55 pages • 1 hour read
Mariama BaSo Long a Letter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 1-5 Summary
Ramatoulaye, also known as Rama, is a recently-widowed Senegalese Muslim woman. She has received a letter from her friend, Aissatou, who is divorced, and begins composing her own letter in response. Rama has been isolated in her home following the death of her husband, Modou, who died shortly before the beginning of the novel from a heart attack. This ritualistic isolation, called iddah, is part of Rama’s Islamic faith. She describes Modou’s funeral to Aissatou—the long line of mourners, her irritation that her co-wife, Modou’s second, was placed next to her as though they were equals, her exhaustion as the days pass and the funeral proceedings stretch onwards. On the fortieth day, Binetou, her co-wife, leaves to return to her parents’ home. Rama will spend four months and ten days in isolation from the world, unable to leave the tent that has been erected around her. She is unfazed by this, telling Aissatou that she “has enough memories in me to ruminate upon” (9).
Modou’s family arrives for a meeting to discuss financial affairs. Binetou and her mother (referred to as Lady Mother-in-Law) are there, as is Modou’s brother Tamsir, the local Imam (Islamic religious authority), and Modou’s best friend 
Unlock all 55 pages of this Study Guide
