Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter has been the subject of much critical praise and scholarly analysis since its publication in 1979 for two reasons: its portrayal of polygamy in a rapidly modernizing West African society and its structure as a single, continuous letter. Ramatoulaye, a middle-aged Senegalese woman, writes to her childhood friend Aissatou following the death of her husband, Moudou. Ramatoulaye and her husband were still technically married even though he abandoned her and her twelve children to live with his second wife, a much younger woman. Aissatou now lives in America. Her husband, Mawdo, also married a second wife, prompting Aissatou to leave him, taking their four children with her. Thus, in prose that is imbued with passion but devoid of sentimentality, Bâ conducts an informal case study of the divergent paths taken by two women when confronted with the same difficult situation.
Ramatoulaye acknowledges that she went against her family’s wishes by marrying Moudou, a young trade union lawyer educated in France. Her mother preferred an older, more established doctor for her daughter. Mawdo, Aissatou’s husband, defied his family’s expectations for him by marrying the daughter of a goldsmith, a woman considered beneath him due to his mother’s royal lineage. In spite of a happy marriage to Aissatou, Mawdo ultimately caves to pressure from his mother and takes a second wife of her choosing. Moudou succumbs to lust as a middle-aged man and successfully pursues a classmate of his eldest daughter. The girl comes from a poor family and her own mother persuades her to accept this marriage proposal from an older man for the sake of profit.
Despite Mawdo’s insistence that his second marriage is strictly for the benefit of his aging mother and his clear favoritism for his first wife, Aissatou cannot accept his nuptials and leaves with his four children. She resumes her education and succeeds in attaining a position in the Senegalese Embassy in the United States. Ramatoulaye greatly admires the decisions her friend has made and expresses regret for not behaving similarly after her husband marries his second wife. “Yes, I was well aware of where the right solution lay, the dignified solution. And, to my family’s great surprise, unanimously disapproved of by my children […] I chose to remain.” She concedes that uprooting her twelve children is not a realistic step she can take on her own and accepts the revised terms of her marriage, even though her husband neglects her completely in favor his new family.
Ramatoulaye’s acquiescence to her status as the cast-off wife may imply submissiveness in her character, yet her invocation of Aissatou’s rejection of the same fate elevates this quality. Furthermore, as So Long a Letter progresses, it becomes clear that it is not just the memory of Aissatou’s defiance that proves invaluable for Ramatoulaye. In what is easily the novel’s most powerful moment, Ramatoulaye describes complaining to her friend in a letter about the cramped conditions of the bus her children must ride to school since the family can no longer afford a vehicle. She continues, “I shall never forget your response, you, my sister, nor my joy and my surprise when I was called to the Fiat agency and was told to choose a car which you had paid for, in full.” Thus, Aissatou—now a wealthy diplomat in the United States—utilizes her prestige to help her struggling friend, introducing into the novel the concept of women using their newly-gained power to elevate other women.
Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood also deals with polygamy in a West African nation and it is intriguing to compare how the topic is handled in each novel. Nnu Ego, who grew up in an indigenous tribal society and underwent arranged marriages, views her first husband’s taking of a second wife as a direct consequence of her infertility, and thus holds herself responsible for his actions. Her second husband, whom she marries in urban Lagos, inherits the wives his brother leaves behind after his death. Unhappy in this marriage and already struggling to support her children on her husband’s income, Nnu Ego’s only concern is the financial burden that additional women and children will bring to their family. Ramatoulaye is an educated woman who works outside of the home as a teacher while raising her children. Having chosen her successful husband out of love and admiration for him, she perceives his second marriage as a repudiation of their relationship first and foremost, and experiences the ensuing economic hardship as a byproduct of this rejection. Thus, time-period, education level, and socioeconomic status are important factors that influence how polygamy is experienced by a particular woman.
In the final portion of So Long a Letter, Ramatoulaye has opted to prolong the period of mourning that Islamic tradition requires of widows, enjoying the space for contemplation that it allows her. She has rebuffed all the suitors who offer to marry her in the aftermath of her husband’s death. Ramatoulaye has also dealt with the challenges of single motherhood and its impact on her children as they mature and test boundaries, drawn to the temptations of the world outside their home. She catches three of her daughters smoking in their bedroom. Shortly after this incident, she discovers that one of her older daughters is pregnant. The latter issue is perhaps resolved with more glibness than realism. However, it does prompt Ramatoulaye to broach the subject of sexual education to her other daughters. “Modern mothers favour ‘forbidden games’. They help to limit the damage and, better still, prevent it.” She has received word that Aissatou intends to visit her in Senegal. Thus, the novel ends on a note of hope and anticipation, implying that Ramatoulaye’s liberation from the painful legacy of her marriage to Moudou enables a new chapter in her life to begin, one in which she is reunited with the friend who is her inspiration.
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