Mariama Ba- Cameroon Author
Mariama Ba was born in 1929 in Dakar, Senegal and had an educational childhood, unlike many her age. She began writing early in her life and even in her earliest essays, there were signs of a critical approach that she was adopt in her writings to society around her. She became involved in several Senegalese women’s organizations as a pioneer of women’s rights. Her belief in the equality between men and women led her to write her first novel, So Long A Letter. This novel, first written in French, was translated into 16 different languages and won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. As a schoolteacher and inspector by profession, Mariama promoted the role of how important a writer was in developing a country. She believed that the sacred mission of the writer was to strike out at the archaic practices, traditions, and customs that are not a real part of a precious cultural heritage. So Long A Letter does exactly this mission.