Mariama Bâ

Mariama Bâ (April 17, 1929 – August 17, 1981) was a Senegalese author and feminist, whose two French-language novels were both translated into more than a dozen languages.

A drawing portrait of Mariama Bâ

Quotes

Scarlet Song (1981)

• Whenever he felt himself beginning to fancy any girl, after the Ouleymatou experience, the memory of her mocking indifference and his own disillusionment had made him fiercely determined to nip any emotional attachment in the bud.

• Ousmane Gueye, who had mistrusted all women, threw himself at the mercy of a woman, and a white woman at that.

• Was he a possible partner for Mireille? Could he assume such a mutation.

• A Toubab can’t be a proper daughter-in-law. She’ll only have eyes for her man. We’ll mean nothing to her.

• We saw everything through the same eyes before we were married… But now we seem to be divided over everything.

• Love knows no bounds, but sometimes society does.

• The truth can be a harsh and cruel reality.

• In the face of misogyny and injustice, the only hope is escape.