning. Soon, we learn about the other sorrows of her heart. Times throughout which she cried and cried. Her healing strength comes through writing this letter to Aissatou. Because the friendship means so much to her Ramatoulaye names her daughter after Aissatou. I thought this was a beautiful way of showing appreciation for a friend who always had a listening ear and a nonjudgmental heart.

In this letter to Aissatou, Ramatoulaye gives details about her marriage to Madou Fall. This lengthy letter is like a flashback in time. Both Aissatou and Ramatoulaye faced the identical situation with their men. Each woman chose a different way to handle their new circumstances. Still, neither woman judges the other woman.

I adored the book for so many reasons. I loved the friendship between the two African women. I enjoyed learning about the West African culture and I liked learning more about the African male. At the last page, I had my pen ready to write down other titles by Mariama Ba. Unfortunately, this is her first and last novel. "Ba died tragically in 1981 in Dakar after a long illness, just before her second novel Le Chant Ecarlate appeared. "So Long A Letter" by Mariamb Ba is translated from the French by Modupe Bode-Thomas.

If anyone can translate the French phrase, I would appreciate knowing the name of the novel in English. ( )

Opening Sentence: '...Dear Aissatou, I have received your letter. ...'

Miriama Ba was a Senegalese writer who set out to write a book that exposed the double standard between men and women in her part of Africa. The small, but powerful, book is written in the form of a long letter, or series of short letters, written by a widow, Ramatoulaye, to her friend Aissatou, during the forty-day mourning period following the death of a Moslem husband.

Ramatoulaye writes about their shared childhood, the meeting of their husbands and how each women had married for love and had started off, they thought, with happy, productive marriages. As modern young African women they were both were educated, had good jobs and were well respected by the community. They also had one more thing in common. Each of the women's husbands chose to take a second wife.

This is where the parallel ends. Ramatoulaye decided to stay married, although it meant never seeing her husband and being humiliated by the fact that he was squandering money on a young girl, who had been a friend of their daughter. Aissatou divorced her husband and left Senegal, and was now living in the United States. In her series of letters, Ramatoulaye exposes her life and that of other women of Senegal - their upbringing and training and the cultural restrictions placed upon them.

This story is about friendship, love and most important of all, hope. As Ramatoulaye writes in her final paragraph, "Despite everything - disappointments and humiliations - hope still lives on within me. It is from the dirty and nauseating humus that the green plant sprouts into life, and I can feel new buds springing up in me." ( )

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 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. ( )