Ken Bugul (born 1947 in Ndoucoumane) is the pen name of
the Senegalese Francophone novelist Mariètou Mbaye
Biléoma. The name derives from the Wolof language, in which it means "one who is
unwanted."
Bugul was raised in a polygamous environment. Her father was an 85-year-old marabout. After
completing her elementary education in her native village, she studied at the Malick Sy Secondary School in Thiès. After a year in Dakar, she obtained a scholarship which allowed her to
continue study in Belgium. In 1980 she returned to her home, where she became the 28th wife in the harem of the village marabout.
After his death, she returned to the big city. From 1986 to 1993, she worked for the NGO IPPF (International Planned Parenthood
Foundation) in Nairobi, Kenya; Brazzaville, Congo; and Lomé,
Togo. She subsequently married a doctor from Benin and gave
birth to a daughter. Today she lives and works as a dealer of arts and crafts in Porto-Novo,
Benin.
Bugul's literary reputation has varied from place to place. She was awarded the Grand Prix littéraire
de l'Afrique noire for her novel Riwan ou le Chemin de Sable in 2000, but is better known among American readers
for her novel The Abandoned Baobob, which is her only book to date to have been translated into
English. This autobiographical work deals with and critiques African colonialism. As of late, her status among American feminists
has diminished somewhat, as many have critiqued her for marrying a holy man who already had over 20 wives. This is perhaps
undeserved, and is a good example of ideologies clashing, as the criticism is the result of
American feminists attempting to hold Bugul up to the standards of American feminism, which is worlds away from her Senegalese
experience.
Works
- Le Baobab Fou (1982); translated into English as The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman
(1991)
- Cendres et braises (1994); "Ashes and Embers"
- Riwan ou le Chemin de Sable (1999); "Riwan; or, the Sandy Track"
- La Folie et la mort (2000); "Madness and Death"
- De l'autre côté du regard (2002); "As Seen From the Other Side"
- La pièce d'or (2005); "The Gold Coin"
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