Alex Smith

Love note #13 comes from Tunisia, where Senegalise author, Mariama Ndoye, now lives. Mariama Ndoye has written several novels and numerous short stories, articles and essays. She has a doctorate in French Arts from Dakar University and has also been curator of the Dakar Museum of African Arts, a researcher at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire and a language training consultant for the African Development Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Among her stories is “En Route to the Twenty-First Century”, which was Part of the celebrated anthology Women Writing Africa. West Africa and the Sahel, published by The Feminist Press in 2005. Mariama’s novels include Sur Des Chemins Pavoisés (On Golden Paths,1997), the award-winning Soukey(1999) and Comme Du Bon Pain (Like Good Bread, 2001) published by Nouvelles Editions ivoiriennes, Abidjan. Simon Gikandi’s Encyclopedia of African Literature notes :

Mariama Ndoye deserves a special place not because she is the heir to any school or writer but rather because she has produced a consistent, rich, varied and versatile body of works composed of powerful novels and short stories…Mariama Ndoye is a strong advocate of feminism in Senegal and an outspoken supporter of the emancipation and liberation of African women.

Mariama Ndoye Answers Questions On Love, Writing and Senegal

LOVE
Love pervades my books as it does my life. My characters are love-addicts. The main protagonist in “Comme Du Bon Pain” engages in a fierceful fight to win back the love of her husband who had fallen into polygamy.
Physical love is depicted in some parts of the novel and many readers hailed its beauty, its poetry and “audacity”. You seldom find sex openly described in Senegalese literature. The sense of propriety in the Senegalese society does not allow for it.

MY WRITING
The story entitled Papa in my collection of short stories Parfums D’Enfance is particularly moving to me because I recall in it the story of my happy childhood.
I enjoy re-reading all my books, sometimes with laughter, sometimes with tears, and I often say to myself “well done”. I also enjoy writing for myself, for those who like or love me, for those who read me, for posterity.

SIGHTS OF SENEGAL
The sea in little Ndeunkou bay and the robust house made of juxtaposed red bricks which my grand father built in the thirties are sights that fill me with joy and pride. That’s for sights.

FEELINGS
For feelings, I like to feel my child coming out of my body at birth.

INSPIRATIONS
I enjoyed Ségou by Maryse Condé because she is a woman and a good writer and because she did a lot of research work in order to write that book.
I also loved Cry, The Beloved Country because I was intrigued by South Africa and the situation that prevailed there.
I also enjoyed books written by non-Africans like Premier De Cordée (Leader) whose author I don’t even remember and Les Hommes En Blanc by André Soubiran.

SOUNDS
I love to hear the rumble of the Taïba phosphate train tearing through the night when I am lying in my bed, on leave at Guendel, in Rufisque my home town.

LANGUAGE
I learnt French at a very early age. It is not my mother tongue, but I like its music. I like to read and write in French, look for the right words or put them in a string, or still try to translate its beautiful images into Wolof. I like Pulaar and Bambara when I hear them in songs, but I don’t speak them.

FRAGRANCES
I love the smell of steamed millet couscous, of lemon scents and of jasmin.

WOMEN AUTHORS OF AFRICA
No doubt an African woman author in 2008 does not live the same situation throughout the continent.
It is nice to be a Senegalese woman writer in 2008, as literary production is growing fast.
However, we don’t thrive on literature. We are not much read outside our frontiers; because of their low income, our fellow countrymen cannot afford to buy books as a matter of priority; our school syllabuses do not take our books into account but we staunchly remain faithful to Writing and to better prospects for the future.

Link to Mariama Ndoye’s poem NOTE A MES LECTEURS– En forme de poème (1996)

Link to Bonne fête en poésie by Mariama Ndoye, a poem in celebration of International Women’s Day (2005)