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Negritude, Feminism, and the Quest for Identity: Re-Reading Mariama B's "So Long a Letter"Author(s): Omofolabo AjayiSource: Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 3/4, Teaching African Literatures in a GlobalLiterary Economy (Fall - Winter, 1997), pp. 35-52Published by: The Feminist Press at the City University of New YorkStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40003371.

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Negritude, Feminism, and theQuest for Identity: Re-ReadingMariama Ba's SoLanga LetterOmofolaboAjayi

With her firstnovel, SoLonga Letter,MariamaBa achieved a reputationas a writer who adds a strong, unique, and culturallyrelevant feministvoice to modern African literature. Ba has been applauded byfeministcritics for creating female characters who are able to speak and actindependently and have enough sense of personal identity as theystruggle, in virtualisolation, to overcome the various injustices in theirsociety.As Irene d'Almeidaobserves, these women "arewilling to makethe choices thatwill make their lives more wholesome, no matter whatthe consequences might be" (1986, 171). The two major female char-acters in SoLonga Lettermake personal, significant choices when con-fronted with some inherent gender-based inequalities in their culture,especially the marriage institution. Ramatou (Ramatoulaye), the pro-tagonist, chooses to deal with her pain within the culturalsetting, whileher friend and confidante, Aissatou, refuses to compromise andinstead creates an entirely new path for herself. Ramatou's choiceprompts d'Almeida to point out that the independent voice Ba givesto her female characters is not to be heard unambiguously. She char-acterizes this phenomenon as a "malaise"common to African femalewriters of Ba's generation, and one that "emerges from the dilemmawomen face in wanting to keep traditions while, at the same time,wanting to reject what, in society, ties women down" (167). Indeed,the choices of Ramatou,who seems to be the author'smouthpiece, arenot liberating enough, and given the systemic and systematic oppres-sion women face, they seem almost futile.Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that even outside the fictionalworld, Ba remains critical to an understanding of the limitationsplaced on women in many African societies. She questions the waywomen have been depicted traditionallyby male writerswho early ondominated the African literary scene. Conscious of her role not onlyas a writer but specifically as an African woman writing within andagainst established traditions, Ba writes:

35

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36 Womens StudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4

The woman writerin Africa has a special task. She has to present theposition of women in all its aspects. ... As women we must work forour own future, we must overthrow the status quo which harms usand we must no longer submit to it. ... We no longer accept the nos-talgic praise to the African Mother who, in his anxiety,man confuseswith Mother Africa. ("LaFonction" 1981, 6)

This statementhas profound implicationsfor literarycriticismandtheory;it is a call for a different direction in Africanliterature.Inparticular,t is directed atNegritude,a philosophicalconcept notedforits thematicconstructs f "MotherAfrica" nd an idealizedAfricanwomanhood in its literary quest for an African political identity.Unfortunately,Ba'suntimelydeath at age fifty-one,which left the lit-eraryworldwithonlyone other novel, ScarletSong,deprivedAfricanliterary riticismof averypowerfulvoice.The critical one Ba setsin the statementquotedabove framesmyreadingof SoLongALetter,s a critiqueof Negritudeaesthetics andgender politics.Ratherthansolely focusingon the women,the criti-calattention s turnedon the societyas a wholeincludingthe patriar-chal systemthatstructures ts culturalaesthetics. Such an approachbringsa newunderstandingto the restrictiveyet liberatingvoice ofwomenwritersd'Almeidaalludesto;it alsoservesas a theoreticalbasisfor readingbothAfrican iteratureand African eminism.Thisanaly-sisbeginswithan examinationof the gender politicsof Negritudeasa liberation heory orAfrican ulturesandpeoples,anddemonstratesthat its idealizationof the Africanwoman privilegesmale identity.Taken o the next level,thispaperfeaturesa two-part nalysisof Ba'snovel,focusingon the author'suse of female characters o questionthe constructionof Negritudeas a liberationconceptfor allAfricansirrespectiveof gender.In the firstpart,the characterof Ramatou srevealedas the ultimatesymbolof MotherAfrica,therebyvalidatingNegritudeprecepts.The second part,however,arguesthatRamatouis actuallya criticalconstructwhose function not only exposes theinherentshortcomingsof Negritudebutactually ubverts he MotherAfrica mage she replicates.In conclusion, the paperexamines thegenderpolitics n SoLonga Letternd itsviability s a structuring rit-icalconceptin African iteraryand feministaesthetics.Gender Politics and Identity in NegritudeEssentiallya philosophicalconcept in the strugglesagainstcolonialimperialismnAfrica,Negritudevalorizesblackprideandcivilization,

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WomensStudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4 37

emphasizing specially he underlyinghumanismof Africancultures.Developed in the 1930s, it reverberates still in some literaryandpoliticalcircles(Echeruo,1-14; Kesteloot,51-58) despite questionsraised about its representationof Africancultures.Negritudeespe-cially promotes a literaryaesthetics that, among other things, con-structsan idealized mageof lafemme oire,"theblackwoman."Dark,beautiful,regal,and unspoiled, she is canonizedin one of LeopoldSedarSenghor'spoems,"Femme oire"(1984, 16),writtenas a praisesongto thebeautyand "naturalness"f theAfricanwoman.The arche-typal emme oire ecomes an enduring symbol n a recurringdoublemotifin Negritudecreativewritings.On the one hand,she isequatedwithmother earth, nature at its purestwithout the interference ofhuman cultures. Symbolically,"motherearth"represents the geo-graphical body of the African continent: Mother Africa, free ofcontaminatingEuropeancolonization.On the otherhand,thefemmenoires contrastedwiththe colonizing Europeancultures character-ized asunnatural,exploitative,and highlymechanized.Thusdoublycoded,it is no wonder hat,as Mariama a so aptlyobserves, he arche-typalAfricanwoman,a mother, s conflatedwith the symbolicMotherAfrica.MariamaBa's comments add to the growingand relatively ecentfeministcriticismof Negritude,especially ts MotherAfricaimagery.Traditionalriticism f Negritudehas been moreculture-based,ocus-ing on the misrepresentationand romanticizationof African tradi-tions.1 enghor,whosename has becomesynonymouswithNegritude,is frequentlychallengedas to the accuracyandvalidityof his defini-tion and representationof ancient Africancivilizationsn his works.Concedingthat"Senghor's heoryof Negritude s not reallya factualand scientificdemonstration f Africanpersonality ndsocialorgani-zation,butrathera personal nterpretation," biolaIrele,one of themore sympatheticcritics of Negritude, concludes, "an element ofspeculation nters nto his ideas" 1965, 520). However, one of theseearlycriticscalls ntoquestionthe overlydealistrepresentation f theAfricanwomanwhomNegritude placesat the core of its analysisofAfrican raditions.Apparently here is no reasonto, sinceNegritudeis fundamentallynscribed n, and conformsto, the patriarchaltruc-turesofAfrican ocieties.Feministcriticism,however,ocuses on gen-der as basic to the much-debated,unrealistic cultural analysesofNegritudeandexposesitsmisrepresentation f women.

Undoubtedly, by constructingthe archetypalAfrican woman as"mother," egritudehonorsandreveresAfricanwomanhoodand,infact, accuratelyrepresents the valued position a mother occupies

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38 WomensStudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4

generally nAfricancultures.2 he sentimentexpressed n the Yorubaiyani wura motheris gold) is a significant ormof mother-apprecia-tion that existsvariouslyn other African ultures.However,whencon-fusedwithMotherAfrica, he Africanmotherendsupbeinga voicelessand defenselessobjectof whomeveryone akesadvantage.Such is thefate of Nnu Ego, the misguidedheroine Buchi Emecheta creates tomake the point in her highlysatiricalnovel, TheJoysofMotherhood.Insteadof reapingthejoysof motherhoodas traditionhas led her tobelieve she will,all she harvestss bountiful sorrowand neglectfromthe highlysuccessfulchildren she had literally acrificedherself andher sanityto give birth to and raise. MiriamTlali, another Africanfemalenovelist,unequivocally tatesduringa 1982interview hat,"itis a problemwhenmen wantto callyouMotherAfricaandput youona pedestal,because then theywantyou to staythereforeverwithoutasking your opinion- and [theyare] unhappyif you wantto comedownas anequalhumanbeing!" qtd. n Schipper1987,49).As a sym-bol, MotherAfricacan be a positive deal,3but in itsreincarnationasthe Africanmother/ woman,it is a grotesquedistortion of what it issupposed o idealize.Ultimately,he Africanwomanbecomesno morethan a stereotypical ardboardlikeigure.She can be, and hasbeen,flippedwith too much easebyher creators romthe reveredmotherfigure n the "unrealistic"egritudewriting o the detestedandhumil-iated whore in some presumablymore "realistic" frican iterature(Davies1986, 3;Ogundipe-Leslie 990,58).It is no coincidence thatNegritude originatesand manifests tselfmoststrongly n the Francophonecountries.4The assimilationpolicyof the French colonialadministration hatgivesthe colonialsubject,especiallythe male, an exclusive education in French culture andscholarship, with the promise of French citizenship, leaves theFrancophonesubjectin an ambiguousand compromisedposition.InscribedwithinFrench mperialism,heimpliedsupremacyf Frenchcitizenshipand the designated nferiorityof the colonized'soriginalcitizenshipcannot be missed.5Bythe time the "chosen"Africangoesthroughthe processof becoming"French," has becomeconvincedof theworthlessnessf hisnativeculture.WhenSenghorwritesapraisepoem for those (Africans)"whohave never inventedanything"andprivilegesemotion over the reasoning abilityof Africansin CequeVhommeoirapporte1939,292-314), it is much morethan "anelementof speculation,"as Irele suggests.At best, it is indicative of a funda-mentalalienationof the poet from the actuality f his cultureand thethoroughnessof the assimilationpolicy,or whatV. Y Mudimbecallsthe "Western atio"1988, 93ff). Although Senghor's objective s to

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WomensStudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4 39

vindicateAfrica'scompassionand its people-centeredcultures,hisworkunmistakablychoes the colonialist'sdenigrationof Africanciv-ilization to justify colonizing and exploiting the people and theirresources. It is within this haze of schism and assimilation thatNegritudeconstructs tsimageof an idealizedAfricanwomanand thearchetypalMotherAfrica.If in the realm of symbolism he woman becomes MotherAfrica,what then is the man?Whilethe mother is indeed a powerful igurein manyAfricancultures,whatpositionis envisaged or the man in apatriarchalsocial system? Incapable of motherhood, men needanotherequallypowerfulsymbol.6The biologicalimplicationof thesymbolicMotherAfricadefines the man as a child andputshim in alowersocial hierarchy,because as the younger one, the "son"mustrespectand defer to "mother" uthority.7or the man,such a place-ment contradicts he implicit gender hierarchyof Negritudeand itspatriarchalconstruct.Fortunately, he confusion with the symbolicMotherAfrica, he violatedvictimof colonialimperialism,also iden-tifies the Africanwoman as weakand helpless.Thisimagerysignifiesa more appropriateand enabling identityfor the Africanman;heemerges as the soldier liberatingMother Africafrom her violators.Althoughnot aswidelyreferenced as his "Femmenoire,"Senghor's"Al'Appel de la race de Saba"clearly spells out the symboliccon-struction of notjust the womanbut of both sexes in Negritudeaes-thetics.Writtenn response o Mussolini'snvasionof Ethiopian 1936,the poem presentsthe Africanman as the soldierliberatingMotherAfrica.8 achstanzabeginswith"Mere,oisbenie"Mother, e blessed)an invocationof blessingon the Africancontinent at her moment ofdistress.The poem calls on Africanmen to liberatenotjust Ethiopiabut MotherAfrica rom the invasion.Thusemergesthe totalgenderconstructof theAfricanidentityquest n Negritude iterary esthetics:the male as the"liberatingoldier,"nd thefemaleas "Mother frica."9Havingnegotiatedsuccessfully oth the Africanndigenousandthealiencolonial,imperialworlds, he Africanmaleemergesas the natu-ral spokesperson for the new times unfolding in his culture. Hebecomesthe referential"I" f powerwho namesothers.He is a soldierof the liberatingarmyand his newlyacquiredknowledge s reconfig-ured asNegritude,theweaponto free the continent.Bycontrast, hewomanwho has been marginalizedrom the assimilationprocess bythe Frenchcolonialpatriarchyswithout he resources o freeherself,but she becomes the rallying orce motivatingher male compatriotintoaction,"aVappele a race. She s a motivationalorceconstructednot in the active tense but in the passive."Mother, e blessed": he

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receivesthe blessing,she does not give it;she is defended, she doesnot defend herself.In the Negritudeconstruct, he is the antidote tocolonialismand what t stands or,dominationand the destructionofAfrican ultural alues.Therefore, he mustbe kept"natural"ndpro-tectedfromforeigncontamination o the culture and the identityofAfricaremain ntact.Paradoxically,he required"naturalness"f the archetypalAfricanwoman does not imply that she should be totally ignorant of theimpuritiesof the worldand the unsavory ide of life represented byEuropeancultureand colonization.For like MotherAfrica,her colo-nized symbolic equation, the Africanwoman would have also beenexposedto the corrupting nfluence of the foreignpowers.However,shemayknowof it,understandt,butmustnotbecomet.Althoughshe,like the man,wouldfindWestern-styleducation the surestchanneltoward his newwayof knowing n a strangeworld, t is aweaponshemust not acknowledgeor takeadvantageof. As the eternal MotherAfrica/Africanmother, hedutyof theNegritudewoman s to preservethe homestead ntactfor the returnof the culturallyamishedsoul ofthe man who isaway, lonein Europe,assimilatinghe mechanisms fthe colonialculture.It is the only wayshe can be "blessed."

Analysis of SoLonga Letteras a Critique of NegritudeWithin such politics of gender identity,whatkind of culture is thewomanbeingaskedto protect? s it the one inscribedbythe "natural"patriarchyf African ultures r the"corrupting"colonizing)Europeanpatriarchy r,in fact,both combinedin whathas been termed"dou-ble patriarchy"Ajayi1993, 162). How indeed does she fit into andnegotiateeachtypeof patriarchy?mportantly, horeallys this arche-typalAfricanwomanwho must be dignifiedand knowingbut uncor-ruptedor uninfluencedbyher knowledge? n SoLonga Letter,uch awomanandcultureseem to exist,not tovalidate he basisof theirexis-tence in Negritudeas it firstappearsbut to questionand subvert t."MotherAfrica "in So Long a LetterRamatou,the protagonist n the novel SoLonga Letter1"s a middle-aged,middle-classwomanwhom we encounterasshe reachesa deci-sivecrossroadsn her life. Recentlywidowed,Ramatou s confrontedwith,and agreesto participaten, one of mostintrusiveand stressfuldemands her culturemakes on a woman. Asrequired,she observestheobligatoryorty-daymourningperiod n confinementandperforms

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Women s Studies Quarterly1997: 3 &f 4 41

the mirasse or Modou, her deceased husband. The mirasse, Koranicinjunction, "requires that a dead person be stripped of his most inti-mate secrets; thus is exposed to others what was carefully concealed"(9). Ramatou, as a devout "Muslimwife" is determined to explore themeaning of the mirasseto its fullest extent. But a Muslim is also ahuman being with feelings; thus while writing Aissatou, her friend,intending only to inform her of her recent widowhood, Ramatou trans-forms the letter into a lengthy examination of her dreams and tribu-lations. She literarilyopens her heart and pours out her pain. Throughthe expanded letter she also extends the boundaries of the mirassebeyond its implied religious scope to the social aspect of the deceased'slife and, byextension, all those he touched in his lifetime. The expandedmirasse11ecomes a means of stripping bare her own life and review-ing her status as a woman in her society. Not only does it provide the"cultural ramework" or revealing the secrets of Modou's life, as MbyeCham argues (1987, 90-92), all of Senegalese culture is subjected toa thorough and critical soul-searching examination.Resourceful, inspiring, intelligent, educated, devoted, beautiful inher dignity, and silent,Ramatou cuts the perfect picture of lafemmenoire. Of the various female characters that populate the novel, sheespecially appears to uphold the ideal image of Mother Africa. Oncean independent free thinker who, as a young girl, defied restrictive tra-ditions, Ramatou matures into an adult life of compromises. She tellsher daughter, who is about to confront her brother's teacher oversome injustice: "Life is an eternal compromise" (72). She learns to"choose"from what is expected of her in the very traditions she setsout as a teenager to challenge. Graduallyshe sacrifices her own inter-ests to become the signifier of the aspirationsof Modou, her husband,and continues to do so even after his death as she carries out faithfullythe required rites. Thus despite her obvious early exposure to theNegritude-signified "impurities" iaWestern-styleeducation, Ramatoustill emerges "blessed."Modou sets the expected tone for his fiancee while they areengaged. He writes to Ramatou from France: "Youare my protectingblack angel. Would I could quicklyfind you, if only to hold your handtightlyso I mayforget hunger and thirst and loneliness" (14) . The toneof the letter is evocative of Senghor's famous poem "Femme noire":

Nude woman, black womanI sing of yourfleeting beauty, a form that I affix in the EternalBefore ealous Destiny reducesyou to ashesTofeed the rootsof life.Like the archetypalNegritude woman, Ramatou remains homebound

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to Mother Africa, the source of inspiration to Modou studying to be alawyer in France. He is the "soldier" who will liberate his "MotherAfrica." True enough, he returns to fight the exploitation of workersin his country.At this point, one pauses to wonder whom reallythe sol-dier is being asked to liberate since the labor force is male and thosebeing routinely neglected are women. He liberates Mother Africabut not the African mother. No less committed to the same cause,Ramatou is supportive and endeavors to be the perfect nurturer whoprovides a stable home base for her husband and a house open to anendless stream of in-laws.In addition to working full time as a teacher,she gives birth to twelve children (not counting two miscarriages) ina space of twenty-fiveyears!

Notwithstanding such exemplary devotion, Modou still desires anddoes take a second wife, Binetou, who is the friend and age-mate of hisand Ramatou'sdaughter,Daba. Stillin the role of the perfect Negritudewife, Ramatou accepts that Islamallowsa man to have up to four wives.She receives the news of Modou's marriage with a smiling face andkeeps silent, maintaining a dignified exterior although she is raginginside. In the end, and obviously flouting the Islamic injunction thatall the wives must be treated equally, Modou abandons Ramatou andtheir children to set up a separate home with his young wife. Later,knowing full well that the mourning period "is a period dreaded byevery Senegalese woman" (4), Ramatou agrees to observe the ritualsfor a man who has treated her callously and betrayed everything theyonce shared. In this respect she almost surpasses her symbolic coun-terpart: a "Mother Africa" that remains intact externally in its geo-graphic entitywhile internally being arbitrarily arvedup by Europeancolonialists during the famous "scramblefor Africa,"its natural andhuman resources being exploited to the maximum. Ramatou's capac-ityfor suffering almost borders on masochism, but to her it representsa sense of duty and responsibility: "Ihope to carryout my duties fully.Myheart concurs with the demands of religion. Reared since child-hood on their strict precepts, I expect not to fail" (8). The goodAfricanwoman, Ramatou also strivesto be the perfect Muslim wife andunquestioningly submits to the religion's form of patriarchy.Yet,thissame woman, in the prime of her youth, could not wait to get "out ofthe bog tradition, superstition, and custom" (15). Thirty years laterand constructed as Mother Africa, she is the guardian of these sametraditions. It is even likely that Ramatou has become more than sim-ply a "guardian"and "has nternalized a number of stereotypes aboutwomen and women's behaviour"(d'Almeida 1986, 167).As a colonizedAfrican, a woman, and a faithful adherent of the Islamic religion, she

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Womens StudiesQuarterly 997: 3 &4 43

has had more than her share of domination. It will not be surprisingin the least if her dreams and sense of self have fizzled under the patri-archy that simultaneously informs her religion and culture, as well asthe colonizing European culture.Ramatou is very introspective. With the exception of her friend towhom the "solong letter" is addressed (but may not be mailed), noone else knows the basis of her choices or if she is making any choicesat all. It is particularly roubling that her options are after the fact, rein-forcing the impression, especially to other women in the society, thatthere is really no wayout. Compared to Aissatou, whose actions leaveno doubt that she rejects the status quo and demands a new order,Ramatou reacts; she does not initiate action. Although she identifiesand analyzes the source and forms of her oppression, she does notmake choices that rattle the system. Her choices are compromised.The question is, could she have done otherwise, fully knowing thatboth her culture and religion condone polygamous marriagesfor menand that Negritude, in spite of its liberation rhetorics,does not addressgender-based oppressions? Viewed against this background, the verynature of her compromises becomes the basis for reexamining the"MotherAfrica"symbolism.Subverting "MotherAfrica "Ramatou's letter-mirassebegins with a striking introduction to a worldof women. Besides the fact that she is a woman writing to anotherwoman about her experience as a woman, Ramatou is located in afemale-defined space. She is surrounded by women - her sister, herfemale in-laws, her young co-wife, and her co-wife's mother. On thesurface, it is a heartwarming picture of solidarity,for they are assem-bled in apparent support of their "sister" n her bereavement. But inthe manner of the mirasse,Ramatou strips bare this facade, revealingan unsightly female space full of petty and vicious bickering andexploitation of women by women. She goes beyond the surface andreveals that the female-defined space is actually structured and con-trolled by the patriarchy,which even exercises its authority from thegrave.The women are gathered not simply to mourn a loved male rel-ative but to exercise and submit to power on his behalf. On one sideare the female relatives of the deceased patriarch, the femalepatriarchsresponsible for preparing his widows for the obligatory mourningperiod;12 n the other are the widows,flanked by their female relatives.The mourning period is not a pleasant moment for any Senegalesewoman, because "beyondher possessions she gives up her personality,

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her dignity,becominga thingin the serviceof the man who has mar-ried her" (4). Thus we have a broad, sweeping introduction toSenegalese societyand specifically o the fate that awaits ts femalefolks.ComparedwithMotherAfrica,whose imageis invokedas theinspirational ocus in the march towardsdemocracy, he Senegalesewomanstandson shakyground.Through he semblanceof acquiring omeauthorityorthemselves,womenactually xercisecripplingpoweroverother women.In effect,theyhelpto sustain hepatriarchyn powerandfurtherreinforce heirmarginalizedtatus. t is in this sense thatpatriarchyontrolswomenwithoutseeming to. On manyoccasions men are not even directlyinvolved in the day-to-dayoperation of the patriarchyand themarginalizationf women.Forexample,AuntyNabou treatsAissatou,her daughter-in-law,contemptuously and subsequently destroysAissatou'smarriagebecauseshe does not belong to the feudal elite.Meanwhile, lthoughAuntyNabou herself s a member of the rulingelite, highlyintelligentand withstrong leadershipqualities,being awoman,shecannot rule. Such njusticedoes not deter her from main-taining he purityof the line evenif it meansdestroyinghe happinessof anotherwoman.She feels powerlessand disgracedwhen her sonchooses his wifefroma low-caste oldsmith amily.Ramatou umsupAuntyNabou sfeelings:"what n insult to her,beforeher former co-wives" 17). Significantly,AuntyNabou's "shame"s not because themen of her caste willthink less of her but because otherwomenwillstand njudgmentof her.Althoughher other childrenare"properly"married,theyaregirlsand therefore cannot giveher the statusof aroyal emalepatriarch hat she so muchdesires.AuntyNabou'sroyalauthority an onlybe effectivelyandlegitimately xercised f her sonmarries"properly";hatis, fromwithinthe royal ine. Afterall, asanupper-castewoman,she alreadyhaspowerover lower-castemen andwomenand, since she cannot exercisepoweroverupper-castemem-bers as agroup,the next bestcandidatesareupper-castewomen mar-ried intoherfamily.The motivationorpower s not so differentwhenLady-Mother-in-lawncouragesherdaughter,Binetou, o abandonhereducation n orderto accessa highersocioeconomicstatusquickly iamarriageto Modou. In the process, she destroysanother woman's(Ramatou's)home and claims to happiness. She alsojeopardizesher daughter'schancesof becomingfinancially ndependent in herownrightand deprivesher of the ability o combine forces with hergeneration in the strugglefor women'srightsand autonomy n theculture.

Interweavinghepersonalcrisesof her characterswith thepolitical,

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Ba askswhether he strugglesorindependenceshouldnot be appliedto all facets of life, privateand public, domestic and political.Therecurring loganfor these women'sstruggles or equality eems to be"thepolitical spersonal," nlike the Western eministslogan,"theper-sonal is political." n the self- and nation-revealingmirasse, amatourecallshowher formativeyearshave been grounded in democraticideals. In her school days,she and her circle of friends were deter-mined to create a better futurein whichtheywould not be prisonersto blind superstitions.As the countrystandspoised to throwoff theshacklesof colonial domination,the young idealists,alongwith themen of theirgeneration,are eager to applythe general concepts ofdemocracyto both their privateand public actions. Ramatouover-comes traditions nd her mother'sobjections o marryModou,a strug-glingstudent,rather hanDiengwhomher motherprefers.Diengfitsthe traditionalmageof a seriousand maturesuitormuchbetter:Heduly approachesthe marriageproposal throughRamatou'sparentsand,alreadyestablished n his profession,seemsreadyto assumetheresponsibilitiesf raisingafamily.Mowdo,a prince,dealsa mortalblowto feudaloppressionby marryingAissatou rom thevirtuallyegregatedcaste of ude,the smithprofession.Similar deals arepursuedin thecharacters'professional ives.As a lawyer,Modou commitshimself tofightingthe cause of workersand refuses to take abetter-payingob.Even he conservative ieng getsbitten aterbythebugof idealismandabandonshis lucrativemedicalpractice o becomeactivelynvolved nthe politicaladministration f the newly ndependent country.Unfortunately,hesepromisingdemocraticmanifestations re short-livedand do not have the opportunity o attain ullmaturity.t seemsthe fledging democratic nationalism is reconfigured midwaytoexcludegenderdemocracyand become repressively atriarchal.Toomanyof the men dominating he public/politicalsphereareguiltyofperpetuating ppression n theirprivateives.WhileModoufightsthecause of oppressedworkersand triesto raisethe consciousnessof thisgroup, he remains insensitiveto the needs of his wifeand children.He shamelesslyxploits hepoverty f Binetou's amilyand thenaiveteof a young girl dazzledbypowerandwealthto boost his ego. A sym-patheticRamatoudescribes Binetou as "a ambslaughteredon thealtarof affluence"(39). A champion of the underdog (men in thelabor orce),Modouenjoyspatriarchal erks rom theunderprivilegedfemale class.Hispolygamousmarriage o Binetou isjustifiedon thegroundsthatit is sanctionedbothbyIslamicreligiousandSenegaleseculturalpractices.It is withinhis capacityas a patriarch hat he canmortgagethe house thatboth he and Ramatoupaidforwithout her

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46 WomensStudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4

knowledge.WouldRamatouhave been able to do the same withoutthe consent of her husband?Absolutelynot. Under a barrageof feu-dal,colonial,and Islamic aws,women haveno suchrights.EventheadoptedFrenchcivilcode that aims to protectthe wifefrom the cul-turally ndreligiouslyanctioned xtendedfamily's laimto a couple'spropertygrantsthe husbandthe ultimateguardianship o theirjointproperty(Lewis1977, 179). In fact it is the same Frenchpatriarchythat facilitatesModou'ssecond marriagewhen it provideshimwiththe opportunityof the French educationalsystemdenied Binetou'sparents.Meanwhile,Dieng,who claimsto be working owardequal oppor-tunities for women at the government level (in the NationalAssembly) sees no contradiction n askingthe widowedRamatou obe his second wife.He is unwillingto acceptthe platonic friendshipshe offers him. It is all or nothing, he insists.In a dramaticcase ofregression,Mowdocapitulates o the feudalistic deals of his motherand breaksup his marriage o Aissatouwhen he marries he upper-castegirlhis mothergrooms or him.If,ashe suggests,menlapse ntosuchregressionsbecauseof theirnature,does it meanwomen do nothavefeelings?Or is it that men are less human on account of theirinability o controltheir"animal" atureandobeythe laws heyhavesetup?Perhapsa moreappropriatequestionto ask s, in whoseinter-ests arethe lawsenacted?Just as the MotherAfricaconcept elevates women but only as aprocessbywhichmen become self-realized, he women of SoLongaLetter xercisepoweron men'sbehalf.Ultimately, hese women findthemselvesconstantlyundermining themselvesand each other inorderto accessthe most minimal ormsof power.Withwomenbeingrepeatedly imitedandlimitingthemselves o positionsof powerless-

ness,whatkind of independence can they,as MotherAfrica, nspirein a newly ndependentnation?Tobeginto fulfillher roleeven underthisproblematicconstruct,a motherfigureneeds some measure ofself-respectand self-confidence.Unfortunately, he state that sanc-tionsandpromotes hissymbolismailsto guarantee itizenship ightsforwomen.Situatedwithinthiscontext, Ramatoubecomes the sub-versive ounterpart f hermodel,MotherAfrica/Africanmother.Thissubversive onstructraisesquestionsaboutgender hierarchyand theoppressionof women that the originalmodel neverthought of ask-ing andin the processproposesa differentaestheticsof nationalistidentity.

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Women StudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4 47

Conclusion:ANationalistFeministAestheticsThe novelSoLonga Lettererformsa thoroughmirassen Negritude,strippingbare its romantic notion of Africancultures and women'spositionandidentityn them. Given hesignificance, rominence,andlongevity f Negritudeamongother liberation heoriesseededin anti-imperialisttruggles, his is not aneasy ask.Beinga woman-identifiedconstructmakes henovelsuspect;t is assumed hatsince feministaes-theticsquestions heirstructuring atriarchy,he novel mustbe againstnational iberationmovements.Furthermore,he novel's eministper-spectives inksit with the agendaof Westernwomen and makes thewriterguilty byassociation.FemiOjo-Ade'scriticismof the novel ispointedlyrepresentative f this kind of thinking:

The [women] writersthat we have studied dwell too much upon themaladyof male chauvinism, a phenomenon that, in its most famousaspect, is no less a Western way than the notions of feminismespoused by some female writers.Blackness,Africanness ... is almostforeign to others who have let the questions of male dominationblind them to the necessary solidaritybetween man and woman. (76)

No doubt,Ramatou nd Aissatouwonderaboutthe solidarity etweenthemselvesand theirrespectivehusbands.In addition to givingthewomen the ability o choose the course of their ownlives,SoLongaLetterndictsthe society hatleaves hemwitha stringof compromisesthatareverymuch to their owndetriment.Thus Ba is able to captureaccuratelyhe dilemmafacing contemporaryAfricanwomencaughtin a societystraddledbetweena tenaciouspastand an indeterminatepresent,a societyabsolutely ncertainaboutthe role it wants o ascribeto itswomenfolk.BacastigatesheNegritude deal ofwomanhoodby creatingts twin-imagein the characterof Ramatoubut then situatesher in a multiplecontext where she is forced to reexamine herselfand question heractionsas she faces differentcircumstancesand has to interactwithother womenandmen,especiallyNegritudemen.In otherwords, hegeneric African woman becomes a real person capable of action,thought,and emotion.She is no longera one-dimensional ardboardcharacter.Ba's "African oman"s specific,not archetypal; or is hersituationgeneric. She situatesher charactersvariously n the com-plexities hatshapetheirexperiences,nformtheiractions,and define

their individual dentities.Ba demonstrates hat there is no singleorformulaicmodel of Africanwomanhood.As a counterpoint to thecompromising amatou,here sthe radicalAissatou; aba's onfidence

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48 Womens StudiesQuarterly 997: 3 &4

is contrasted with Binetou's insecurity; Aunty Nabou's marriageschemes arejuxtaposed with Lady-Mother-in-law's; nd there are dif-ferent types of female patriarchs.Even the men are variouslydepicted,from the liberation-promising "soldiers"who fall by the waysideto theolder warriorstrying to find meaning in a fast-changing world fromthe opportunistic Tasmirto the quietly dignified Aissatou's father.Ramatou's feminist gestures are full of compromises even within thesystem that oppresses her and other women. Ba herself is aware of theproblematics of Ramatou's compromises within a global context offeminism and briefly explores a more radical version through theactions of the absent Aissatou. It is significant that Ramatou is awareof international feminism and important that she still holds dialoguewith the uncompromising Aissatou. Aware of the limitations of hercourse of action, Ramatou concedes: "Iknow the field of our gainsis unstable, the retention of conquests; social constraints are ever-present, and male egoism persists. My reflections determine my atti-tude to the problems of life" (88) . She makes the point that aside fromthe basic, common objectives of feminism to end the oppression, pow-erlessness,and patriarchal exploitation of women, each feminism mustidentify, define, and adopt strategies of resistance within its culturalconfines.

By revisioning the Negritude female, Ba articulates a feminist aes-thetics that is rooted in the protagonist's culturalexperience. As a sub-versive construct of the original, Ramatou is able to raise issues thatstill resonate with the fundamentals of the Negritude concept, theissues of a people's identity,and the dignity of a people's freedom andrights. However, by centering these questions specifically on a femaleidentity and on the construction of womanhood, Ba offers a feministaesthetics which exposes a serious flaw in the Negritude politics of lib-eration and delivers a pungent criticism of the undemocratic idealsthe mother symbolism embodies. Ramatou's quest for gender equal-ity,fulfillment, and happiness are integrated within the structures ofher society. SoLonga Letter dvocates feminism without dismissing thespecificity of the African experience or the different aspects that con-stitute a people's culture. It is a feminism that combines the quest forAfrican identity with personal independence, a responsible individu-alism committed to a responsive collectivity.It supports self-fulfillmentbut not self-centeredness; celebrates motherhood, but not as theflagof identity. Whatever compromises this type of feminism makes withits base culture, it demands that it be responsive to the changes takingplace in the world around it. It calls for the empowerment of and equalopportunities for women. Importantly, this feminism contends that

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Womens StudiesQuarterly 997: 3 & 4 49

since men and women make up society, feminist concerns should beintegrated within nationalist constructions. Significantly, Ramatou'slast words are:I remainpersuadedof the inevitable ndnecessary omplementarityof man andwoman. . . . The nation is madeup of all the families,rich andpoor,united or separated,awareor unaware.The successof a nation thereforedependsinevitably n the family. 88-89)

NOTES1. For example, none of the numerous Negritude critics cited in RandBishop'sAfricanLiterature,fricanCritics1988) thoughtthere wasany-thing"unrealistic"boutNegritudesrepresentation f women.Needlessto say,all the critics are men and there is no evidence thatthere was afemalecriticduring he period(1947-1966)thatBishop's tudycovered.2. SeveralAfricanmale writers speciallyascribeprimalpositionsof honorto their mothers n theirautobiographies r in barelydisguisedautobio-graphicalworks.Examples nclude CamaraLaye'sTheBlackChild ndEzekielMphahlele'sDownSecond venue.3. Fora positive, f restrictive, elineationof motherhoodas a criticalpara-meter n African iterature, ee WilfredCartey'sWhispersroma Continent

(1969) . Kenneth Little's TheSociology f Urban Women'sImage n AfricanLiterature1980) offersa copioussamplingof the morenegative magesof womeninAfrican iterature.4. Its founding fathers,Aime Cesaire,Leon Damas,and Leopold SedarSenghorareall fromFrancophonecountries n the Caribbean slandsand WestAfrica.Mostfollowersof the Negritudeschool are also fromFrancophone ountries.Senghor, romSenegal n WestAfrica,popular-izedNegritudea greatdeal both as a creativeaestheticandpoliticalphi-losophywhenhe became the presidentof hiscountry.5. Bycontrast, he Britishcolonialpolicyof "indirect ule"makesno suchofferof citizenship.This differencein colonial administrationpoliciesbetween heFrancophone nd theAnglophone s mostlikelyresponsiblefor thepoor receptionNegritudegot inAnglophonecountries. tmaybearguedthat the indirectrulepolicyallowed heAnglophones o remainsomewhatmore in touch with their cultures than their Francophonecounterparts.This is not to say,however, hat the Negritudeconceptremainsrigidly ocked within the formercolonial divide.NegritudehasseveralvocalAnglophone supporters s well asFrancophonedetractors.6. Inhisstudy,SoryCamara1976,51-55) discusses ow theancientMandepatriarchyolvedthisbiological imitation hrougha cultural nstitutioncalled adenya ndby usingsocialsystems uchashunting,circumcision,andpolygamyo symbolizemale motherhood.7. It is commonpractice orthe childto defer to theauthority f theparentirrespectivef gender. n my genderresearchnWestAfrican particular,

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50 WomensStudiesQuarterly997:3 & 4

"agehierarchy" requentlysupersedesthe male supremacyof "genderhierarchy.8. InadditionoreferringotheAfricanontinent, ccordingoIrele he samephrase nvokes hepoet'smother(1977, 107).SeealsoSylviaWashingtonBa,TheConceptfNegrituden thePoemsfLeopoldedar enghor1973)andChristopherMiller'sanalysisof Senghor's"Femmenoire" n TheoriesftheAfricans1990, 258).9. The two magescorrespond,of course,to some of the actualsexualdivi-sionof labor n most cultures(in fact thismother/soldierdivision s sus-piciouslyclose to the imageof the knight n shiningarmorgoing to therescueof the damsel n distressnWesterniterature).However,he colo-nial conditionredefinesand intensifies heAfrican ituation.For exam-ple, the colonial demand forAfricanmalelabormeantAfricanwomenhad to assume a number of traditionallymale responsibilities(seeCourville 994,37;Ake1981,45-63),butthepatriarchal ierarchy eniedthemanycorrespondingauthority.n the contextofNegritude aesthet-ics, the artisticmetaphorbecomes even morerigidthan it is in real life.10. Mariama a,SoLongaLetter,ranslated y ModupeBode-Thomas 1981 .Subsequentquotationswill be made from thisedition.11. In hisarticle,"Contemporaryocietyand the Female magination,"MbyeChamoffersan additionaldimension to the significanceof the mirasse,which he says s "thenotion of inheritance laid out in the chapteronwomen n the HolyQur'an."Thisviewobviously mbracesa civicdimen-sion of the mirasse.12. The term "femalepatriarchs"pplies o womenwho exercisepatriarchalrightsandprivilegesverwomenmarried o theirmalerelations.Althoughin their ownhusbands' amilies,theyhave to submit to the patriarchalprivilegesof their husbands' emalerelatives.TsitsiDangarembgausesthis term n her novel NervousConditions. thertermsused are the Igbo's"daughters f the land"and the Yoruba's layfulohomi,"myhusband."WORKSCITEDAke,Claude.APolitical conomyfAfrica.New York:Longman,1981.Ajayi,Omofolabo."Black eministCriticism nd Drama:Thoughtson DoublePatriarchy."The ournalofDramaticTheorynd Criticism, no. 2 (spring1993):161-176.Ba,Mariama. LaFonctionpolitiquedes litteraturesfricainescrites." criturefrancaisedans le monde , no. 1 (May1981): 6. Translatedand quoted inChristopherMiller,TheoriesftheAfricans. . SoLong Letter.ranslatedy ModupeBode-Thomas.badan,Nigeria:NewHornPress,1981. . ScarletSong.Translatedby DorothyS. Blair.New York:LongmanAfricanWriters, 986.Ba,SylviaWashington.TheConcept fNegrituden thePoetry fLeopold edarSenghor.rinceton,N.J.:PrincetonUniversity ress,1973.

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Bishop, Rand. AfricanLiterature, fricanCritics:TheFormingofCritical tandards.New York:Greenwood Press, 1988.Camara, Sory. Gens de la parole:Essai sur la condition et le role desgriots dans la soci-eteMalinke.Paris:Mouton, 1976.Cartey,Wilfred. Whispersrom a Continent.New York: Random House, 1969.Cham, Mbye. "ContemporarySociety and the Female Imagination." WomennAfricanLiteratureToday15 (1987): 89-101.Christian,Barbara.BlackFeministCriticism.New York:Pergamon, 1985.Courville,Cindy. "Re-examiningPatriarchyas a Mode of Production: The Caseof Zimbabwe." n Theorizing lackFeminisms,dited by Stanlie M.James andAbena Busia. London: Routledge, 1993.d'Almeida, Irene. "The Concept of Choice in Mariama Ba's Fiction." In

Ngambika:Studiesof Women n AfricanLiterature,edited by Carole BoyceDavies and Anne Adams Graves.Davies, Carole Boyce. "Motherhood in the Worksof Male and Female IgboWriters." n Ngambika: tudiesofWomenn AfricanLiterature,dited by Carole

Boyce Davies and Anne Adams Graves.Davies, Carole Boyce, and Anne Adams Graves,editors. Ngambika:StudiesofWomenn AfricanLiterature. renton, N.J.:AfricaWorld Press, 1986.Echeruo, Michael J. C. "Negritude and History: Senghor's Argument withFrobenius." Researchn AfricanLiteratures4, no. 4 (fall 1993): 1-14.Emecheta, Buchi. TheJoysofMotherhood.New York:George Braziller, 1979.Irele, Abiola. "Negritude, Literature and Ideology. "JournalofModernAfricanStudies5 (\9bb): 499-526. , editor. Selected oemsofSenghor.New York:Cambridge UniversityPress,1977.Kesteloot, Lilyan. "Senghor,Negritude and Francophonie on the Thresholdof the Twenty-FirstCentury." Researchn AfricanLiteratures 1, no. 3 (fall1990): 51-58.Miller, Christopher. Theoriesof theAfricans. Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1990.Mudimbe, V. Y The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophyand the Orderof

Knowledge. loomington: Indiana UniversityPress, 1988.Lewis, Barbara C. "Economic Activity and Marriage Among Ivonan UrbanWomen." In Sexual Stratification:A Cross-CulturalView,edited by AliceSchlegel. New York:Columbia UniversityPress, 1977.Little, Kenneth. The Sociologyof Urban Women Imagein African Literature.London: McMillan, 1980.

Ogundipe-Leslie, Molara. Re-CreatingOurselves:African Womenand CriticalTransformations.renton, N.J.:Africa World Press, 1994.Ojo-Ade, Femi. "Female Writers, Male Critics," AfricanLiteratureToday13(1983): 158-179.Schipper, Mineke. "Mother Africa on a Pedestal." AfricanLiteratureToday15(1987): 35-54.

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Senghor, Leopold Sedan "Ceque l'homme noir apporte. "In L'Homme e lacouleur,dited by S. E. Le CardinalVerdier et al. (Paris:LibrariePlon, 1939).Quoted in Irele, Selected oemsof Senghor, 2. . "The Lessons of Leo Frobenius." In LeoFrobenius1873-1973: AnAnthology,dited by Eike Haberland and translated by PatriciaCrampton.Wiesbaden, Germany:F.Steiner, 1973. . Poemes.Paris:Seuil, 1984.

Omofolabo Ajayi is associateprofessorat the University of Kansas, Lawrence,Kansas. She has a joint appointmentin thedepartmentof theaterandfilm andin the women's studies program. Her researchand publications focus on liter-ature and theater n Africa and theAfrican diasporawith emphasison women swriting. A choreographer, he has also published articles on that subjectandhas a bookforthcoming on Yorubadance.

Copyright 1997 by OmofolaboAjayi.