Aminata SOW FALL An author from Senegal writing in French [Return to French — Page originale en français]

Aminata Sow Fall was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal. After spending several years at the Faidherbe grammar school, she finished her secondary schooling at the Van Vo grammar school in Dakar. She then went to France where she completed a licence in Modern Languages. She married in 1963 and returned to Senegal where she became a teacher before working for the National Reform Commission for the Teaching of French. Subsequently, she was appointed Director of la Propriété littéraire [The Literary Property] in Dakar (1979-1988). She is currently the Director of both the Centre Africain d'Animation et d'Echanges Culturels and Khoudia publishing house in Fann, Dakar. Aminata Sow Fall was also at the head of the Centre International d'Etudes, de Recherches et de Réactivation sur la Littérature, les Arts et la Culture that organized regular national and international Conferences in Saint-Louis. In 1997, Aminata Sow Fall was awarded an Honorary Degree at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Publications

Le Revenant [The Ghost]. Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1976. (125p/). ISBN 2 7236 0109 9. Novel.

When an honest post office worker, Bakar, realises that he is in debt because he has been financing the extravagant needs of his circle of family and friends, he steals money from his employer and ends up in prison for misappropriation of funds. He is then abandoned by all those who had profited from his extravagance and so Bakar decides to get his revenge.

La Grève des bàttu [The Beggars' Strike]. Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1979. (131p.). ISBN 2 7236 0437 3. Novel.

Mour Ndiaye does not hesitate to take draconian measures to rid Dakar's streets from its beggars in order to curry favour with the President. When the beggars are chased out of town, they regroup and reorganise. When the capital's inhabitants find it increasingly difficult to abide by the Prophet's instructions to give alms to the poor, the end of Mour Ndiaye's political career is in sight.

L'Appel des arènes [The Call of the Wrestling Arenas]. Dakar: Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines, 1982. (144p.). ISBN 2 7236 0837 9. Novel.

When Ndiogou and Diattou return to Senegal, they are totally cut off from their family and social connections because of their adoption of Western values. Consequently Diattou's son, Nalla, is brought up with no contact with his social milieu, his relatives and comrades. Unhappy and tormented by the arbitrary nature of this decision, Nalla begins to waste away, but finds a reason for living again when he gradually discovers the world from which his parents have tried to exclude him.

Ex-Père de la nation [The Nation's former Father-figure]. Paris: L'Harmattan, 1987. (189p.). ISBN 2 85802 875 3. Novel.

In this novel a fallen dictator reflects over the reasons for which his reign had produced a decade of oppression and misery. When he is elected with a huge majority to the office of President of the Republic, Madiam is convinced that he is going to be able to lead his country on the road towards prosperity. However, this is not to be so and his reign ends in bloodshed.

Le Jujubier du Patriarche [The Patriarch's Jujubier]. Dakar: Editions Khoudia, 1993. (146p.) ISBN 2 87895 006 2. Novel.

In this novel the author shows the role of History in the phenomenon of mixed castes in upper class society, giving as her example the couple Yelli and Tacko. These aristocrats of earlier times, whose ideas have not kept up with the realities of modern society, are the living proof of the poverty which ensues from a code of behaviour based on the pride of one's origins. (Back cover).

Douceurs du bercail [Home sweet home]. Abidjan/Dakar: NEI/Editions Khoudia, 1998. (224p.) Novel.

Sur le flanc gauche du Belem. Arles: Actes Sud, 2002. (40p.). Short story.

Un grain de vie et d'espérance [Food for thought and tomorrow's life]. Paris: Françoise Truffaut Editions, 2002. (144p.). ISBN 2-951661-45-2.

Reflection on the significance of food in Senegal, followed by some twenty recipes proposed by Senegalese Chef Margo Harley.

Festins de la détresse. Lausanne: Editions d'en bas, 2005. (160p.). [Coll. Terre d'écritures]. ISBN 2-8290-0318-7. Novel. (Review April 2009).