ABSTRACT
Mariama Ba is a renowned Senegalese writer whose novel So Long a Letter received the distinction of winning the first African publishers’ Noma Award. In her novel, Ba examines the education of the Africana female child, which directly reflects the European system of female subordination, a system introduced to African life via colonialization. Ba’s attack on a polygamous society that subjugates women, and her interest in the rights of Africana women in So Long a Letter does not justify categorizing it as a feminist novel. Ramatoulaye embodies many characteristics of the true Africana womanist, the most obvious ones being genuine in sisterhood, strong, self-defined, demanding of respect, family-centered, male compatible, authentic, whole, mothering and nurturing. The Africana womanist is at all times cognizant of and committed to motherhood, which includes both mothering and nurturing: One is a mother in order to understand the inexplicable.
