Scarlet Song

Scarlet Song (1981) a novel from African writer Mariama Bâ, is about a marriage between a Senegalese man and a white European woman. It addresses issues of race, gender, tradition, cultural disparities, and post-colonialism. Bâ, a Senegalese woman, wrote her novels in French. She was a lifelong critic of gender inequality and struggled to complete her education when her traditionalist grandparents didn’t believe she, a woman, should receive one. Her first novel, So Long a Letter (1979), won the first Noma Prize for Publishing in 1980. In 1981, Bâ died from a long illness, just before Scarlet Song was published.

The book introduces Ousmane Gueye, a Senegalese student in the 1960s. Though Ousmane is the son of a devout Muslim, he values his relationship with his mother, Yaye, above all else, including religion. Bâ slowly introduces his backstory: as a young boy, he had a budding romance with a friend from his village, Ouleymatou. However, she rejected him because she saw him as little more than a “mama’s boy.” After her rejection, Ousmane throws himself into his studies and avoids dating. He is determined to rise above his impoverished working-class background to find a better life. Education is the key to that for him. He has made his way to university, and he continues to succeed there.

At the university in Dakar, he meets Mireille, a French diplomat’s daughter. Her world is nothing like Ousmane’s; she has a limousine to take her to and from school. In spite of their differences, they begin to fall in love. Ousmane is respectful and cautious until he understands that Mireille loves him. Mireille’s father is a liberal in public, but when he discovers his daughter is dating a Black man, he is outraged and sends Mireille back to France immediately.

In France, Mireille participates in the student protests of 1968, while Ousmane also participates in demonstrations back in Dakar. They are politically conscious and committed to change; they continue to carry on their romance from afar. They quietly send each other letters on the sly as they pursue their studies and wait for Mireille to come of age, so she will no longer need her father’s consent. They go through graduate school and begin to teach. Finally, as soon as Mireille comes of age, Ousmane travels to France to marry her. He waits until after he is married to inform his parents. His father accepts the match, but his mother is displeased. She believes Mireille has somehow entranced her son.

As Ousmane ages, he begins to change. The determined, idealistic student becomes more complex and self-interested as he settles into his adult life. He has difficulties adjusting to an academic life alongside Mireille, struggling to respect the traditions he grew up with and the parents who raised him. Mireille has had to sacrifice ties with family and friends to be with Ousmane, but she does not really understand his background or culture. Yaye is also not a welcoming mother-in-law. A traditional African daughter-in-law would be subservient, almost a servant to her. Yaye complains she isn’t getting her due with Mireille, who sees no such obligation between them.

Over time, Ousmane begins to reject Mireille’s upper middle class, bourgeois lifestyle in favor of his traditional Senegalese upbringing. His marriage to Mireille becomes strained as he pushes her away.

At this point, Ouleymaton re-enters his life. Unlike Mireille, she is a traditional African woman, the kind Yaye might approve of. Suddenly, Ouleymaton wants Ousmane for herself. She sees his success: how he has climbed the academic ladder and become a prosperous man. Now, Ouleymaton wants to share that wealth. She openly tries to seduce him. In his troubled state, drifting between two cultures, he gives in to her attention.

In Dakar, Muslims are traditionally polygamous, and Ouleymaton is determined to become Ousmane’s second wife. Notably, Ousmane’s own parents are monogamous, and the narrative attributes his strengths to that solid single marriage. Bâ shows that in a polygamous society, wives are under threat, always in danger of losing their husband’s affections to another woman, with no way to leave or find independence for themselves.

Ousmane keeps the truth from an increasingly depressed and lonely Mireille, essentially leading a secret double life with a second wife and a second child on the way at the same time that Mireille becomes pregnant. Mireille notices, however, that Ousmane spends less and less time with her, and suspects him of an affair.

Finally, she learns the truth, and when she does, she is driven into an insane, frenzied rage. She murders their own son with sleeping pills and attempts to kill Ousmane by stabbing him. Ousmane survives the attack, but Mireille remains insane and is deported.

Scarlet Song is notable for its depiction of gender roles, love, and betrayal. Bâ’s take on the effects of polygamy on women’s relations to each other is searing. Reviewers praise her “expert” writing and the “many layers” of African life in the modern world.