Colonialism in theory ended in Senegal on August 20, 1960, date on which Senegal became the Republic of Senegal, electing its first president in September 1960.  But as So Long a Letter reveals, independence did not eliminate controversies and struggles within postcolonial societies (i.e. former colonial societies as they existed after the political act or acts of decolonization that created independence).  Aissatou and Ramatoulaye both have personal crises linked to what colonial officials would have seen as Senegal's "traditional" culture, which allowed men to marry more than one wife and imposed financially burdensome penalties on them into the bargain.  Moreover, one could credit the professional ascent of both Aissatou and Ramatoulaye in part to the educational institutions and non-traditional roles for women that the creation of French West Africa introduced to the peoples of what became Senegal.  And yet without question few if any in Senegal would have given up independence.  That being the case, it would seem that Miriam Ba presents us with a conundrum: the reality that postcolonial societies have and will retain features from their colonial pasts even as they work through the problems of the present and future.  Write an essay of two pages that:

1) Has an introduction of 1/4 of a page and takes a position as to whether Ramatoulaye or her best friend Assiatou arrives at the best solution to coping with life in postcolonial Senegal.

2) Has a 1/2-page examination of their respective situations and their links to the colonial past the postcolonial present in the novel.

3) Has a 1/2-page examination of their respective solutions to the challenges in their lives.

4) Has a 1/2-page dicussion of what their siuations collectively say about women in Senegal (mindful of their socio-economic positions and origins).

5) Has a 1/4-page conclusion in which the thesis from section 1 is restated.

The first or main-entry footnote should be formatted as follows: Mariama Bâ, So Long a Letter, translated by Modupé Bodé-Thomas (Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1981), [insert number(s) of page(s) here].

Thereafter all notes should use the abbreviation Ibid. as your only source for this paper should be So Long a Letter.