t a new direction for women in their society. It is her children, especially these daughters, who are adamant that their mothers divorce their father when he takes a second wife. Both Daba and Aissatou clearly seem like people who will make decisions for themselves. Daba, who has earned a prized baccalaureate and freely chosen a man to whom she is engaged, actually challenges her father by deliberately appearing in the nightclubs where he and his new wife (originally her classmate and friend) spend their evenings. "[S]he would arrive late on purpose so to sit in full view of her father" (Ba 50). This young woman is no withering, oppressed victim of society. The second daughter is named after the full-fledged rebel in the story (who never appears, but is the recipient of the letter), Ramatoulayess friend Aissatou, who did divorce her husband when he took a second wife. The daughter Aissatou is quite aware of the import of her unmarried pregnancy. But Rama is amazed that, although Aissatouss confession is delivered "in a broken voice accompanied by much sniffing," it is yet "without any regret!" (82). This young woman is not a victim either; she has entered freely and lovingly into a sexual relationship and is thoroughly willing to assume responsibility for the consequences of her actions. All of the female characters in So Long a Letter represent women who attempt to, and to some extent succeed in, taking control of their lives. Rama closes her letter (the novel itself) by asserting “I have not given up wanting to refashion my life. Despite everything -disappointments and humiliations-hope still lives within me" (89). Miriama B herself declared in an interview she gave after accepting the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa that a unity of all women cannot be denied, "…there is a cry everywhere, everywhere in the world, a woman's cry is being uttered. The cry may be different but there is still a certain unity"(Chain 8...
