Senegalese Women Writers a Collaborative Bibliography
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NOTE: This bibliography appears as it was published in the Fall 1995 issue of the WTF Newsletter. However, we have since realized that Marie NOiaye is a French writer and should not therefore have been included in this listing. That realization has been indicated by a lining through the entries, which remain legible. Annabelle Rea, March 2012 ! . i ' SENEGALESE WOMEN WRITERS A COLLABORATIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY 1' The following bibliography cornes out of the three Senegalese women have created a rich literature ! sponsored over the past twenty years (only "the past twenty • week seminar on Senegalese culture, by the Services Culturels of the French Embassy in the years;' however, if one doesn't begin .with the U.S., held ii1 July, 1994, at the Université Cheikh eighteenth-century Senegalese slave, Phillis Anta Diop in Dakar. Four of the participants: Wheatley, known as an American poet!). lt is our Deirdre Bucher Heistad of the University of hope that our collaborative effort will encourage l' ! Illinois/Urbana (DBH), Thérèse O'Connell of more of you to re ad and te ach texts from this fasci t Jacksonville University (TOC), Annabelle Rea of nating culture. (AMR) Occidental College (AMR), and Judy Schaneman of Earlham Colle ge (JS) share with you the ir appre Senegalese Women Writers ' ciations of the wolks read. In addition, although l Abdoulaye, Maimouna (1949- ).[Fatou Binetou i not a seminar participant, Frances Novack of ' Ursinus College (FN), who taught as a Fulbright Kane Fall]. Un Cri du coeur. Dakar-Yoff: F.B. scholar at the Université de Saint Louis in the north Kane-Fall, 1990. 1 ' of Sene gal in the Spring of 1994, offered ber exper Although the author claims that this novel is not l tise to the bibliographie team. We wish to thank autobiographlcal, she acknowledges that it is a ' .~ ' Professer Adam a Dieye Sow of the Département de "conciliation du réel et de l'imaginaire." The news ' ' Lettres Modernes of Cheikh Anta Diop for review that her daughter suffers from a heart condition '; ' ! ing our list of works for accuracy before the anno leads the narrator to reflect on the meaning of life. tations were begun. And, fmally, thanks to Nicole As she experiences difficult times, she leams how ·< ! Meyer at the Women 's Studies Research Center of to make the distinction between self-serving people ' the University of Wisconsin-Madison (EMN) for and those ·who practice the values they profess. i' \ her last-minute help with one elusive item. ,... This distinction is symbolized by a comparison ' •' . between her first husband who; in spi te of being a ' The list of primary works is as completè as we have religious leader, lacked· spirituality and was a· bad been able to make it We include sorne items with hus band and father, and her second husband, a true out annotation, either because no one volunteered believer, who is responsible, considerate and lov to review them or because we had no luck in ing. Although not easily available, this book, · . obtaining the texts (or because one of our bibliog despite a sometimes weak plot, constitutes interest raphers pulled out at the last ·minute!). According ing reading in that the narrator is the embodiment to our various searches, only five or six titles of our of a virtuous woman who tries to reconcile modern list are not available in North American libraries, life with the traditions of Islam, which she accepts but we bad considerable difficulty purchasing sorne without question. (TOC) of these works, even within S~negal. The WIF Newsletter would be pleased to publish an update if Bâ, Mariama (192~-1981). Une si longue lettre. i• l !. someone can help complete any of the missing Dakar: Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1979. So • '· items. And we would very much like to see this Long a Letter. Trans. Modupé Bodé-Thomas . work expanded to ether Francophone African London: Heinemann, 1982. countrles in a future issue. Thérèse O'Cmmell of Bâ's first novel has become a well-loved classic for ; ,,·: Jacksonville University ([email protected]) is many, both in Afrlca and elsewhere. It remains planning to work on Cameroon and would like to controversial, however, for its discussion of male hear from other volunteers interested in pursuing female relationships in particular and Senegalese the African project. traditions in general. Unlike many other texts in this bibliography, Une si longue lettre must also be One practical recommendatlon: even though a analyzed for the beauty of its ly.rical style and its number of these works contain lexical notes, we fonnal innovations. Within the time frame of the have found extremely useful the Lexique du widows' seclusion of four months and ten da ys français du Sénégal edited by Jacques Blondé, imposed by lslamic law (to ascertain that they. Pierre Dumont and Dominique Gontier (Dakar: aren 't pregnant before they remarry), the protago Nouvelles Editions Africaines/EDICEF, 1979). tùst communicates by letter, the narrative fonn And a waming: there doesn't appear to be any rule closest to the oral, with her oldest friend. The let~ for the alphabetization of names for those who use ter directly implicates the reader through the infor~ two family names. If you don 't fmd an au thor, do mal address of the "tu" in this ode to fiiendship. Bâ keep looking for her. WIF • FALL 1995 ·• Page 5 has examined a generation of "pioneers," thosc great interest to anyone studying African women's women who came to adulthood with Senegal's history. (fOC) independence, and their persona! and professional -. Cendres et braises. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1994. "recherche d'une voie [voix]," with a sensitivity This second autobiographical text by the lyrical that will long continue to touch readers. (AMR) Ken Bugul takes her from a passionate and violent -. Un Chant écarlate. Dakar: Nouvelles F~itions five-year affair with her married white French lover Africaines, 1981. Scarlet Song. Trans. Dorothy S. Y., to sclf-acceptance and appreciation of the fia Blair. Harlow, Gt. Brit.: Longman, 1986. vors of her !ife. While very much a persona! story, Marriage is again the central issue in Bâ's second, it still provides a social commentary on woman's and final, novel. This time she explores a biracial, role, on differing perceptions of polygamy, on the bicultural union within a context of racism, both importance of the mother-daughter bond, and on African and European, and post-colonial xenopho the postcolonial difficulties of finding one's identi bia. She examines the adjustment difficulties ty. The book would also provide ample material for inherent in the institution of marri age as weil as the class discussion on the role of love (and a man) in cultural misunderstandings exacerbated by the hus a woman 's !ife as weil as how cultural differences band's inflexibility and Jack of support during his affect each person's choices. The text's resolution wife 's adaptation to conjugal !ife in Sene gal. Bâ - she happily becomes one of the· Marabout's sev also explores the Senegalese mother-in-law's dis era! wives- is thought-provoking. The book pairs appointed ambition, her feeling of having been weil pedagogically with its predecessor, Le Baobab deprived of her "rights" by her son's choice of a fou,· and would blend easily into a course on French wife, and her encouragement of his secret Francophone literature or culture, women 's studies second marriage so she may attain her deserved or autobiography. But the former treats many addi "glory" through a traditional daughter-in-law. tional themes relevant to students' lives and illus Even though it falls to attain the perfection of its trates more fully the effects of colonization on the predecessor, the novel nonetheless provides an colonized. (EMN) (For further details, see Nicole Important examination of Senegalese culture. Meyer's forthcoming review: World Literature (AMR) Today 70.1 [Wmter 1996].) Bâ. Ownar. ''Mon Afrique,'' ''Courage,'' ''Sécœresse,'' Cissokho, All;satou. Dakar: La Touriste autochtone. Présence Africaine 57 (1966): 128-29. "Drought,'' Paris: L'Harmattan, 1986. Penguin Book of Women Poets. New York: Penguin, 1978. Diakhaté, Ndeye Coumba. FiUes du soleil. Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1979. Benga, Sokhna (1967 - ). Le Dard du secret. Dakar. Khoudia, 1990. Diallo, Nafissatou Niang (1941-1982). De Tilène au Plateau: Une Enfance dakaroise. Dakar: Bugul, Ken (1948 - ) [Mariétou M'Baye] Le Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1975. A Dakar Baobab fou. Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, Childhood. Trans. Dorothy S. Blair. Harlow, Gt 1984. The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography Brit.: Longman, 1982. of a Senegalese Woman. Trans. Maljolign de Jager. In this sentimental retelling of her !ife, Diallo New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991. focuses on the importance of family, recalling with A poignant warning against the assimilation of nostalgia the father and grandmother who shaped false values, this autobiographical novel poses the her childhood and the values of solidarity, respect problem of multicultural identity. Under the pseu and piety which they incarnated. Spanning a peri donym Ken Bugul (a pejorative Wolof expression oct from the author's birth in 1941 until her depar meaning ''the person no one wants"), the narrator ture for France with her husband in 1967, the text depicts her "descente aux enfers" when she goes to centers on everyday life in a traditional Islamic Brussels ti> study. The alienation that she experi household, while at the same time revealing the enced as a child after having been abandoned by spirited, often mischievous, child whom Diallo her mother becomes the symbol of the alienation of once was. A thoroughly enjoyable text to read in its Africa from its traditional values. Ken becomes entirety, this autobiography also contains numerous estranged from her roots and takes refuge in vignettes which could be excerpted to provide Occidentalization.