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Sharing theWorld Stage: Biography

and Gender in

World History

Jane Slaughter

Melissa K. BokovoyPatricia Risso

University of New Mexico

Ping Yao

California State University, Los Angeles

Patricia W. Romero

Towson University

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C H A P T E R

15

Decolonization and Independence

in Senegal: Leopold Sedar Senghor

(1906-2002) and Mariama

Bd (1929-1981)

M SETTING THE STAGE

By the beginning of the twentieth

century, Senegal was firmly in the

French colonial orbit. Four coastal

cities (including Goree Island) had

long-established contact with France

from the era of the Atlantic slave

trade (France outlawed the slave

trade in 1817) to the transition to

legitimate trade, which in turn, saw

the arrival of numbers of French

businessmen representing their firms

(especially from Bordeaux). During

the eighteenth century and when

France was heavily invested in the

slave trade, merchants often inter-

married with, or took as concubines,

local African women who were

important not only as companions

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Chapter 15

Decoloniza tion

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Ba (1929-1981)

but also provided economic benefitsthrough their large extended families.These women, the signores, producedmixed-race children who were calledCreoles and, because of their dual

ancestry, were not only pro-French butalso spoke the French language. Moreoften than not the signares found them-selves widowed but quite wealthy bylocal standards, their European hus-bands having succumbed to the harshclimate of high humidity for sixmonth s of the year, followed by hot drywinds the other six.

The progeny of these Creoles were

urban and Roman Catholic and servedas a buff er bet wee n the French and therest of the African community. By themid-nineteenth century, these com-munities of Christian Creoles werefound along the coast and organizedinto communes with their permanentresidents considered citizens of France.The rest of the Africans in Senegal(and in the French colonial Africanempire) lived in what the Frenchcalled protectorates (territories withno political rights and governed by adifferent set of laws from that of theprotecting state, in this case France).The majority of the several ethnicgroups in Senegal were Muslim, andthey were divided according to whichreligious leaders (marabouts) theyfollowed. But as French conquest pro-ceeded into especially the southern

area of Senegal, Catholic missionariesconverted a number of traditionalistswho had not accepted Islam.

Islam permeated the interior fromthe Senegal River to the north andstretching east to the border withMali. The Muslims put up the mostresistance to French conquest, first

under the banner of al Hajj Umar Talwho unsuccessfully tried to wrest onof the African empires fr om the Frencin the 1850s, before abandoning hicampaign and moving into the inte

rior to sprea d the particular sufi branof Islam that he espoused. But Muslimwere also found in the urban areaat the coast. There they coexisterather peacefully with the Frenchwhile they "avoided total assimilatioto the French system and retaineIslamic forms of marriage, family lifeand inheritance."1

The French in Senegal, as in Vietnam

(discussed in Chapter 13), governethis western African colonial statdirectly and not through traditionanative institutions. By 1895, Senegawas made a French colony and incorporated into French West Africa. Thimeant that the French living in Senegaand the black Africans of the communes elected a deputy to the FrencNational Assembly and were considered integral to the French empire. Onresult of this formal tie was that aincreasing number of black Africanlived and studied in France. BlacAfricans, like Leopold Sdar Senghoand the West Indian poet Aim Csairewere acculturated in French ways, noonly French culture but also politicaideology. Senghor's life story is famiiar to students of decolonization; habsorbed the influence of the Wes

but rejected its domination. During th1930s, Senghor began composinpoetry that featured the Africa of hibirth. Although he never lost his admration for France he became a foe o

1. Martin L. Klein, Islam and Imperialism in Sengal: Sine-Saloum 1847-1914 (Stanford, CA: Staford Univer sity Press, 1968), 67.

[374]


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The Actor

colonialism and fought for Senegaleseindependence.

Mariama B was born a Muslim inSenegal more than twenty years afterSenghor. Recognized as the first woman

from French-speaking Africa to ob tainworldwide acclaim through the publi-cation of Une si longue lettre (So Long a

Letter) in 1980, B's life as well as herwriting represents the religious, famil-ial, and personal conflicts that existedand exist within Senegalese society.Her two novels deal with the theme ofabandonment and with the conflictbetween modernism and a traditional-ism rooted in Islam. Women's exploita-tion and of course polygamy in theFrench Muslim world she knew werestrong themes, as was the issue ofclass. In So Long a Letter, B deals withan all too common problem in manyAfrican societies: that of the childbride. Her female protagonists are

champions for justice and for equalityin marriage as well as in society.

The lives of Senghor and Ba aswriters and political activists are welldocumented. Not only are Senghor's

poems available in English, but hispolitical writings are as well. Ba isless well known outside the French-speaking world, and not all of herwritings and interviews are trans-lated into English, so that her ideasabout and thoughts on women'semancipation in a Muslim societyhave not had the same exposure asother authors. Some of her writingsin the document section of this chap-ter have been translated into Englishfor the first time. Ba's So Long a Letteris one of the best examinations of thesocial, religious, and gender tensionsthat exist in West African societies astheir diverse peoples try to forgemodern identities and states.

THE ACT ORS

LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR

AND MARIAMA BA

It was in Sine, in the south, whereLeopold Sedar Senghor, poet, exponentof Negritude, politician, and first presi-dent of Senegal, was born to Catholicparents in 1906. But there was a twist:Leopold's father was a polygamist with

several wives and more than a dozenchildren.2 Leopold (always called Sedarby the family) was the fifth child of his

2. Janet G. Vaillant, Black, French and African: ALife ofLeopoldSedar Senghor (Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1990), 13. The CatholicChurch often turned a blind eye to polygamousrelationships since it was unable to enforcemonogamy and still keep people within the fold.

mother, Gnylane Bakhoum, who livedin the rural hamlet of Djilor while herhusband and the rest of his familydwelled in the town of Joal, near theAtlantic coast. He was of mixed ethnic-ity: his father, Basile Diogoye Senghor,was a Serer but claimed Portugueseheritage. The Serer were a rather largeethnic group based in Sine, and whileLeopold's maternal antecedents are not

altogether clear, his most recent biogra-pher claimed that his mother too waspartly Serer and of high birth withinthat society.3 The family was wealthy.

3. Ibid., 14. See also Sylvia Washington Ba, TheConcept of Negritude in the Poetry ofLeopoldSedarSenghor (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UniversityPress, 1973), 7.

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Chapter 15

Decoloniza tion

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Lopold Sdar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Mariama

B (1929-1981)

Lopold's father was a large landownerwith many cattle and also owned hisown business, buying peanuts (themajor export crop) and selling them toFrench firms.

Under the influence of his mother'sshepherd brother, Toko'Waly, Senghorheard the traditional stories character-izing the spirit world of his ancestors.But by the time he was seven yearsold, his father intervened into thisidyllic communion that the boy hadestablished with Toko'Waly and senthim to a rural mission school whereSenghor remained for eight years. Atthe school Senghor not only learnedFrench but also took seriously to thereligious instruction. Deciding to entera seminary and study for the priest-hood, he went off to Dakar where heattended the Libermann Seminary forthree years until an untoward event ofa racial nature led to a contretempswith the father superior a nd to his dis-missal. Even in his youth, Senghorwas aware of "otherness." There were

very few African boys at the seminary,and this was also the case at the lycehe moved to after leaving the semi-nary. In 1928, Senghor completed theequivalent of high school and receiveda scholarship from the French WestAfrican government with which heproceeded to France and attendedthe Lyce Louis-le-Grand. Graduatingin 1934, Senghor's scholarship was

extended to enable him to obtain theequivalent of a master's degree fromthe Diplme d'tudes Suprieureswhich qualified him to teach in Frenchhigh schools and universities.

At this point, Senghor took a teach-ing job but he also began studying fora degree in African linguistics and

that, in turn, required that he acquirFrench citizenship. Keep in mind, hwas from the province of Sine anthus was regarded as an indigena(subject) of France. While he was

student and teacher, he wrote his firvolume of poetry, Chants d'Ombr(Songs from the Shadow).4 In 1939 Senghor joined the French army, was captured, and remained a Germaprisoner of war from 1940 to 194While writing was prohibited in thcamp, Senghor nevertheless wroverse on scraps of paper that latewere compiled in another book opoetry, Hosties Noires (BlackEucharist).5

In 1944 he was appoin ted to L'EcoNationale de la France d'Outre-mewhere he taught African languageand two years later he married thdaughter of a black Caribbean, whwas a highly placed French officiaand fathered two sons. They divorcein 1955 and Senghor was mostestranged from these children. Afteserving as the second deputy fro

French West Africa for a brief perioSenghor returned to Senegal to worfor its independence. When that indpendence was won in 1960, he welected its first president. Through thyears Senghor continued writing poetrand was engaged in many culturactivities on the world stage as well in France and at home in Senegal.

Little is known about noveli

Mariama Ba's ancestors. She was Wolof, which is the largest ethn

4. Washington B, 4-5; Lopold Sdar SenghoChants D'Ombre (Paris: Seuil, 1945).

5. Lopold Sdar Senghor, Hosties Noires (ParSeuil, 1948).

[376]


8/22

group in Senegal, and it is possiblethat she was a descendant of Ma B,a revolutionary marabout who livedin the Sine-Saloum area in the latenineteenth century; or related to

marabout Bamba M'Backe (B inWolof), who was a major figure inSenegalese history.6 Clearly she camefrom a distinguished Muslim familybecause her paternal grandfatherwas employed by the French WestAfrican government as an interpreterand her father was appointed minis-ter of health in 1956 in the Senegalesecabinet when it was still dominated

by the French. Creoles occupied mostof the important government posi-tions in the four communes, andAfricans who were appo inted tende dto be Christian, hence B's antecedentsmust have been important enough towarrant attention on the part of theFrench colonial officials in Dakar,where she was born.

The early details of her life are frag-

mentary, sending us to her novels toattempt to search for biographicaldata. The first public school for girlswas established in Dakar in 1903, butwe do not know if B's mother wasexposed to more than religious educa-tion at a madrassa (mosque school).Nor do we know if her father hadmore than one wife, but we do knowthat B's mother died when she wasvery young and her maternal grand-

parents raised her. They were Muslimbut probably also steeped in tradi-tional Wolof culture and mores. Hergrandmother may have been the pro-

The Actor

totype for the mothers-in-law protago-nists in her two novelsUne si longuelettre (So Long a Letter) and Un chantcarlate (Scarlet Song). So Long a Letter

has been characterized as being at least

autobiographical, with Ramatoulaye,the main protagonist, standing in forB. One author noted that in January1980, soon after the novel was pub-lished (in French), B agreed thataspects of her life were portrayed inthis novel and through that character.7

Mariama B attended madrassa but,on the insistence of her father, alsowent to public school from which she

graduated in the early 1940s. It washer intention to follow her father intothe public sector, so she enrolled in asecretarial course at the cole Normalin Rufisque, another of the four com-munes. At that time all educationalinstitutions were separated by genderbut not by religion. Thus B's educa-tion was entirely confined to schoolsfor girls, and this included also thereligious instruction she received. Atthe cole Normal B performed soimpressively that the principal urgedher to major in teacher training. Shetook the qualifying examinations andscored the highest of all students inFrench West Africa. In 1947 B gradu-ated and began a teaching career thatspanned the next twelve years. In 1959B was appointed to the RegionalInspectorate of Teaching, serving as

an inspector of education until illhealth forced her resignation in 1980.

While still a student at the coleNormal, B wrote a number of essays

6. For these religious leaders, see G. WesleyJohnson, The Emergence of Black Politics in Senegal(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1971).

7. Aminata Maiga Ka, "Ramatoulaye, Aissatou,Mireille et . . . Mariama B," Notre Librairie 81(1985): 134.

[377]


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Chapter 15

Decolonization

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Bd (1929-1981)

with political overtones. She, like Seng-hor, rejected the French policy ofassimilation that to them meant aban-doning African culture for all thingsFrenchlanguage, history, and litera-

ture. Instead, she wrote that "my mindhas been whitened and my headremains black, but the blood surges,unrestrained through my civilizedveins" marking her as an African.8 Onthe other hand, Ba was also an advocatefor change within society, denouncing

"the evils and scourges that eat away aour society and delay its full development and striking out at archaic practices, traditions and customs that are noa real part of our precious cultural he

itage." She saw her mission as a writeto "convey the aspirations of all socicategories, especially the most undeprivileged."9 She, too, experienced thracial divide that had been experienceby Senghor many years earlier when hwas a student in Dakar.

ACT I

THE ORIGINS AND POLITICS

OF NEGRITUDE

Senghor arrived in a cold gray Paristhat was not welcoming, although itmust have been thrilling to tour thecity and see the many monuments hehad studied about while he wasimmersed in French language, history,

and literature. He had certainly beenaware of racismthe incident at theseminary being a blatant example.Soon after he settled in, Senghor madethe acquaintance of Blaise Diagne, thefirst African depu ty to sit in the Cham-ber of Deputies, who became a rolemodel of sorts for the younger man.Diagne had defeated a Creole foroffice in 1914 and by 1928 was firmlyestablished in political and socialcircles in the City of Light. Diagne,who was also Roman Catholic, hadmarried a white woman in France,

8. Quot ed in Femi Nze gwu , "M an am a Ba(1929-1981)," The Literary Encyclopedia, www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true/UID=5152, accessed Dec. 2, 2007.

which Senghor would do in 1960 ater divorcing his Caribbean wifThis union produced another son foSenghor.10

While he was enrolled at Louis Grand, Senghor became friends witGeorges Pompidou, who would latebecome president of France.11 Durinthose early years Senghor was mucenraptured with the poetry of Charle

Baudelaire (whose work became thbasis for his master's thesis), but hwas also attracted to Arthur Rimbauand especially one of his epic poemthat dealt with African themes.12

addition, Senghor encountered AimCsaire from Martinique, who playea major role in turning Senghor frohis immersion in all things Frencto an appreciation of his Africaidentity.

Csaire was a few years youngthan Senghor but much more aware o

9. Quoted in Nzegwu, 2.

10. Washington B, 21.

11. Vaillant, 72.

12. Ibid., 75-77.

[378]


10/22

Act

the emergence of a movement amongAfrican Americans, called the NewNegro by the Howard University pro-fessor and writer Alain Locke. Csaireacquainted his new African friend

with the works of the Harlem Renais-sance writers, the poet LangstonHughes, Jean Toomer, and CounteeCullen. While he knew little English,Senghor laboriously read in Englishthe literary and political works ofW. E. B. Du Bois whose Souls of BlackFolkso inspired him that despite beingregarded as one of the fathers of negri-tude, Senghor looked back on those

years and claimed it was actually DuBois who was the progenitor of theconcept. Csaire originated the wordnegritude in his poem Cahier d'unRetour au Pays Natal (Notebook of the Re-

turn to My Native Land) which in effectmeant to celebrate blackness and thecultures spurred in and beyond Africaby black people.13

Senghor also turned to anthropolog-

ical works such as those by GermanLeo Frobinius and Maurice Delafosse(actually a French colonial servant inSenegal) wh o presented African culturein a positive light. The French art muse-ums also had on display the works ofPicasso, Braque, and Modigliani,which stressed the beautiful and exotic"other" in their paintings.14 InitiallySenghor referred to Locke's New Negro(French, Negr nouveau), but after

13. Irving Markovitz, Lopold Senghor and thePolitics of Negritude (New York: Atheneum,1969), 54. See also Janice Spleth, Lopold SedarSenghor (Boston: Twayne, 1985), 4-8; AbioleIrele, ed., Selected Poems of Lopold Sdar Senghor(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,1977), 78-79.

14. Irele, 9.

Cesaire introduced negritude, he notonly embraced it; he extended negri-tude to a wider horizon. IrvingMarkovitz, one of Senghor's biogra-phers, divides Senghor's ideas about

negritude into three periods andconsiders ho w it influenced his politicalendeavors as well as his literaryoeuvre.15

When Senghor was teaching inTours in the late 1930s, he was quitelonely, and that was when he beganseriously composing poetry. While itcontains African themes, Senghor didnot reject French culture; he rejected

the French imperative of assimilationin favor of moving to assimilate(Document One). After his years inFrench schools, and living in Francefor so long, he straddled both cul-tures. Senghor reacted to the type ofinstruction he had received underFrench tutelage at home: "blacks hadbeen taught for centuries that theyhad brought nothing, built nothing,

painted nothing, sung nothing, andthat they and their culture werenothing."16 His early poems spokedirectly to French contempt for hishomeland, and in poems like "Joal"and "Prayer to Masks," Senghorhighlights West African ceremony,culture, and nature.

In "Joal," he expressed his nostalgiafor home and his father's town and

felt free to write of Africa:

Joal!

I remember

I remember the pomps of sunset

15. Markovitz, 49. These three periods run fromParis befor e World War II, fr om the war t o Sene-gal ' s independence, and pos t independence.

16. Quoted in Vaillant, 130.

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Chapter 15

Decolonization

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Bd (1929-1981)

That Kumba N'Dofene wanted cut to

make his royal cloak

I remember pagan rhythmic singing of

the Tantum Ergo

And procession and palms and tri-

umphal arches.

In another early poem, "Prayer toMasks," Senghor notes how the dis-guise of the mask ushers the deceasedinto the spirit world, removing thetraces of sickness and old age:

"Masks! Masks!"

Black mask, red mask, you white-and-

black masksMasks of the four points from which

the Spirit blows

In silence I salute you!

You distil this air of eternity in which I

breathe the air of my Fathers.

Masks of unmasked faces, stripped of

the marks of illness

And the lines of age . . .17

It was emotionfeelingthat charac-terized negritude for Senghor, whooften referred in his speeches to l'mo-tion (Document Two).

18

As the above excerpts from hisearly poetry illustrate, he wrote in freeverse. And while he never entirelyabandoned negritude as a word, Seng-hor turned to Africanit ("Africanity")after his wartime poems were pub-lished in Hosties noires in 1948. Hostiesnoires modified his vocabulary in that

17. "Joal" and "Masks" are from Chants d'Om-bre in Leopold Sdar Senghor: Prose and Poetry,eds. and trans. John Reed and Clive Wake (Lon-don: Heinemann, 1976), 106-7.

18. Quoted in Reed and Wake, 20.

Nazi sm and the prison camps b roughhim "to my senses. After two years ocaptivity . . . Two years of meditationI came out cured."19 What he meant ithat he retreated from how negritud

had been read by others to implythat it was "antiracist racism" alabeled by the philosopher Jean-PauSartre.20

Another characteristic of Senghor'poetry was that he often insertewhich instrument should be playewhile the particular poem was beinrecited. In his lengthy "Prayer oPeace," he called for the grand pian

(an instrument associated with Europto match the theme of the poem). I"Prayer of Peace" we see Senghoreaching back to point out the brutalities visited on Africa by Europe beforturning to the carnage he witnessed iWorld War II, and the emotional reaction he felt especially for the Frencvictims:

IILord God, forgive white Europe,

It is true Lord, that for four enlightene

centuries, she has

Scattered the baying and slaver of he

mastiffs over my

Lands. . . .

III

Kill it Lord, for I must follow my wa

and I would pray especially fo

France.

Lord, among the white nations, set Franc

at the right hand of the Father....

19. Vaillant, 175.

20. Ibid., 175, 215.

[ 1 0 ]


12/22

Ac

IV

O Lord, take from my memory the

France which is not

France, mask the smallness and hatred

upon the face of France.

The mask of smallness and hatred forwhich I have hatred

. . . .yet I may well hate Evil

For I have a great weakness for France.

Bless this people who were tied and

twice able to free their

Hands and proclaim the coming of the

poor into the kingdom

Who turned the slaves of the day into

men free equal fraternal. . . P

Senghor never abandoned his Christ-

ian faith. In "Religion," he pro-

claimed, "I am a Catholic," but good

politician that he was, he also paid

tribute to Islam: "No one would wish

to deny that the Arabo-Berbers and

Islam have added their leaven to

African blood and civilization. They

brought us warrior ardour and intel-

lectual unrest, a moral, rational reli-

gion and morality." While he is critical

of much that transpired in the long

contact between West Africa and Eu-

rope, Senghor recognized that no

change can reverse what transpired:

Catholicism "cannot ignore tradi-

tional African religion. . . . nothing

solid or lasting can be built except on

the foundation of traditional African

religion."22

Thus we see the synthesis

he created between traditional Africanmasks that he remembered from his

rural childhood and the Christian

21. "Pr aye r for Peace ," in Reed an d Wake,

132-38.

22. Reed and Wake, 40-42.

faith, no doubt reflecting his own syn-

chronic beliefs.

In the collection of poetry entitled

Ethiopiques, Senghor referred to his

"Congo" as a lament and called for

accompaniment by three koras and abalafong. In fact he often included either

the kora or the balafong in his poetry.

The kora is a many stringed instrument

made from a gourd and is strummed;

the balafong is the forerunner to the xy-

lophone. In other poems, he called for a

drum, a tom-tom as he called it.23

In

"Congo" Senghor tells us the river re-

minded him of the rhythm of "the wa-

ters and rivers" and the Congo was themother of "crocodiles and hippopotami,

manatees, iguanas, fishes and birds."

This theme encompassed the romantic

style of poetry then in vogue but with a

distinctly African bent.24

Senghor paid a rather unpleasant

visit to New York and wrote a short

poem from his experience. As a politi-

cian in France and then as pres ident of

Senegal, he traveled widely, and whilehe had less opportunity for creative

writing, Senghor was often invited to

speak at cultural events. He spoke

often on such topics as Pan Africani sm

and cultural commonalities between

people of color. He defined manifesta-

tions of African culture as a means to

stake out and celebrate an African

identity in many of his talks, includ-

ing the lengthy one that he presented

at the First International Congress ofNegro Writers and Artists in 1956

(Document Three).

23. For the interweaving of verse and music in

Africa, see J. H. Kwa ben a N ketia, Music of Africa

(New York: Norton, 1964).

24. Reed and Wake, 139-40.

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Chapter 15

Decolonization

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Ba (1929-1981)

ACT I I

A FEMINIST FRENCH AFRICAN WRITER

Mariama Ba published So Long a Letter(Une si longue lettre) in 1980; this was

followed in 1981 by Scarlet Song (Unechant ecarlate).25 At age fifty she sweptonto the world's stage as the firstmajor feminist French African writer.But unfortunately, Ba's entrance wasquickly eclipsed by her rapid depar-ture. In 1981 she was diagnosed withcancer soon after she attended theFrankfurt Book Fair where shereceived the first Noma Award for thebest book of 1980 on Africa n literature.Her publisher noted that she "becamethe centre of attraction" when So Longa Letter was announced for that prize.At her death Ba left little in the way ofan archive although, as noted, manybelieve So Long a Letter was at leastpartly autobiographical. She married,gave birth to nine childrenall whilecarrying out her teaching and educa-tional responsibilitiesthen she was

divorced. Her husband, Obeye Diop,was a member of the Senegalese Par-liament.

Ba started writing when she wasquite young: "I wrote essays for home -work which were published. I wrote adissertation which was published .. . along time ago."26 In addition she pub-lished a number of articles in localnewspapers and seems to have been

politically involved in issues pertain ing

25. Mariama B, So Long a Letter, t rans . ModupBod-Thomas (Por tsmouth, NH: Heinemann,1981); and Scarlet Song, trans. Dorothy Blair(London; Longman, 1985).

26. Barbara Harrell-Bond, "Mariama Ba, Winnerof the First No ma Aw ard f or Publi shing in Africa,"

African Book Publishing Record6 (1980): 209.

to women, class and caste for manyyears prior to her early death. Themesdealing with oppression marked herwritings, as did the issues of abuseand victimization.27

Ba was more than twenty yearsSenghor's junior and undertook all ofher studies in Senegal, yet in hernovels and to a lesser extent the fewpublications in which she speaks, Batouched on the central theme of iden-tity that also concerned him in hisprose and poetry. In Scarlet Song, forinstance, Ba's male protagonist whowas a student in the period of turmoilin the late 1960s addresses negritudeOusmane: "I am all for the generadoctrine of Negritude. I'm for returning to your roots and keeping the wayopen." Others (in the dialogue) disagreed. Ousmane concluded amidst aclamor of opposition, "Culture is universal. Culture is an instrument ofdevelopment. How can you achieveself-knowledge which leads to selfrespect, without knowledge of and

respect of others."28 Ba's reflection onnegritude in this novel mirrored conversations that had been taking placeover the decades about Senghor'philosophy. For some, negritude had anegative connotation because of itessentialist claims. However, Ousmane, in the passage above, identifiedthe role that the doctrine of negritudehad played and could continue to play

in modernizing Africa. To him, negritude had been utilized in order tocounteract European colonialism and

27. Femi Ojo-Ade, "Still a Victim? MariamBa's Une si longue lettre," African Literature Toda12(1982): 71.

28. Ba, Scarlet Song, p. 47.

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15/22

Chapter 15

Decolonization

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Ba (1929-1981)

who have crossed that bridge to

modernity. Subsequent events con-

cerning them in the novel play this

out, with one daughter becoming

pregnant by her boyfriend, another

marrying the man of her choice andsharing household responsibilities

equally with him. Younger daughters

are caught smoking and insist on

wearing pants instead of the tradi-

tional long dress.

Modou never returned home, but

he does seem to have provided much

suppor t for his first wife and children.

He succumbed to the rigors and pres-

sures of being married to a young anddemanding wife and died of a heart

attack. That left both wo me n wid ows

who had to share the Islamic rituals

together. This was humiliating for the

well educated, sophisticated mother

of a dozen children who had been

Modou's wife for twenty-five years.

She is then at the mercy of another tra-

dition which allowed for the hus-

band's younger brother to take her as

another of his wives. That did not

work out, but an old flamethe man

her mother had wanted her to

marrywho had prospered and was

a deputy in parliament appeared and

asked Ramatoulaye to become his sec-

ond wife.

Although Ramatoulaye was flat-

tered by his offer, her conscience wa s

"not accommodating enough to en-

able me to marry you, when only es-

teem, justified by your many qualities,

pulls me towards you. Esteem is not

enough for marriage."31

Ramatoulaye

explained her position, which reflects

that of Ba as well:

And then the existence of your wife

and children further complicate the

si tuat ion. Ab an do ne d yest erday be

caus e of a wo ma n, I can not lightly

bring myself between you and your

family.

You think the problem of polygamy

is a simple one. Those who are involved

in it know the constraints, the lies, the

injustices that weigh down their con

sciences in return for the ephemera

joy s of c h a n g e . . . . 32

The issue of polygamy again surfaces

in Scarlet Song. In this case, the firs

wife is a French white woman, Mireille

who met and fell in love with the Sene-

galese husband, Ousmane, when they

were college students in Dakar. Racism

is also a major factor in this novel and

enters via the white girl's father who

was a diplomat based in Senegal. Once

the diplomat discovered that hidaughter was seeing a black man, hi

surface face of equality dissolved into

racist anger and he sent his daughte

back to France. Mireille and Ousmane

corresponded and plotted to reunite

She converted to Islam; he joined her in

France and they married. Mireille'

father wrote her off (the mother wa

too meek to stand up to the patriarch

even for her only child). Mireill

arrived in Dakar, and the novel thenproceeded to deal with the many cross

cultural issues that they faced. Ulti

mately, Ousmane succumbed to th

wiles of the African woman becaus

his wife failed to adapt to the cultur

31. Ibid., 32. Ibid.

[384]


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Ac

that he wou ld not abandon. He had ad-

mired this woman in his youthand

in the present was aided and abetted

by his mother who opposed his first

marriage because "a Toubab [white]

can't be a proper daughter-in-law."33

Through this character Ba conveyed to

her readers that racism existed in

African society as well.

By the time Mireille discovered

that Ousmane had taken a second

wife, she had given birth to a mixed-

race child. Keeping in mind that

Creoles had been cultural brokers in

French-Senegalese relations during

the colonial era, the era of independ-ence tended to stigmatize children of

black and white, especially among the

traditionalists such as Ousmane's

mother. The second wife had not only

produced an African baby, but an-

other was on the way. Mireille was

frantic. "She tried to keep her suffer-

ing in harness throughout her lonely

days and nights. She dragged herself

from her bed to the bathroom, from

the bathroom to her classes [she wasteaching], from her classes back to the

kitchen.... Her nerves were a-quiver;

she was troubled with numbness in

her feet; she clung on with iron deter-

mination not to break down."34

Mireille, however, was unable to hold

on. At novel's end she kills the child,

attacks Ousmane, and is sent back to

a mental hospital in France.

These brief but poignant examples

suggest that Ba may have been writ-

ing as a result of her own experience

the anguish of having been replaced

by a second wife. While she never

33. Ba, Scarlet Song, 67.

34. Ibid., 159.

openly stated that her opposition to

polygamy was personal, as we have

seen, Ba confessed that she shared

much in common with Ramatoulaye.35

In an interview with Harrell-Bond,

following on the receipt of the NomaAward, Ba exclaimed that "all men are

basically polygamous." It was not an

African problem but universal. "In

my view that is what polygamy

means, legalizing a man's escapades"

(Document Five).36

In her public life, Ba was active

in women's organizations, foremost

among them the International Opti-

mists Sisters who served in advocacyroles to better conditions for women

through meetings, talks, and various

forms of activism. In this capacity she

and her group visited President

Senghor. She took note that Senegal,

despite discrimination against women,

offered the opportunity to organize

and a platform on which to address

these issues that would not have been

possible in some African countries.37

In the publication of her Noma

Award address, Ba spoke of the

inequalities in Africa between men

and women. She noted that "injustices

persist, segregation continues. . . . In

the families, in the institutions, in

places of work, in political meetings

discrimination is plentiful." Address-

ing the issue of culture, she criticized

the constraints of society: "Customs

and habits added to the self-centeredand abusive interpretation of religion

weigh down on your spine."38

35. Ka, 134.

36. Harrell-Bond, 211.

37. Ibid., 210.

38. Ba, "La fonct ion poli tiqu es," 3.

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Chapter 15

Decolonization

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Ba (1929-1981)

m FINALE

With a foot in bo th France and Senegal,Leopold Senghor further divided histime and talents between politics and

literature, culture and poetry. Alongwith Alione Diop, he founded andpublished the major literary journal,Prsence Africaine, in 1947. He was amember of the post-World War II con-stitutional committee in France, wherehe worked unsuccessfully to give morevoice to Africans in the empire.

After a brief stint as deputy fromSenegal, he returned home, formed apolitical party that rivaled the preex-isting one, campaigning hard andwidely among the rural people andcourting the Muslim marabouts both inthe country as well as in the cities. Hewas elected president of Senegal, serv-ing in office from 1960 to 1980. In thatyear he voluntarily stepped down af-ter a free election, spending part of theyear in each of the countries he loved:his rural estate in France and his home

in Senegal.Two of the more remarkable fea-

tures marking his long rule were hisorigin from an ethnic group that wasin the minority and the fact he was aCatholic governing a Muslim country.He worked well with Muslims,attended their religious ceremoniesand installed them in his cabinet.

In 1984 Senghor was elected to the

prestigious Acadmie Franaise (whosemembership is always maintained at200 with a vacancy occurring only onthe death of a member). In 1985 theNational Library in France installedan exhibition featuring his writings,but he disallowed any references tohis political career.

While he was widely celebratedand called on to speak all over Africaand in many parts of the world, Seng-hor experienced two major losses.First, one of his sons by his first wife

died in 1948 never having reconciledwith his father. Then, and perhaps thegreatest tragedy, was the loss of hisyoungest son in 1982. Following onthat event, Senghor wrote an elegy tothis son of both France and Senegal.39

While Mariama Ba's voice wasmuted much too soon, her battles onbehalf of women, especially againstpolygamy, continue through the sales

of both So Long a Letter and ScarletSong. Both works have entered thecanon. They have been translated intoall of the major languages and aretaught in colleges and universitiesacross Europe and Africa as well as inthe United States. Ramatoulaye andAissatou live on in her books as cham-pions of justice and change.

Senghor and Ba were both Fran-

cophone writers and both invokedpolitics as well as the pen to advancetheir agendas. We do not know howfar Ba might have climbed in the political arena had she lived. Senghorstraddled the worlds of France andSenegal. Ba visited France but re-mained more tightly bound to AfricaThey were a generation apart in ageBoth were concerned with identityand were instrumental in drawing at

tention to African cultureBa perhaps more to reform it, Senghor tocelebrate it.

39. Vaillant, 339.

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D O C U M E N T F O U R

MARIAMA BA

Interview (1980)

Mariama Bas interview with British anthropologist Barbara Harrell-Bond took

place in Dakar in June 1981. Bd had been notified but not yet presented with the

Noma Award at the time of this interview. What are Bas views on the relations

between African women and men, marriage and fidelity, and castes in Senegal?

Your book, Une si longue lettre, appears to be fairly pessimistic about marriage in

modern Senegal, about the possibilities of men and women establishing a satisfactory

relationship as a married couple.

No, although I am divorced, I wish I were married. Men and women are com-

plementary. I know many women who prefer to divorce and remain singlebecause their interests do not always work out within a marriage. I am not mar-

ried, but that is not because I would not prefer to be married.

Is it not true that women in pre-colonial African society had more power than they

do today? Do you not think that modern African women are losing some of their power

as they become 'westernized'?

It was a rather limited power, I believe. She had power in certain areas, but in

other areas she had no power at all. We must not have illusions. It was a moral

power. We think of the wisdom of women, their lack of impulse which allows

them to react on the basis of thought. We think of the wise, reasonable reactions of

women and also that she was the keeper of the traditions, of the secrets, etc. But all

of that was accompanied by something else. She was not at the prow of the boat.

She did not rule the home. She was asked for advice, she gave it. In some ways you

can say that she was the shadow under which the others in the family could rest,

but she did not have all that much power. There was power which women had,

and it was not negligible, but it was not a power which gave her dominance over

men. She had grandeur, but it was not the woman who dominated the home. For

example, when there were battles between kingdoms, she could sacrifice herself

for her husband. She could give herself in marriage to another ki ngdom to stop the

conflict. There is a story of a queen which is told. The husband had to give the wife

in marriage as a sacrifice. She accepted this so that her husband could continue as

the ruler. She had grandeur. She kept up the traditions. She was the voice of rea-son. But it does not mean that man was her sl av e. .. .

In your bookyou explore women's psychology, but what about men's? Is not the fact

that women have the power of procreation which men do not have a factor in the antag-

onisms which exist between them?

But men have children too. But yes, only women know this miracle of life.

They are the ones who know how it happens. They are the witnesses of the

beginning of life at childbirth.

[39i]


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Chapter 15

Decoloniza tion

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Ba (1929-1981)

One thing which seems to set African women apart from many women in western so-

ciety is their confidence in their femininity.

Yes, that is true. We do not imitate men. Yes, African women are fulfilled as

women.

I understand that attitudes towards having large families in Senegal are changing?

That is true. People do not want so many children these days because it isharder. It is not the same system of life. We do not have the same needs. Before

we lived in nature, without material possessions, cultivating the land and we

needed many hands. Life was based on cultivation. There were no ploughs to

work in the fields.

Would you say that African women are more adaptable than are men to the changes

which have taken place? Women seem to get great satisfaction out of educating their

children.

But you see, we must not have any illusions because there are many difficul-

ties in modern society. It is true that women have their homes, but woman's

relationships with her children has changed. It is not like it used to be. . . . She

does not have the same power to act with her children. All this has changed.

There is first the problem of school. The mother has not been to school, so she

cannot participate in the process of the child's gaining knowledge. She cannot

ask him any questions about his school work so that the child will learn more

quickly. In effect the school comes between the mother and the child. The only

education she can give her child is the one she has received, the education her

mother gave her when she was a little girl. Her daughter is not being educated

in the same way as she was. Her daughter is living in another society where the

pressures and the needs are different. Yes, so there are more difficulties for the

mother in the education of the children. The education she might like to give

her children does not fit the present generations any more.

Would you say that parental authority has been lost?

I am not saying that a mother has lost her authority, but I would say that i

has been shaken. It is not the same, it lacks the same solid base, it has lost some

of its efficacy. You see there is authority, but an aut hor ity whi ch does not find

the same docile or passive reception. The objects of parental authority have

changed. The objects are no longer docile. The mother has strength and author-

ity, but the relationship has ch an ge d. .. .

Can we talk about love? You emphasize it in the book. But it seems to me that while

modern Senegalese men want to choose their wife on the basis of love, once they are mar

ried, they want their wife to behave as though she had been selected in the traditionalway by the family.

Yes, yes, that is exactly right. There are certain things which have to be said

about today's society. We are almost ashamed to find love and sentiment. We

believe that the way to be is rational and logical, not to admit to any beating of

the heart. We hav e more reason than heart. I believe that wha t ma de my book so

successful was that it put sentiment, emotion, back into its place. I believe that

we are not only animals, an animal without emotion. We are not here just to

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Documen

make children, to eat, to search for clothing, for houses, and so forth. If it were

only that we would be animals. We would have the instincts which would push

us to find our food, our protection, to build the strongest houses, not to be cold

or hot, to make ventilated houses. But we have something more than the ani-

mal. It is our capacity to feel. It is emotion, sentiment which directs our lives

and which gives us the capacity to act, not only out of self interest, but also

because there is the thought of love. But we do not know this very well. We donot know that instead of reason, sentiments can lead us just as well.

How do Senegalese women today envisage that their marriages will be changed by

love?

The woman who loves her husband is searching for the happiness of herself

andher husband, for the marriage. Before woman was educated, she could still

find happiness. She did not have any idea that things could change. For today's

woman marriage is a mixture of yesterday and the present. In this kind of mar-

riage perhaps a woman has more of a chance to be happy than she did in the

past. But it is the same partn er wh ich she finds . He has inherited a certain vision

of marriage from his father, a certain point of view about marriage and hecomes face to face with the woman with all of these ideas which he has inher-

ited. These include the pattern of conduct for the husband, the way to treat a

wife, the children, etc. What women are searching for is not so much to destroy

everything from the past. But the man must abandon a part of his power, his

privileges from the past. The woman who lives with him must not be a slave as

he has learned to expect in his childhood. For example, when they were little

girls and boys, a boy was told, "No! No, you must not sweep the floor. It is the

girl who must sweep the floor. Wash the clothes? No, it is the girl who washes

the clothes. Who must fetch the water? It is the girl who must fetch the water."

So he comes to marriage with that kind of education in his head. She is the one

who must cook, who must wash his clothes, who must do all things for him. He

comes this way because he has been taught. If today he wants his wife to be

happy, he has to forget what he has been taught. He must look at the woman

beside him and look at her with different eyes, in a different way. Now you see

where the whole conflict lies. For someone who has had all the advantages, it is

very difficult for him to abandon all of these advantages, is it not? To abandon

these advantages all of a sudden - it really requires a great, great effort. When

you come into a house whi ch is well -fu rnished, it is very difficult to leave it and

go to live in a hut. It is difficult. So men must make an effort. So now we moth-

ers, we mothers who have had the privilege to understand a little and to play a

part in the education of our sons, we have tried to raise them so that they do notgrow up thinking of themselves as "kings of the family." This is the hope for the

future. It is very difficult for men today to forget their background. It is extremely

difficult, very har d for someone wh o has power to willingly give it up.

Do women who base their marriages on love expect fidelity?

She can hope. It is a problem which is not specific to African women. It is a

general problem within relationships between men and women. It has been

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Chapter 15

Decolonization

and

Independence

in Senegal:

Leopold Sedar

Senghor

(1906-2002)

and Manama

Ba (1929-1981)

thought that man, not because he is black or white, has a different physiology

from that of women. A woman is always more easily satisfied. She is different

There is this polygamous desire which is not specific to the Black race, which

inhabits all menblack or white. So it is the same problem, a problem which is

raised in the book, but not a problem which is greater between black men and

black women. Black women and men behave the same way as white and yellow.

All men are basically polygamo us. This is a general ma n /w o ma n pr ob le m. . ..

But is there not a similarity between your views of status differences between women

and the caste system in Senegal to zuhich you object in your book?

But caste is not the same. It is not a question of virtue. The girl of an inferior

caste may be virtuous. Caste is a social attitude. It is a social layer which has the

same faults and the same virtues as the social layer which is regarded as more

'noble.' Yes, it is not because of caste that makes a person to be without virtue

No, there is no comparison. I believe that within the castes one may observe all

the virtues of our race. In the old days, for example, the griotcame from a lower

caste, but they were the first to die in battles. They were the ones who led the

warriors who were on horseback so that they would not run away from the bat-tle. They exhorted the warriors to go forward with their cries: "You, the brave

you the brave, your father died at such and such a place, at such a battle. You, the

brave, your brother never ran away, he is dead under the dagger. You, the brave

etc. etc." The griothad this exalted role even though he was of a low caste. How

could the warrior run away in front of this witness? And the one who is challeng-

ing the warriors is also obliged to be present beside them. I do not know if you

can understand me, but caste is a social classification of roles. It starts with indi-

viduals in determined functions, in determined social roles, and goes on from

generation to generation, from father to son. But this repetition does not make

the individual members without morality, without virtue. Nevertheless, casteremains as an obstacle for them to marry outside their own caste.

In your book Ramatoulaye objects to marrying someone from her husband's family

But why? Would this not have been the best arrangement for the widow to be taken care

of by her husband's family?

The problem is not posed that way in the book. Yes, there is a tradition which

says that when a man dies, his younger brother marries his widow. In this way

the family circle is not broken, the family circle which has just lost a member

No, here is the brother who is from the same blood as the husband who comes

to take his place. Good, but Ramatoulaye who has just suffered the loss of her

husban d, und ers tan ds that it is not the younge r brother who has come to mar ryher, the widow, but an older brother in the family. And she unders tands his mo

tivation is totally different. Instead of wanting to assume the moral responsibil-

ities of the dead man, he wants to marry her for his own selfish purposes. She

the widow, has grown children who are working and have financial means

Then there is the fact that the widow has some money. He already has three

wives for whom he cannot provide financial support. One of them has to sel

fruit to support the house, another does some sewing, etc. to make up for the

[394]


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money he cannot give them. Good, so with this lack of money, how can he come

to this widow, Ramatoulaye, to offer help? He does not come to offer help. He

only comes for his own selfish interests, for his own benefit. That is why this

widow who is so sentimental, who cannot conceive of married life without

love, who, because she loved, suffered, and was patient, was abandoned, but

did not divorce . . . well, how do you want her to view this man who wants to

marry her without love?

D O C U M E N T F I V E

MARIAMA BA

Acceptance Address for the Noma Prize (1980)

The following is an excerpt from the published version of the address that

Mariama Bd presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1980 on being awarded the

first Noma Prize for the best book in African literature. In this segment Bd

addresses herself particularly to the issue of women in the larger world context,

before she narrows her remarks to African women. What is the general position of

women globally according to Bd and how do African women compare?

In all cultures the woman who protests something is devalued. If speech that

just flies in to space marg inal izes women th en how will we end up judging

women who actually set words down in writing for an eternity?

This explains why women are hesitant to become writers. Their representa-

tion in African literature is practically nonexistent. And yet how much they

have to say and to write.

More than anywhere else, the social context ofAfrica which is characterized by

a flagrant inequality between men and women by exploitation, by secular and

barbaric oppression of the sex that is called the weaker sex, the woman writer has

a very particular mission. She must, more than her masculine peers, establish a

portrait of the condition of African women. Injustices persist, segregation contin-

ues despite the international decade that was dedicated to the woman by the

United Nations, despite the beautiful speeches and the praise worthy intentions.

In families, in institutions, in places of work, in political meetings discr iminat ionis plentiful. The social pressures suffocate in their cynical perpetuation. Customs

and habits added to the self-serving and abusive interpretation of religion weigh

down on your spine. Uncontrolled pregnancies empty the body.

How can we not consider this harsh state of things? How can we not be

tempted to lift this heavy social cover? For us women to take our fate in hand in

order to overturn the order that has been established to our detriment and not

[395]

Documents

Be and Senghor