So Long the Letter (1989) by Mariama Ba, begins with Ramatoulaye, a woman from Senegal living in Dakar, the country’s capital, writing a letter to her old friend Aissatou, who lives in America. Ramatoulaye writes this letter following the death of her husband, Modou. According to the Muslim custom, Ramatoulaye must observe a morass, that is staying for forty days in isolation and mourning. All that time she keeps a diary, which she intends to send to Aissatou after some time. Following Modou’s death, Ramatoulaye begins by pondering on the funeral proceedings. Ramatoulaye according to the Senegalese-Muslim customs is to host all the mourners and well-wishers by opening her house and providing food and drinks. Ramatoulaye finds this unjust, as Modou, in his final years, wanted nothing to do with her. The mourners virtually emptied her house, and though they brought gifts, most of them ended up in the hands of Modou’s second wife, Binetou, and of her selfish mother (Lady Mother-in-Law).
The book encompasses a variety of themes ranging from feminism and Islam, motherhood, friendship vs marital love and the custom and modern progress. The main drama of the novel is the disintegration of Ramatoulaye’s marriage to Modou after he takes on a second wife, who could be compared with her daughter’s young friend. According to the Islamic law, it is allowed for the husband to marry more than one wife and dictates that the woman should remain faithful to the husband even after he marries another woman. Ramatoulaye can’t help but feel violated because of her position in the society as Modou takes on a second wife without any consultation and even refuses to be the one that conveys the news to her. Modou further proceeds to abandon Ramatoulaye and her twelve children. When Modou dies, Ramatoulaye has to fight for some of the inheritance as it appears that it will be snatched by Modou’s in-laws and his second wife, Binetou. Ramatoulaye has to even fight for a house that they acquired with Modou on a joint bank loan, a home that rightfully belongs to her. Ramatoulaye is saddened by the fact that in Senegalese-Islamic model of marriage, a woman is perceived as a commodity that can be disposed of once the husband loses interest with her.
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The theme of motherhood is portrayed by showing Ramatoulaye as a devoted mother to her twelve children who she keeps fending for even after being abandoned by Modou for Binetou. When Modou dies, Ramatoulaye has to put twice as much effort as a mother and face with boldness the prospect of raising the twelve children on her own. Ramatoulaye is faced with some difficulties in parenting as she treats her children with a “hands-off” attitude and allows her daughters to wear trousers which was unusual for Senegalese-Muslim women and go clubbing at night. Ramatoulaye allows all these as she feels that she should let her daughters discover love in a way that doesn’t bring guilt, secretiveness or moral degradation. However, she comes to reconsider her parenting methods when she later finds three of her daughters smoking and soon discovers that Aissatou II has gotten pregnant out of wedlock.
Throughout the book, Ramatoulaye’s close relationship with her best friend, Aissatou is continually posed from the disintegration of both of their marriages. It is clear that Ramatoulaye’s and Assitou’s friendship supersedes the intimacy that marriage can ever give. Even while thousands of miles away Ramatoulaye still has intense feelings towards Aissatou. Modou’s abandonment of Ramatoulaye convinces her that true friendship is more resilient and rewarding than marital love.
The Jola cultural beliefs state that a wife should always obey her husband without any question. The culture further says that a woman cannot terminate a marriage without the man agreeing to a divorce, but the vice versa is allowed. Women are also not free to choose what they wear in public as they are subjected to wearing veils while in public. The Jola cultures also state that women are not entitled to inheritance rights and its only men or boys who can acquire inheritance after a member of the family passes on. These cultural beliefs are rather one-sided in favour of men and should, therefore, be done away with to uphold human equality and fairness.
The writer has done a tremendous job by bringing into the light the injustices Islam-women have endured for so long and by being a perfect epitome to how strong women are which is contrary to popular belief in the community that Ramatoulaye comes from. The book has highlighted several key themes that apply to our day to day lives and go a long way to teaching us some values to implement in our day to day lives.
