So Long a Letter

Some of Rama’s children, though, continue to vex her. Three of her younger daughters are caught smoking in their bedroom, despite Rama having forbidden it. They wear pants and go to the cinema alone. Rama is perplexed by these modern young women, yet understands there is little she can do to stop them (or Senegal) from modernizing. She resigns herself to being a “stick-in-the-mud” (81) whom progress has left behind.

Two of her young sons are hit by a motorcyclist while playing ball in the street. Her daughter Aissatou takes charge, dressing the wounds and taking one son to the doctor to treat his broken arm. Mawdo, still the town doctor, sets the arm in a splint.

Young Aissatou, Rama reveals, is three months pregnant—but not married. She hid this from Rama as long as she could, wearing loose dresses and swearing her siblings to silence. But Rama learns the news from the local village gossip and confronts her daughter. The father is revealed to be Ibrahima Sall, called Iba, a local law student. Young Aissatou promises that she was not coerced or forced into a sexual relationship. Rama is devastated, but accepts her daughter, the relationship, and the baby.