Scarlet Song

by Mariama Bâ, Dorothy S Blair (Translator)

Cultural differences between the families of Mireille, daughter of a French diplomat, and Ousmane, son of a poor Muslim family in Senegal, threatens to destroy their marriage

Genres: Africa, Senegal, African Literature, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Literature

171 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Mariama Bâ (1929 – 1981) was a Senegalese author and feminist, who wrote in French. Born in Dakar, she was raised a Muslim, but at an early age came to criticise what she perceived as inequalities between the sexes resulting from [African] traditions. Raised by her traditional grandparents, she had to struggle even to gain an education, because they did not believe that girls should be taught. Bâ later married a Senegalese member of Parliament, Obèye Diop, but divorced him and was left to care for their nine children.
Her frustration with the fate of African women—as well as her ultimate acceptance of it—is expressed in her first novel, So Long a Letter. In it she depicts the sorrow and resignation of a woman who must share the mourning for her late husband with his second, younger wife. Abiola Irele called it "the most deeply felt presentation of the female condition in African fiction". This short book was awarded the first Noma Prize for Publishing in Africa in 1980.[1]
Bâ died a year later after a protracted illness, before her second novel, Scarlet Song, which describes the hardships a woman faces when her husband abandons her for a younger woman he knew at youth, was published.

FRom Wikipedia

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given that Mariam Ba wrote this book as she was dying, I wonder if that is why she managed to put in so much of how she saw her world? The African world. And this she did brilliantly; she showed, did not tell. She expertly wove in the many layers of life as an African in the modern world, exploring many themes without losing the unity of the story.

If I rated the book initially, in the first third or so, I'd have given it a 3. I got more into it as I read on, and by the time I was done it was a 5.

Very vividly written, the story explores various themes. Inter-racial marriages. Racism. Counter-racism. African culture. Can I be a prisoner of my values, can I be blind to this prison? Identity. What is it? What makes me who I am? Can I lose my identity by making choices that go against the pre-set mould of culture and family? What do I choose to fight to the death for? Is my identity in my mind, a thing created, or an idea I buy into? Expectations in marriage of husbands and wives. Can a marriage with only one side making sacrifices work? Must both sides make sacrifices for any union to work? Cultural differences. Do we hold on to bits of culture that work for our selfish interest? Pride. Love. How important are appearances for society? Does giving the 'right' impression make for happiness? All this in such a small book.

Being an African living a 'western' life in Africa the story resonated with me several times, even if not out of my personal experience, out of observation.

And as a lover of words I absolutely loved the language and the expressions. So real. So apt in places. Managing to convey the conflicts we have in our minds and how we justify our choices. I wondered what it must be to read this book in the original French, given how well it comes out in English.

This was time well-spent.

[Brady Billiot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story that could’ve benefited from being longer. The switch up in Ousmane’s personality felt very abrupt and out of nowhere. This was the most glaring flaw of this book that could’ve easily been avoided unless the only take away was to show the fickleness of men. So many great topics approached in this short story tho: love between people of different backgrounds, culture clashes, racism, sexism, colorism, interracial marriage, education, Senegalese culture, love, and heartbreak

[Varyanne S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women first, race second...In most cases.
This book made me ache for an African story in which the black man is not an asshole.
I understand that pain is powerful and stories of pain need to be told, but can't love be made more powerful than pain, can't hope be made more powerful, why do we exalt pain? Why is a story only powerful or 'real' when it is painful? Why are we telling stories of black men driving women of all races insane decade after decade. Why can't we celebrate love, happiness, unity? Does art really have to be all gloom and doom?
This story completely broke my heart. Don't read it. Buy the book to support female African writers though.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deceptively thin book, this book contains a storm of huge issues in its story including gender, race, chauvinism, cultural identity, tradition vs. modernity, polygamy and post-colonial African identity. I'm sure there more issues that I missed. It's an easy read, because Ba's writing is vivid, and the plot moves swiftly. However, it is anything but an "easy" read because of the painful portrayal of chauvinism and its denigrating effect on both women and men.

Mireille, the white daughter of a French diplomat posted in Senegal, falls in love with Ousmane, the son of a working-class black Muslim family, in university. They connect over their ideals and their philosophical discussions, but all of that idealism takes a backseat to the relentless pull of culture and tradition once they are married against both families' wishes.

This could have been a Romeo & Juliet story with an overlay of the villainized "other", but there are several ways in which Ba prevents her story from being simplified.

For one, there is the excellently written character of Yaye Khady, Ousmane's mother, who is enmeshed with her son and resents his marriage, especially to a white woman because she will not get the traditional daughter-in-law that she wanted to be, more or less, her servant. As Yaye Khady continually repeats, she is not getting "her due." What is owed her exactly? Her own marriage was one of love, not arranged, and her husband is not polygamous. However, there is always that underlying threat in a polygamous society that a wife will be tossed aside for another woman, left in a limbo of being dependent on her husband yet undesired and disrespected.

Where women should be bonding together, Ba's story shows very skillfully how polygamy prevents those bonds by always placing women in competition with each other. Even Yaye Khady must compete with the other mothers to establish her rank among them. Her son's professional and education success is, in her opinion, a direct reflection on her, and his mixed-marriage does not fit with her idea of how her life should look. And how things look are extremely important in the society of this story.

Yaye Khady is the mother-in-law from hell who undermines her son's marriage from the start; ditto for Mireille's parents who seek no relationship with their daughter after her marriage. The parents' own self-images are more important to them than their relationships with their children or their childrens' relationships. Maybe this is the crux of the identity issue in the novel -- where is the self and how is it constructed?

What Ba also does remarkably well is that she presents other voices in the story of friends and even family members who do not condone the chauvinistic and reckless behavior of Ousmane. There is even another French-Senegalese couple (it isn't clear if they are mixed-race, though) who counsel Ousmane about the need for compromise in a relationship. The other French-Senegalese couple occupies a small paragraph in the entire book, but it is like a chink in a dense fence that lets bright sunlight through saying, "It can be another way." For Ousmane, though, his identity as a black African man is more important than his marriage and his ideals.

I think this might be one of the best depictions of how misogyny works in a society and the roles that men, women, religion, and culture play in it. Ba does a terrific job of revealing the inner thoughts and motivations of the characters in such a way that we understand how the whole complex set-up of society pushes each person towards their actions.

[Aisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

“What a world of difference between a black daughter in law and a white one. A black woman knows and accepts the mother-in-law’s rights. she enters the home with the intention of relieving the older woman. The daughter in law cocoons her husband’s mother in a nest of respect and repose. Acting according to unspoken and undisputed principles, the mother in law gives her orders, supervises and makes her demands”….

A time capsule to 1980s Senegal, Scarlet Song tells the story of a mixed-race marriage between the daughter of a French colonial diplomat Mireille, and Ousmane, a man from an ordinary Muslim family, against the wishes of both of their families. 

The premise did not hold much pull for me, but Ba draws the reader in gently yet with fervour and passion. There was much to ponder upon re the legacy of French interference with the country and the economic prospects for ordinary citizens. I enjoyed learning about protests post-independence. It was interesting to consider events on both sides of the pond and the motivations behind protests in France vs Senegal. Although it might seem like a good thing that the French citizens wanted the country to wash its hands off their former colony, feeling the sting from the people at the top depriving ordinary people of resources and prospects, at the end of the day, the Black people get the shaft. 

So much of this is imbued with language, culture and customs as well as religious beliefs, Ba was careful to differentiate between the two, at least as far as I noted, and that’s important.

What seems like a love story at the start becomes an all-out battle between ideals before the couple’s permanent move to Senegal and the struggle to merge their worlds with both parties to blame - but to the greater suffering of the woman.

The gender issue feels more pressing as Ba highlights a cycle that requires ongoing participation on the part of the women to perform according to gender norms and be rewarded for doing so when relief comes in the form of a younger woman to take on the elder’s former role. 

Ousmane is the worst kind of patriarch - the benevolent kind who promises his wife she can be her own person but once in wants to be seen as the man of the house in the company of friends. Mireille could have had all my sympathies, but her attitude towards race and Ousmane’s culture and religion was tainted long before the couple ever got together, and in critical moments cost her everything she probably would have lost anyway. 

Kudos to Mariama Ba, who wrote two novels before her passing, both of which touch on polygamy and manages to tackle it from a different angle here. What is interesting here is also the lengths the community go to be complicit in the deceit - this, of course, is mainly influenced by Mireille’s race here. 

[Florence Aubaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Histoire d'un couple mixte au Sénégal dans les années 1980, Très fort sur les relations, traditions, genre, racisme

[Corvinus Maximilus · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Ouleymatou had become his true soulmate, the woman in whom he recognised the extension of himself. She was, as Mabo Dialli so rightly sang, at one and the same time his roots, his stock, his growth, his flowering. They were linked by their childhood, spent in the maze of dusty streets. Most important they were linked by their common ancestors, the same skies. The same soil! The same traditions! Their souls were impregnated with the sap of the same customs. They were ecited by the same causes. Neither Ousmane nor Ouleymatou could disclaim this commom esscence without distorting their very natures. Cultural heritage was taking its pitiless revenge. It was reclaiming its due and revealing to Ousamane the end point of his flight.”-Mariama Ba, Scarlet Song.

The book explores a mixed race marriage and brings to light the cultural differences between an African and a European. What it is to be African is described so richly in Mariama Ba’s words. I wondered whether all the people in mixed marriages go through this; giving up your culture for the sake of love. Is that too big a sacrifice for the sake of life. Is there a compromise? Can there be a compromise? Would I be willing to give up my culture for love?
[I wrote this on my blog ages ago after I read the book http://corvinus.tumblr.com/post/11587...]

[Nina Chachu · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason I took a long time completing this book, and upon reflection I am not sure why. Maybe because I sort of knew that the ending was not going to be a happy one! And I realise that after finishing it, I still quite a few questions, and I wasn't really sure what the author was trying to present to the reader. On whose side was the author? Mireille? Ouleymatou? Ousmane? His parents?

[Maame Prempeh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"A white woman does not enrich a family. She impoverishes it by undermining its unity"

The gospel according to Mariama Ba. I really have no sympathy for the caucascian woman in this novel. What she endured is no different from what occurred in Ba's So Long a Letter.


It's hauntingly true sadly. I've seen and witnessed it so frequent am immuned to it.

Ba is an great artist. Her weaving skills in storytelling is out of this world.

[Nils · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is first and foremost a love story between a Senegalese teacher and a French woman. It is also the story of the failure of this love. However, this love only functions as a vehicle for the actual subject matter. It is primarily about the meeting of two cultures, the confrontation with colonialism and the role of women in both Senegalese and French society. The novel repeatedly brings up racism, but Bâ also holds up a mirror to Senegalese culture and Islam and uses the characters' actions to condemn the fierce stubbornness and gender imbalance. Even though the novel is well over 40 years old, the content is timeless and gave me a better insight into this world. However, due to the heavy subject matter, this was also definitely not a really fun read. At times it also seemed to me as if this very act of condemnation led to her subconsciously serving strict role models. Overall, a novel with an important message, but one that is not necessarily fun to read.

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this a great deal until the ending, which I kinda hated, so I will try to pretend didn't exist. Ba writes her characters with compassion and insight, and paints us a vivid picture of their lives in Senegal. She draws out the pressures, relationships and expectations that create communities. These social forces make the slow disintegration of her protagonists' marraige somewhat unavoidable, but seen through the choices her characters' make we also want for them to see more, to make different ones. The simplicity of the style, combined with sharp psychological insight, is not found as much now as a few decades ago, and it is a shame given how much power it can deliver in the hands of a skilled writer.
That ending though - it pulled the story into melodrama, and contained some of my least favourite tropes. A real let down to a book which relied on subtelty.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5

[Mariecoura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs.

[2TReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bâ writes with depth and compassion about social and cultural tones with an ear towards the flawed humanity of her characters.

'When one abandons one's own hill, the next hill which one climbs will crumble.' –Djibril

Scarlet Song looks at interracial love and relationships, it interrogates the choice to love across race, especially within the colonial context where in both these countries, the newness of independence has not removed the class and racial prejudices from society and how that impacts these relationships.

Bâ has written main characters from both worlds who come together in an educational sphere and form a connection that leads to love. The reactions from both sets of parents are understandable if not equal in reactionary tone. Ousmane and Mireille are physically separated for a time.

Bâ writes her female characters with understanding and care, ensuring that the reader can see where culture and manner play into their behaviour and prejudices. She also does really well with expounding on these issues, giving the reader multiple viewpoints from her characters of how they see Ousmane and Mireille's relationship.

[Ruba · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 Sept. 2011 - To be honest, it has been a while. What I remember is that the story challenged so many preconceptions of identity...and I remember that I truly enjoyed it. Will re-read and better comment, perhaps!

11 Sept. 2011 - I have just reread this book and remember why I was so moved during the first year so many years ago. There are so many layers, like the layers of society and the often conflicting forces of progress, tradition, and culture. Every character presents a strong message, if even only temporarily engaged in the novel. At times it may seem so easy to identify a true hero and villain, while at other times, our humanity is compelled to understand where each is coming from. This adds nuance and allows the characters we embrace to have their flaws. Certainly an important piece of post-colonial thought, Mariama Ba extends her message fluidly into the timeless conversation of women and men, the politics of race, gender and culture, and the promise of what could be, if only we didn't keep getting in its way.

[Felister · Rating 4 out of 5]

women despite the color the prestige suffers the blows and sweets of love. any one of them is vulnerable to the ills of love. this book also poses the question, are you strong enough to break through the norms of a society without breaking down?

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short novel packs in a great deal, exploring the ups and downs of cross-cultural relationships and the impact of society on those individuals who dare to breach the walls of conformity. You may just find it too heart-wrenching towards the end though.

[Khulani]

Nice

[Abdulaziz Kaisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the books that taught me to love reading

[Layssa L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did cry. Justice for Mireille.

[Nina ( picturetalk321 ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bâ died in Dakar, Senegal, in 1981. She had 9 children. The book was published post-humously in 1982 as Le Chant écarlate. English title: Scarlet Song. I read it in German, translated by Irmgard Rathke (1982 -- quick work!). The author spoke Wolof; the publication in French speaks of colonial history.

The novel starts slow and sweet, an erotic and love awakening of two young students in Dakar in the 1960s. But the course of love and so forth, and here the differences are not Montagu and Capulet but black Wolof and white French. Both families vehemently oppose the union but the lovers prevail, on the way engaging in the 1968 student revolts in Paris and Dakar which latter are perfunctorily described.

But things do not go well. I am on my phone and don't know how to activate the spoiler function;suffice it to say that cultural differences intervene, a mixed-race child is born, and towards the end, after meandering at a steady pace, sudden deus ex machina violence erupts.

What I liked was the relatable visceral description of jealousy (romantic, maternal) which the author rightly mentions as transcending black or white; the insight into a way of life in Dakar suburbs, including many Wolof words (helpfully translated and explained in footnotes in my edition; somewhat othering but helpful) to denote clothing, foods, ceremonies and roles; the unobtrusive introduction of witchcraft; and the highlight: the extensive lavish description of a wedding and a Muslim / Wolof baptism.

What I struggled with: the ending; the use of the words 'Neger' and 'Negerin' (I am assuming that the French has 'nègre' and I don't know enough about 1970s discourses of 'nègritude' to make an informed comment; it is interesting how historically recent the use of these denominations by an African author are); the frequent use of dialogue to deliver nuanced but polemic and lecture-like points and the resulting emotional lack -- in being objective and describing all sides, the novel ended up not gripping me with nor making me love or hate any of the characters.

I bought this second-hand in the wonderful Antiquariat Hatry in Heidelberg for €1.50.

Format: Paperback in Fischer's series Woman in Society. Both series title (women's movement-ploitation), cover design by Susanne Berner, left-justified small headings, tiny typeface (uncredited) and minimal leading are very German-1980s-publishing style. Cover has a weave-like texture; spine is floppy.

Chosen to read in my personal quest for non-Anglophone literatures of the world. #womenintranslation #diversifytheclassics

[Saskia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een verhaal over interculturele, interraciale relaties vertelt door een Afrikaanse vrouwelijke schrijfster. Het is raar, maar velen zal dat een ongebruikelijk perspectief bieden. Overigens zonder dat Mariama Bâ alles door de ogen van een zwarte vrouw beschrijft. Toch confronteert het boek je met je eigen stereotyperingen én de angst voor stereotyperingen.

Het boek gaat over de Senegalese Ousmane, een intelligente zwarte moslimman die verliefd wordt op de witte intelligente Franse diplomatendochter Mireille. Tegen de wil van beide families trouwen ze en proberen ze er iets van te maken. Het werkt echter niet en dat ligt aan vele dingen: cultuurverschillen, familierelaties, rolverdeling tussen mannen en vrouwen in Afrikaanse en Europese verhoudingen, religie en traditie, generatieconflicten, klasseverschillen. Maar het zijn ook steeds weer individuele keuzes, leugen en bedrog, vriendschap en toeval die het verloop bepalen.

Mariama Bâ toont allerlei alternatieven rond dit koppel. Je snapt dat dit nooit makkelijk is, maar het is niet zwart-wit ;-) Had een blanke man dit boek geschreven dan had ik vast meerdere malen uitgeroepen:seksist! en racist! Dat had me misschien belet verder te lezen om later de nuance te vinden. Het is knap hoe Mariama Bâ het uitzonderlijke gedrag van eigenlijk alle personages (bijna) begrijpelijk weet te maken. Daardoor begin je iets te snappen van de Afrikaanse schoonmoeder die een blanke schoondochter een vreselijke ramp vindt, al blijft het lastig. Net zo lastig te begrijpen trouwens als de volgzame Franse schoonmoeder. De botheid van de eens zo liefdevolle Ousmane is voor mij echt moeilijk te volgen.

Ik ben aan het denken gezet, maar het is nog niet helemaal geslaagd. De personages hebben meerdere kanten, dat is levensecht, maar ze maken een te grote draai om echt geloofwaardig te zijn. Ook is dit boek wel iets uit de tijd. Daarom geen 4 sterren, maar wel 3,5!

[Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quelle beauté !

Une histoire d'amour, une évidence, naît entre deux êtres : une jeune française, blanche, et un jeune sénégalais, noir. Deux cultures, deux religions, deux mondes les séparent. Leurs différences seront-elles leur force ? C'est tout le propos de Mariama Bâ dans ce roman.

D'une prose éminement poétique, l'auteure nous emporte dans le tourbillon d'une passion amoureuse, de sa cristallisation à son apogée, mais aussi du racisme, du tiraillement entre déracinement et reniement de soi, des traces laissées par le colonialisme, de la culture de la famille, du vivre-ensemble, ... de l'Autre.

Un texte magnifique ! Bravo aux Editions des Prouesses pour la publication de cet ouvrage en France !

[Blessing John · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first full length novel by Mariama Ba and I loved it even more than I loved her novel ‘So Long A Letter’.

Here she addresses a myraid of issues that can plague an interracial relationship/ marriage with specific emphasis on the clash of cultures between a French Christian woman and a Muslim Senegalese man and their life in Senegal.

As usual, Mariama tells it as it is so the prose delves deep into the heart of the discourse and leaves no stone unturned in its exploration of the relationship between love, desire and fulfillment as well as the thin line between ecstasy and reality.

I found it to be a very gripping and thought provoking read. Certainly one of my most memorable reads this year.

[Caitlyn Loux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mariama Ba painted a vulnerable picture of interracial and interfaith marriages, and most prominently, the struggles that accompany them.

After reading this book, I have a greater understanding of Islamic marriages and beliefs, and the inherent tension between the white, French colonizers and the black, Senegalese people.

I have no desire to read this book again, but I am glad that I read it once. The story between Mireille and Ousmane will stay with me for awhile, and it will be a lens for me to understand gender stereotypes and interracial relationships in books, movies, and friends' lives in the future.

[Elisa Ciolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro che non avrei mai pensato di leggere, non mi ispirava certamente. Però l'ho ricevuto come regalo e quindi l'ho letto.

Mai giudicare un libro dalla copertina, l'ho amato. Un libro favoloso, ricco di forti emozioni. Personaggi estremamenti umani e scritti bene.
Anche la storia mi è piaciuta molto, la storia d'amore impossibile tra un senegalese legato troppo alla sua cultura e una francese.

Il finale l'ho trovato geniale, le ultimissime pagine un po' meno: avrei voluto qualche approfondimento in più.

4☆!

[Renzaho · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book leaves a lot to think about. It is a sad fact that what was years ago when it was written is still is. The things a society can make one do, blind one's faith, corrupt one's beliefs and at the end of it all make you believe that the wrong decisions you make are okay because it is the norm.
in the end of it all, women have been dealt the biggest blows. so sad for Mirreale because after all was said and done, she was considered the mad one.

[Garris Nalik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely awful ending. Ousmane the smelly ball-headed bastard should have been killed. Ba, the author, should have had slaughtered all of ousmane’s family especially yaye khady, the mother in law, who was an evil wench. Mirielle did nothing wrong besides maybe kill her kid, but it was done as a ousmane hate crime soooo. Ousmane should have died and mirielle should have been given happiness and a few high fives for killing ousmane, but nooooo ba had to be quirky and have an edgy ending.

[Roberta Carambia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il finale mi ha stupito e sconvolto. La bellezza di questo libro l'ho trovata nella capacità dell'autrice di mettersi nei panni di ognuno/a dei personaggi e farne comprendere le loro ragioni in maniera oggettiva.
Fa riflettere su diverse tematiche: razzismo, cultura, identità, famiglia, autodeterminazione, condizione della donna, poligamia, ecc.

[Agnes Fontana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un magnifique roman de la grande écrivaine sénégalaise Mariama Ba, sur les aventures d'un couple mixte (Ousmane et Mireille), sans angélisme ni idéalisme puisque l'histoire tourne mal. La beauté de l'identité sénégalaise, mais aussi ses faiblesses et les ambiguités du rapport à l'identité qui évolue au cours de la vie, sont explorées avec un grand talent.