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So Long a Letter | Introduction

So Long a Letter, Senegalese author Mariama Bâ's first novel, won the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa soon after its publication in 1980. The epistolary novel traces the story of Ramatoulaye Fall, a recent widow. She recounts how her husband, Moudou, betrayed their marriage by taking a young second wife. Ramatoulaye records her anger at both Moudou and the customs that allow polygamy in her long letter to her lifelong friend Aissatou. In her letter, she muses on how Aissatou's marriage was ruined, also by polygamy. Ramatoulaye and Aissatou, both highly educated women, seem victimized by the traditional customs that deny women status equal to that of men. However, as Ramatoulaye relates, each woman is able to become successfully independent; neither accepts the position of submissive wife. Even while railing against her fate, Ramatoulaye also takes comfort in many traditional values. She hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined. While well received, So Long a Letter has been the subject of some critical controversy. Some critics question Bâ's feminism, noting that women are pitted against each other in this novel. Others are put off by what they call class elitism in Bâ's novel: They find her portrayals of lower-class characters unsympathetic. Most critics, however, believe that Bâ accurately describes the social, religious, and gender differences that can divide a people even as they strive to forge a strong new nation. They find Bâ sympathetic to all women, even the perceived enemies in the novel—the youthful new wives who displace the middle-aged women. In letting one woman eloquently tell the anguish of her heartbreak, Bâ suggests that all women have important stories to tell and that their plight should be given voice.

So Long a Letter Summary

So Long a Letter, Mariama Bâ's first novel, is literally written as a long letter. As the novel begins, Ramatoulaye Fall is beginning a letter to her lifelong friend Aissatou Bâ. The occasion for writing is Ramatoulaye's recent widowhood. As she gives her friend the details of her husband's death, she sets off on a journey of remembering the major events in her and Aissatou's lives.

Ramatoulaye's husband, Moudou Fall, died suddenly of a heart attack. Following the strictures of her Muslim faith, Ramatoulaye must remain in seclusion for a long period of time. This seclusion is broken, however, by the ritualized visits of relatives and friends of the dead man. During the first days, Ramatoulaye must share her home with Binetou, her co-wife. This young woman, who is the same age as Ramatoulaye's oldest daughter, and Ramatoulaye sit in state to welcome the visitors. The visitors bring money to these women out of respect for the dead, but ultimately their family-in-law, Moudou's siblings and parents, take the money away from the widows. In her letter, Ramatoulaye muses about why Moudou forced her into the awkward position of co-wife after 25 years of marriage and 12 children. But before telling the story of Binetou's elevation from shy schoolgirl to wealthy wife, Ramatoulaye recalls her own courtship years before.

Ramatoulaye and Aissatou were well-educated young women, having attended a French-run school in a time when few Senegalese women were given this opportunity. Sought after in marriage by multiple suitors, both women married for love. Ramatoulaye's mother disapproved of her choice—Moudou Fall, the young rising lawyer from a less elite family. Aissatou's in-laws looked down their noses at her. The daughter of a goldsmith, Aissatou was considered an unfit bride for the doctor Mawdo Bâ, the son of a tribal princess. But both women followed their hearts and with their husbands set out to forge new traditions to match their country's new independence.

But after recollecting their happy pasts, Ramatoulaye records in her long letter the problems that destroyed the two couples' tranquillity. Aissatou, now a divorced woman living in the United States, left Mawdo after he took a co-wife. Still in love with Aissatou, Mawdo was pressured by tradition and his mother's demands to take a... » Complete So Long a Letter Summary