Bâ, Mariama (1929–1981)

Senegalese novelist who won Africa's first Noma Award. Name variations: Ba or Baâ. Born to Muslim parents in Dakar, Senegal, in 1929; died after a long illness in Dakar in 1981; daughter of a civil servant; attended the École Normal for girls in Rufisque; married a Senegalese politician (divorced); children: nine.

After suffering the loss of her mother at an early age, Mariama Bâ grew up under the traditional tutelage of her well-to-do maternal grandparents. Her father, believing in the importance of a French education, then sent her off to the École Normal in Rufisque. There she was considered a brilliant student and began writing. Upon graduation, she worked as a secretary before becoming a grade-school teacher in 1947. Forced to resign after 12 years because of ill health, she joined various Senegalese women's organizations and wrote essays on such topics as polygamy and clitoridectomy. In 1979, in her epistolary first novel Une Si longue lettre (So Long a Letter), Bâ wrote of her chosen profession: "Teachers—at kindergarten level, as at university level—form a noble army accomplishing daily feats, never praised, never decorated. An army forever on the move, forever vigilant. An army without drums, without gleaming uniforms. This army, thwarting traps and snares, everywhere plants the flag of knowledge and morality." The novel won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Bâ also authored Le Chant écarlate (Scarlet Song) but did not live to see its publication. Married and divorced, Mariama Bâ was the mother of nine children.