Ramatoulaye begins by recalling and describing the emotions that flooded her during the first few days after her husband's death and speaks in detail about how he lost his life. The letter is written while Ramatoulaye is going through ' Iddah, a four month and ten day mourning process that widow of the Muslim Senegalese culture must follow. So Long a Letter is written as a series of entries in a long letter from the main character Ramatoulaye Fall to her best friend Aissatou following the sudden death from heart attack of Ramatoulaye's husband Modou Fall. It won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1980. The novel is often used in literature classes focusing on women's roles in post-colonial Africa. As she gives her friend the details of her husband's death, she recounts the major events in their lives. The occasion for writing is Ramatoulaye's recent widowhood. Its theme is the condition of women in Western African society.Īs the novel begins, Ramatoulaye Fall is beginning a letter to her lifelong friend Aissatou Bâ. So Long a Letter ( French: Une si longue lettre) is a semi-autobiographical epistolary novel originally written in French by the Senegalese writer Mariama Bâ. 1979 (Les Nouvelles Éditions Africaines du Sénégal)
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