ABSTRACT
Born in Saint-Louis, Senegal, in 1941, Aminata Sow Fall writes in French although her mother tongue is Wolof. After high school she went to study in Paris; she stayed there between 1962 and 1969. When she returned to Senegal, she worked for a number of years as a teacher and was actively involved in educational reform and the development and implementation of pedagogic programs. Having held the position of Directrice des Lettres et de la Propriété Intellectuelle, she resigned in 1988 to devote her time to writing; in September of that year she founded the Centre Africain d’Animation et d’Échanges Culturels (CAEC). This center is a nonprofit organization that seeks to foster intellectual, literary, and cultural debate. It also serves as the headquarters for the National Union of Senegalese Writers, the International Association of Anthropologists, and the Association of Senegalese Translators and Interpreters. The center also has a desktop-publishing facility designed to encourage young writers to exchange their manuscripts, notably those written in African languages.
