(toc) #title= (Table of Content)
BIOGRAPHY
Mariama Ba was born in Senegal in 1929. She was orphaned at an early age and was raised by her maternal grandparents. The only way she knew her mother was through a photograph. Her father was one of the first ministers of state in the newly independent Senegal. The fact that she went to school did not dispense her from performing traditional tasks at home, especially since one did not know what the future might bring. As a young high-school student at the ´Ecole Nor- Male in Rufisque, she wrote her first published work. This piece was published in France and focused on colonial education in Senegal. After she completed her schooling, she worked as an elementary-school teacher and later as regional school inspector. She did not publish another major work until So Long a Letter, a book that won the Noma Award for Literature. This was followed by Scarlet Song, which was published posthumously. Her friends attribute the long hiatus in her literary production to marriage and motherhood. The fact that she was not writing did not mean that she was inert, as she was active in the women’s movement in Senegal, promoting education and raising nine children.
As a writer, Ba emerged from the oral tradition of the Senegalese griot women and wrote a ‘‘speakerly text.’’ This tradition of orality in Senegal 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. So, for the Senegalese women, writing a speakerly text takes on added dimensions.
MAJOR WORKS AND THEMES
The problem of a female writer coming to voice has been a central theme in Mariama Ba’s fiction. This entry explicates Ba’s worldview as a writer. This worldview is located within the Wolof worldview. I will show that Ba makes use of this worldview, and that an examination of issues of caste, friendship, fate, and women’s relations is important to any developed reading of her texts. I will therefore locate Mariama Ba’s fiction in the oral tradition of the Senegalese griot women in particular, and Senegalese literature in general.
Mariama Ba, I argue, writes in ‘‘Wolof’’ with the inflections of the spoken language. Ba’s expressions and structures do not change in the transition from speech to writing, as she gets Ramatoulaye to write herself not only into exis- tence, but into a growth of self-consciousness. The autobiographical voice in the letter means coming out of muteness and speaking. This is important to the African who has been spoken for all her life. In gaining a voice, Ramatoulaye is a mature and articulate speaker; she addresses herself to her best friend Ais- satou. Her voice is different from Celie’s, yet both embark on a journey of discovery and soul searching at the beginning of their narratives and seem to have come to their own by the end of these narratives. Ramatoulaye tells Ais- satou, ‘‘I felt that I had emerged’’ (So Long a Letter, 88). Ramatoulaye reflects on her past to understand the present.
Ramatoulaye is the narrator and writer of her letters, which makes her both narrator and protagonist. Therefore, in the tradition of the speakerly text, what we hear is Ramatoulaye’s interpretation of what the other characters are saying in free and indirect discourse, although at times she uses quotation marks, show- ing that she is quoting a character’s exact words. This is important to the African woman, because as she starts to tell her own story, she does not want to tell her sister’s story for her and misrepresent it. So she creates some space, allowing her sisters to tell their own stories.
Ramatoulaye is educated and, therefore, assumed to be liberated automati- cally, but this is possible only up to a certain point, because Ramatoulaye lives in a society that relegates women to a certain position prescribed by society, a position that makes women important only as long as they are identified with men. Of course it has to be stressed here that this is a postcolonial position she has been assigned to by a conflicting tradition and Islam. There is also the Wolof view of fatalism that says that everyone’s destiny is a fixed reality, impossible to avoid. As a result, Modou Fall sees his marrying a second wife as something destined by God. Ramatoulaye sees it as something she should accept, caught between the established order and a present given by Western education. Ra- matoulaye is in a dilemma, a dilemma that her friend Aissatou did not seem to have when she chose divorce as an alternative. Mariama Ba seems to be an- swering a call to speak out, but with more contradictions and opposition than the Western female writer has. Femi Ojo-Ade, whose position on feminism and women writers needs to be challenged, depicts the struggle of the female African writer as one that is located within tradition, colonialism, and modernization. Mariama Ba as a writer is caught between tradition and the move toward mo- dernity. This is inescapable. The contradiction in polygamy today is that the men have accepted the Western economic system and many of its social mores, but they refuse to give up the tradition of polygamy, a tradition that seems to have hardly any place in modern Africa.
The Wolof
The Wolof people, geographically, are located in the Senegambia region on the Atlantic coast of Africa. As the majority ethnic group in the region, Fatou- matta-Agnes Diarra asserts, ‘‘they have a tendency to believe themselves more fundamentally Senegalese than others.’’ The Wolof have had sustained contacts with foreign cultures for centuries. These contacts have left an indelible mark on the lives of the people. As a result of these contacts and the fact that they mostly inhabit the urban area, the Wolof think highly of themselves in terms of being able to adapt and change foreign cultures. However, one foreign culture that has nearly overpowered Wolof society is the culture that came with Islam. Islam, therefore, becomes an important force that informs the Wolof worldview.
What is this worldview? The Wolof, as with other cultures in the world, have a way of looking at themselves and their relationship to the larger world. The Wolof have a sense of superiority over other ethnic groups and are ownership oriented, as their language illustrates. The French and other ethnic groups around them have described them as ‘‘arrogant,’’ ‘‘haughty,’’ and ‘‘think too highly of themselves.’’ These comments are based on the posture the Wolof take regarding their unique culture.
As a society based on caste and family names, its biggest problem in modern times has been its inability to mediate between tradition and modernity. The caste system, as archaic as it seems, thrives today as much as it did in yesteryear. The reluctance of the upper caste to give up caste privilege is at the center of this perpetuation.
Caste, coupled with the discourse of fatalism coming through from both Islam and traditional practices, helps the perpetuation of the status quo. From Islam, only that which suits the society is highlighted and incorporated into their ways of life. Islam, it is evident, has no caste system, but from the Wolof worldview there can be no society without caste. Speaking of this stratification in the Wolof society, Abdoulaye Bara Diop explains that the caste system ‘‘continues to order groups, to determine their status, their functions and their comportment in ref- erence to a social order—of old repute’’ (my translation, 28).
This kind of ordering and othering is based upon the society’s view of infe- riority and superiority. Though this caste system is not gender based, there is a problem regarding the way the different genders are viewed. Women, on the whole, are generally viewed as an important part of society and respected. De- spite this respect, there are beliefs in the society that revolve around the evil and conniving nature of women, with sayings like ‘‘Djiguene sopal wai bul wolu (‘‘You can love a woman but do not trust her’’). I explain this kind of definition of woman as a male understanding of the disruption of patriarchy. Within this scheme of things is a concept and definition of the quintessential woman. This woman is the epitome of Wolof womanhood and exemplifies the concept of ‘‘gatt lamagne, gatt tank (‘‘Short of tongue, short of feet’’).’’ This type of woman is the best jabar (wife) to have. The construction of women as cheats, liars, or saints feeds into a stereotyping of women in these categories. As oppressed people, women take these definitions and turn them around on other women. This interesting contradictory nature of relationships between women becomes a recurrent theme in Senegalese fiction, of course presented differently from different experiences.
Ousmane Sembe`ne, probably more than any male writer in Senegalese fiction, contributes a balanced perspective in the discourse on women. He credits these positive portrayals to his experience, for what he saw growing up were powerful, resourceful women. The female writers in this tradition bring a whole new way of viewing women and their concerns. Therefore, constructions of the new knowledge of women arriving out of the particularity of female experiences finally joined the landscape of Senegalese literature, which was male dominated (at least in the written aspect of the literature). Perhaps no one is as poignant as Mariama Ba in presenting the view of the women and the tensions inherent in such a presentation.
Claims of universality can be made about Mariama Ba’s work. Mariama Ba herself, in her intellectual endeavors, has a sense of this universality, but at the same time she understands the particularity of the Senegalese (mainly Wolof) experience that she is writing about. She explains, ‘‘There is a cry everywhere, everywhere in the world, a woman’s cry is being uttered. The cry may be dif- ferent, but there is still a certain unity’’ (emphasis mine, Chamis, 1980). Without her particularly being situated in an Islamic Wolof society and having a Islamic/ Wolof worldview, she could not have written these specific texts of hers in the context that she does.
Situating Ba in this Wolof worldview requires defining her positionality and the different locations she inhabits. Even though Ba locates herself as ‘‘an av- erage Senegalese woman,’’ the spot she inhabits is anything but average. She is a daughter born into high caste in a society where caste impacts on one’s life. Caste determines one’s status in life in the sense of expectations. Caste, like color, is not something to be worn or discarded depending on one’s whim. Ba’s status as a guer (a non-casted person) distinguishes her and places her in a position that is different from that of other women who belong to the lower castes. By virtue of the circumstances of her birth, some kind of ‘‘superiority’’ is assumed. The fact that she is Western educated complicates matters further and puts her into a whole new category. Even though Western education does not keep one away from the daily duties of a woman, there is always the option of choices that are otherwise unavailable. Throughout Une si longue lettre/So Long a Letter, as Irene D’Almeida points out, the discourse of choice becomes central in the text.
Ramatoulaye and Aissatou always have the privilege of choice, as opposed to the non-Western-educated women in Un chant e´carlate/Scarlet Song like Coumba, Ouleymatou, and Yaye Khady, who seem to have little or no choice in the kind of lives they live, or even Binetou, whose economic circumstances limit her choices. In reading Ba, one then has to interrogate the interlocking systems of oppression of women in Dakar, Senegal. Caste, education, and class become important in this kind of discourse. The knowledge of how these three systems interact is automatically assumed by Ba as she discusses these systems of oppression while not always naming them. Her positionings as female, Mus- lim, guer, Western educated, orphaned, mother, and a divorce´e inform her ex- periences and the different tensions inherent in these multiple positionings.
How does Ba’s politics of location inform her intellectual project? Ba’s the- oretical and practical concerns lie in the subjectivity of the Senegalese woman under multiple layers of oppression, under the guise of tradition—tradition here denoting something static. Senegalese society in general and the city of Dakar in particular are by no means inert. The city of Dakar, economically, structurally, and culturally, is continually changing, so to claim a static culture and tradition is problematic. Mariama Ba herself believed that the mission of the writer in Senegalese society was to write against ‘‘the archaic practices, traditions and customs that are not a real part of our precious heritage’’ (Preface to So Long a Letter).
These are issues Ba raises in trying to understand the logic behind the often contradictory worldview of her society. Ba’s canvas covers the different women in her society and their locations. As a female writer, Ba is interested in a world where women will have choices and where monogamy is the order of the day. This world can only become a reality when women reexamine their relationships with each other and with their men. The goros (in-laws), the xarits (friends), and the wugg (wife), are all taken into account in this struggle.
In Ba’s fictional world, then, the most important and successful aspect of her literary presentation is, perhaps, her use of language (especially Wolof con- cepts). Ba’s texts, though written in French, show evidence that her use of language is situated in the tradition of the tagg of the griot women. This poetic act of extolling virtues takes the Wolof language to its highest forms. When one reads Mariama Ba’s texts, in essence, what one hears is this highly specialized poetics. The style in which both her letters and prose are written is informed by this style of tagg. At the same time, within the tagg, she uses the xas style, a style that shows contempt for the person receiving the xas. The Wolof lan- guage and Wolof concepts, therefore, become central in locating Mariama Ba’s work.
Tagg
In the beginning of both her texts, a Scarlet Song and So Long a Letter, Ba starts by extolling the virtues of her characters. In So Long a Letter, Ramatou- laye starts her intimate letter/diary by extolling and invoking her lifelong friend- ship (xaritya) with Aissatou. This calling on Aissatou by Ramatoulaye, reaching into the past to show how important their friendship has been and continues to be, is important for this tagg. This tagg is not much different from the one Ba dedicates to her Uncle in Scarlet Song. The dedication of the book to her uncle takes the form of a tagg poem. These two taggs set the tone for the two novels. Without this kind of grounding in the tradition of the griot, Mariama Ba’s texts would have felt and read differently.
The tagg, in the first instance, is used to call on and strengthen axaritya that has gone through different changes and experiences. Even though the letter form is utilized in the tagg, it is because Aissatou is located across the Atlantic Ocean. The letter becomes the only link between Ramatoulaye and Aissatou as they inhabit two geographical spaces mediated by a body of water. This letter, it should be noted, is not written to anyone else but Aissatou. This is important, especially in looking at the way Ramatoulaye begins the letter with the tagg, because Aissatou is the ‘‘xariti ben bakan’’ (long-time friend).
Aissatou shares in Ramatoulaye’s tears and joys. In the serious matter of announcing her husband’s death, Ramatoulaye calls on Aissatou three times to call her attention to the seriousness of the matter she is about to discuss. She has to remind Aissatou of the fact that memories are ‘‘the salt of remembrance’’ (1), and the memories they share go back a long way.
Unlike the tagg poem for Aissatou with its intricacies, the tagg poem to her uncle, Ousmane Macoumba Diop, has a clear purpose. This man is evidently someone who has touched Mariama Ba’s life in ways she cannot even begin to describe. He is obviously an extremely religious man, as the poem shows with words like ‘‘prayers,’’ ‘‘virtue,’’ ‘‘piety,’’ ‘‘solemn,’’ and so on. It is no co- incidence, then, that she presents us with a character like Djibril Gueye, who is the epitome of piety—the monogamist, the religious, the respecter of women, and the ‘‘level-headed’’ one. Djibril Gueye is the epitome of what men should aim to be like, according to Ba. The praises that are sung about him in Scarlet Song show the respect and admiration his ‘‘creator’’ (Ba) has for him. Through Ousmane, his son, the admiration for Djibril Gueye grows. But Oussou’s ad- miration is reciprocated by his father’s admiration. Djibril Gueye’s admiration of his son is without equal. In his tagg of Oussou, he explains why Oussou deserves his praises.
This form of tagg, a praise of gratefulness, is a common one. It can take place among relatives, close friends, and neighbors in public and in private, but always ends in the form of a prayer. Ba’s presentation of this tagg is true to its original in Wolof. This is the kind of tagg many a child lives for to hear from his or her parents and loved ones. In this tagg, as in others, there is a listing of deeds that are highlighted. Ousmane’s success would have been irrelevant if he had not sent his father to Mecca to perform the hajj. Children’s worth is based on how much they honor their parents. This of course has its problems, which include parents’ total control of their children’s lives.
The tagg from the ‘‘griots, goldsmiths and laobes with their honeyed lan- guage’’ (7), the members of the lower castes, comes with a price tag. Lady Mother-in-Law, coming from a poor background, has to buy her tagg. Sharing her tagg in the public sphere makes Lady Mother-in-Law feel good about her achievements. When her name is broadcast over the radio, it makes her feel important and accepted into ‘‘high society.’’ The fact that she has been awarded a space and position within the sorority of women ‘‘with heavy bracelets’’ makes her revel in a false sense of security. Ba presents her situation to show that she was not aware of the temporality of her newfound wealth. In this con- text, the tagg becomes a djei because Lady Mother-in-Law would never have received this kind of attention if Binetou had not married Modo Fall.
In a different context in Scarlet Song, Yaye Khady also gets her share of public tagg—something she has always dreamt about and never thought pos- sible—when Oussou marries a white woman, Mireille. With Ouleymatou in the family way with Oussou’s child, Yaye Khady rejoices: finally, she is going to have her day in public. When the day comes, Yaye Khady won’t be outdone.
Yaye Khady’s narcissism, always under cover, comes out in full force as she participates in and does what is ‘‘required’’ of her in this naming ceremony. She feels redeemed in front of her age-mates after the disastrous naming cere- mony of Gorgui during which she was shamed. ‘‘At last she had her day of glory among her peers’’ (134). The flattering to coax money out of the hands of the guers goes on with more and more taggs. Of course, at such a gathering the tagg is done mostly for financial gain, as the praises of ‘‘the open-handed ones’’ are sung. Ba gives faithful representations of these taggs in translation. It is evident that she admires them for their literary finesse, but she also critiques the practice, especially in instances where it is not genuine, but done just for financial gain.
For Ousmane Gueye, the public tagg brings complications in his life. Oul- eymatou uses Mabo the Dialli (griot) as part of the seduction process to ‘‘get’’ Ousmane. The Dialli made Ousmane feel good about his roots and determined that he was doing the right thing by being with Ouleymatou. The words the Dialli uses are carefully chosen and meant to touch Ousmane’s heartstrings. Who will not be moved by high praises of one’s ancestry? This is the human weak- ness the tagg exploits. Regardless of class and economic positioning, when one is reminded of one’s glorious past, one’s pride abounds.
In all its forms the tagg, therefore, operates as a way to show thanks and appreciation, to goad one to release money, to praise one’s ancestry, and to ensure that things move smoothly at public functions, despite the fact that some- times it has the opposite effect. Ramatoulaye complains about receiving the same calibre of praise as Binetou when in her calculations she should have received the most praises because she had been married to Modou for a longer period of time and has twelve children, while Binetou has only three. She sees this as hypocrisy on the part of her in-laws. ‘‘Our sisters-in-law give equal considera- tion to thirty years and five years of married life. With the same ease and the same words, they celebrate twelve maternities and three. I note with outrage this desire to level out, in which Modou’s new mother-in-law rejoices’’ (4).
The tagg, as these examples have shown, is deeply rooted in the griot tradition of praise poetry, a form that can be both spontaneous and well thought-out and defined. Mariama Ba’s literary roots, I argue, are deeply rooted in the tradition of the griot.
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