Poetry
Filles du soleil
Not translated into English
Synopsis
Twenty-six poems, opened by a dedication to Daba, the author's sister who died young. They celebrate the African woman, giver of life and warmth, and link motherhood, fertility and renewal to an Africa that is a source of light for the world, summoning Ndiar, nymph of the moon, and Ra, the sun. Other poems speak of the lot of women before the men of their family or of the clash with the white colonists.
Context
The collection appeared in 1980 in Dakar, from Nouvelles Éditions africaines, in forty-four pages, with a preface by Amadou Samb. Its verses carry into French the forms and rhythms of Serer oral tradition, and Wolof words such as "Jiguen rek nga!", "you are only a woman", which brothers and sons throw at their sisters and mothers. Angèle Bassolé Ouédraogo studies it in her essay on African poetry by women. It has not been translated into English.
Who it is for
To read a pioneering voice of Senegalese women's poetry, which sings of the African woman as a source of life.
Prizes and reception
In his preface, Amadou Samb praises the sensitivity and command of language of a true poet, beyond her liberties of syntax.