Mariama Bâ

Mariama Bâ (1929–1981) was a Senegalese author whose debut novel *So Long a Letter* (1979) transformed African women's literature and won the inaugural Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1980. Born in Dakar, she was raised by her grandparents in a traditional Muslim household after her mother's death, but her father insisted on her secular education. She worked as a primary school teacher for years while raising nine children after her divorce — the same social experience that informs her novel's exploration of polygamy, women's education, and friendship. *So Long a Letter*, written as correspondence between two Senegalese women, became a foundational text of African feminist literature and is studied across the continent and internationally. She completed a second novel, *Scarlet Song* (1981), before dying of cancer at 51, never witnessing the full international impact of her work. Mariama Bâ lived 1929 – 1981.