Mariama Ba

Raised by traditional Muslim grandparents after her mother's death, Mariama Ba (1929–1981) was one of the first Senegalese women to graduate from the prestigious Ecole Normale d'Institutrices in Rufisque. She taught for twelve years and organized women's welfare associations.

In 1979, she published 'Une si longue lettre' ('So Long a Letter'), a moving epistolary novel in which the newly widowed Ramatoulaye writes to her lifelong friend Aissatou, recounting betrayal by polygamy and asserting women's intellectual independence in post-colonial Africa.