Krystle's Book Review: So Long a Letter

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So Long A Letter.jpgMariama Bâ wrote So Long a Letter in 1981. That same year, she won an award from the book. Bâ was raised a Muslim by her grandparents in Senegal. Her struggle against her traditional upbringing is reflected in her novel. So Long a Letter is written in the form of a series of letters by Ramatoulaye, to her friend, Aissatou. Ramatoulaye recounts the life experiences of both her and her friend, and compares their reactions to similar situations. Both women are Muslim, as are the men they married. According to Muslim tradition, a man can marry up to four women if he so chooses.  Aissatou's husband takes another wife, and she decides to leave him because she does not agree with polygamy. After more than twenty years of marriage, Ramatoulaye's husband too takes another wife - the friend of their teenage daughter. Ramatoulaye is appalled, especially since her husband promised that she would always be his only wife. He abandons his first family to shower his pretty second wife and her mother with luxury. In her letters, Ramatoulaye struggles with whether she should have followed the path of her friend and left her husband. But she stayed for her faith. When her husband dies, both she and the young girl are treated equally in their status as grieving widows - even though the older women has been his wife for thirty years and the younger, only five. In an effort to prevent her daughter from facing the same struggles, she allows her to wear more Western clothing. She finds solace in reading, going to the cinema, writing and spending time with her friends.  Ramatoulaye, like Bâ herself, believes that it is through books that one (women especially) can find hope, and eventually the weapons, to fight oppression. Bâ said: "The power of books, this marvelous invention of astute human intelligent. Various signs associated with sound: different sounds that form the word. Juxtaposition of words from which springs the idea, Thought, History, Science, Life. Sole instrument of interrelationship and of culture, unparalleled means of giving and receiving. Books knit generations together in the same continuing effort that leads to progress. They enabled you to better yourself. What society refused you, they granted..."

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FAVL Blog

Books, reading, and libraries relevant to Africa by Michael Kevane, co-Director of FAVL and economist at Santa Clara University.

Other contributors include Kate Parry, FAVL-East Africa director, Peace Corps volunteer Emilie Crofton, Krystle Austin, Elisee Sare, and Monique Nadembega.

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