Reflection Paper - St. Olaf Pages

1 Tara Reyelts Professor Iddrisu Muslim Studies 4 April 2012 Reflection Paper #2 Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter is a concise yet impressive novel. There are many things I like about the book, especially because I am able to relate to some of the customs and experiences Ba discusses, since I visited Dakar last summer. The novel concentrates on themes of family and female agency in West Africa. So Long a Letter, although fiction, gives voice to the many voiceless West African women of the past century. The things endured by the character Ramatoulaye no doubt have happened to many women in Muslim societies in Africa. The theme of family is important in this novel. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator writes: This is the moment dreaded by every Senegalese woman, the moment when she sacrifices her possessions as gifts to her family-in-law: and, worse still, beyond her possessions she gives up her personality, her dignity, becoming a thing in the service of the man who has married her, his grandfather, his grandmother, his father, his mother, his brother, his sister, his uncle, his aunt, his male and female cousins, his friends (4). This passage expresses the oppression of women according to this Senegalese tradition. This story probably takes place sometime between 1950 and 1980, a time when even American women – those considered to have the most freedom of any women – were homemakers and considered economically inferior to men and indebted to their husbands. But, in America at this time, women were not as severely oppressed as in Senegal. In Senegal, a married woman gives up not only her material possessions, but even her personality and her dignity, to her husband and his family and his friends. It seems like the woman is not only marrying a man but his whole family; that is an immense burden. It is hard enough to give oneself up entirely to one person, but to do that for 10 or 20 people is unfathomable to me. At the end of the novel, Ramatoulaye

2 expresses the essentiality of the family: “The nation is made up of all the families, rich or poor, united or separated, aware or unaware. The success of a nation therefore depends inevitably on the family” (89). It is interesting that family seems to form ties that cannot be broken, even by divorce, death, or other tangible forms of separation. Ba conveys that within a family, assets and necessities are shared and the reputation of the family can be glorified or destroyed by a single member. I like the way the narrator links this idea of family to the nation. If the leader of a nation makes a great or poor decision the rest of the world will judge the whole country based on that one person. There is an inevitable sense of belonging inherent in the family as well as in nationality. The theme of female agency is also prominent in So Long a Letter. Ba repeatedly praises the triumphs of women that usually go unnoticed. Ramatoulaye explains that “the working woman has a dual task” of being a working professional as well as the primary caregiver at home (20). Women are not monetarily reimbursed for their labor in the home and people in this Senegalese society do not appreciate the work of mothers and especially not of mothers who also have careers. Ramatoulaye’s best friend, Aissatou, performs an act of extreme agency when she leaves her undeserving husband. She ends her letter to her husband, saying, “I am stripping myself of your love, your name. Clothed in my dignity, the only worthy garment, I go my way” (32). This shows that women are capable of living away from their husbands; women are not dependent on men. Another example of agency is when Ramatoulaye starts to take over Modou’s duties as well as her own. By replacing locks and latches of broken doors and overseeing the family’s finances, she crosses over the gender boundary between women’s work and men’s work. By doing the things that Modou is supposed to do – performing masculine duties – Ramatoulaye asserts her own agency and proves that there is no such thing as “women’s work.”

3 The novel also discussed moments of Greater Jihad in the everyday struggles of Senegalese women. Ramatoulaye said that having to struggle made her stronger. The hardships involved with raising and educating her many children taught her to be courageous and to persevere. She also commends Modou and Mawdo because “they led the struggle of their lives, even if success eluded their grasp” (73). The men’s struggle to succeed in their professions and to make money to provide for their families is an example of Greater Jihad. The themes of this novel are well articulated and very poignant. When this book was first published, I bet that a lot of people were surprised that a woman, especially an African, was so educated or opinionated or courageous to write such a novel. By writing about female agency in So Long a Letter, Mariama Ba asserts her own feminine agency; she proves to the world that women can be smart and brave and independent. What made reading this novel even better for me was that I knew some of the places and things that are discussed in the novel. For example, Ba went to school in Rufisque, the same suburb in which I stayed last summer. Being able to picture the roads and the environment helped engage me while reading. While working in Senegal I met some women who seem similar to Ramatoulaye and Aissatou. One woman I met, Madame Sene, was the head of her house. She had a husband who worked and a large family that she took care of, and it was obvious that she, not her husband, ran the home and the family. She set up a preschool for the children in her community and she teaches at it a few days a week. She also cooked lunch for my Habitat for Humanity team of 15 people, everyday for a week while we built houses nearby. This woman seems to be the embodiment of the spirit of the characters Ramatoulaye and Aissatou. Knowing this real person

4 who is similar to these fictional characters makes the novel more realistic and credible. Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter is a terrific novel that proves the agency of African women.