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In Sengal the duties of a women are to stay home, clean, cook, care for, and bear children. In fact in the Sengalese culture, the more children a women has, the better of a wife she is. I found that 38% of adults in Africa are illiterate and two-thirds of that are women. Besides not being allowed to get an education women are also frowned upon if they enter the work force. Not even a third of the workforce in Sengal is made up of women and that is due to the discrimination they receive. We see this throughout So Long a Letter as Ramatoulaye gets upset about being unable to have an education or a career. Because women are expected to do so much but allowed to do so little, it has many psychological effects. Things like anger, depression, alienation, increased stress levels, and social isolation. We see examples of all of these throughout the book and Marima Bâ uses these feelings to explain the unfairness and danger of these situations. She uses her book as a motivational tool to tell women that they can go against society, culture, and religion to do what they truly love and what they are passionate about.

“Situation of Women in Senegal.” Step Up for Rights of Females, www.female-rights.com/senegal/.

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Polygamy is when one woman has multiple husbands or in the case of So Long a Letter, when one man has multiple wives. This can be detrimental to the multiple wives of the one man, especially if they are not in agreement that polygamy is okay. This was the case for Ramatoulaye. As her husband found a new and younger wife, she began to think about all of her flaws and insecurities. It is basically a direct message to the first wife that she is not good enough. I personally hate these words, "you are not good enough" as they cause so many problems with mental health which in turn causes problems to ones physical health. In this book Marima Bâ tries to point out that women do not have to be in a polygamous relationship no matter the circumstance. She explains how no matter the religious or cultural beliefs and standards a women can live her life without being tied to someone else. She proves that women do have power and control to end situations when they feel uncomfortable or simply uninterested. The goal that Marima Bâ has in writing about polygamy is to basically create a revolution of women who will rise against it and fight for themselves instead. She also hints about the politics and trying to legislate against polygamy. Her main message with this is to warn those who may be in a polygamous relationship. She does not do this simply to create more world peace but to help women around the world and care for their mental health. She wants to empower women to not feel depressed or ashamed of their situation but to take control of their wellbeing.

Al-Krenawi, Alean. “Mental Health and Polygamy: The Syrian Case.” World Journal of Psychiatry, Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited, 22 Mar. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3782180/.

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Having unequal opportunities between you and those close to you can have multiple psychological effects. In places like Sengal, this could become a concern as they are still a very unequal and divided country. Inequality may not seem much of a problem besides the fact that things are not fair. Even though life may not be fair, we want to make sure the world is safe for people not only physically but mentally safe. It is said that people who live in places where there is greater inequality have lower life satisfaction. They could have the best day in their life but it still might not be good enough. Along with having lower life satisfaction, these people also have higher levels of depression. Things like higher suicide rates, raised blood pressure, more health problems, and brain damage. As people become depressed they tend to cut themselves off from others and create problems with the social aspect of life. Although we do not explicitly see these examples in So Long a Letter, we are able to pick up on some of them. We are able to see the depression of Ramatoulaye as she is unable to go to the funeral of someone close to her. We also see how she has created a social barrier with her husband, Modou, as he moves on to a new wife. We are not told exactly what happened for Modou to leave her, however, it did cause her a great deal of anger and depression. She questioned why the Lord had chosen this path for her life, why she was not good enough for her husband anymore, and what she did to deserve the pain that she was feeling. Throughout the book, she begins to challenge these thoughts of society and take the opportunities that she believed she should have had in the first place.

Haslam, Nick, and University of Melbourne. “Mistrust and Competition: The Psychology of Inequality.” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/this-is-the-psychological-impact-that-inequality-has.

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Many people are discriminated because of their gender, size, nationality, or culture. In So Long a Letter, we see the discrimination of gender. Being discriminated against or discriminating others has a deep psychological affect on ones mind. It is similar to bullying but it is one group of people to another. Now days gender discrimination is seen in work or professional situations. Things like not being chosen for a job based on gender, not getting equal pay for equal work, or being fired for pregnancy. In this book however, it is a bit different. We see women being put down and demoted in society. Some examples of this include opportunities for men and not women, polygamy, and the duties a woman has to her house and family. I will talk about how each of these effect the way people think and feel.

Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2007). Sex discrimination: The psychological approach. In F. J. Crosby, M. S. Stockdale, & S. A. Ropp (Eds.), Sex discrimination in the workplace: Multidisciplinary perspectives (p. 155–187). Blackwell Publishing.

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Marima Bâ was a Sengalese author, but she was also a feminist. From a young age she was bound to traditional beliefs taught to her by her grandmother. These beliefs constricted the freedoms of women and Marima Bâ was not going to put up with it. With the support of her father, a politician open to new ideas, she gained the confidence to change tradition. One way she did this was through writing novels such as So Long a Letter.

“Biography.” Mariama Ba Biography | Women, en.unesco.org/womeninafrica/mariama-ba-0/biography.