Scarlet
Song Reading Circle
March 15, 2006
noon
Middle Floor Atrium between Lawson & Tarpley
Discussion to be directed by Susan Lester
This novel was written by
Marisma Bâ, a Senegalese teacher and
writer. Bâ's Scarlet Song was
published after her death and gained international attention. As
she was writing this work, her second novel, she was aware that
she was dying, yet she writes with crusading vigor in defense of
women, as one who revels in the art of story-telling.
In the book, Mireille, the
daughter of a French diplomat, marries Ousmane, the son of a
poor Senegalese family and a Moslem. They move from Paris to
Senegal, where Ousmane again adopts the traditions of his family
and the community. Mireille, a Western educated white woman,
brings with her a conflict into the family. When Ousmane takes a
second wife, Mireille breaks down. Through the fate of the
heroine, Bâ shows that an individual cannot change unless
traditional features of the Muslim society, such as polygamy and
subjugation of women, are changed.
Bâ was born into a
well-to-do family in Dakar, where she grew up. In the newly
independent Senegal, Bâ's father became one of the first
ministers of state. After her mother died, she was raised in the
traditional manner by her maternal grandparents. She received
her early education in French, while at the same time attending
Koranic school. During the colonial period and later, girls
faced a number of obstacles if they wanted to have a higher
education. Bâ's grandparents did not plan to educate her beyond
primary school, but her father insisted that she have the
opportunity to continue her studies. She won the first prize in
the entrance examination and entered a teacher training college
near Dakar. During this period she published her first book, a
non-fiction that dealt with colonial education in Senegal. At
school she also wrote an essay which created a stir for its
rejection of French policies in Africa.
In 1947 Bâ completed her
schooling. She worked as an elementary-school teacher, married a
politician and had nine children. After 12 years, she was
resigned due to poor health, and she then worked as a regional
school inspector. When her marriage broke up, Bâ raised the
children alone. A divorcee and self described "modern Muslim
woman," Bâ was active in women's associations, promoted
education, championed women's rights, made speeches, and wrote
articles in local newspapers. After a long illness, she died of
cancer in 1981.
As a writer, Bâ emerged from
the oral tradition of the Senegalese griot women and wrote a "speakerly
text." This tradition of orality has been the major outlet for
women's voices. The griot women - not controlled by society in
ways other women are regarding speech - are given a license by
society to say whatever they want without censorship. The
tradition of the griot women is important to the Senegalese
women, because it has always been one way of making themselves
heard and listened to." (Siga Fatima Jagne, in Postcolonial
African Writers, ed. by Pushpa Naidu Parekh and Siga Fatima
Jagne, 1998).
After a long illness, Bâ
died of cancer in 1981, six months after So Long a Letter won
the Noma Award for Literature. So Long a Letter is considered
the classical statement of the female condition in Africa.
TCentral themes in the novel are male-female relations in
patriarchal society, the survival of the caste system and
tradition of polygamy, and its effects on modern African family.
This book has been translated into more than a dozen languages,
among others into Finnish.
(review and biographical
information taken from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mba.htm)
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