So Long a Letter

Mawdo’s mother, known to the girls as Aunty Nabou, is a traditional woman who “clung to old beliefs” (26). She is descended from kings and queens, and so believes Aissatou is beneath her. One day, Aunty Nabou travels to Diakho, her ancestral home. There, she prays at the tombs of her dead ancestors and vows that Aissatou will be driven from her house. She receives a royal welcome from the other village inhabitants, including her brother, Farba Diouf. She asks him to give her a child to care for, someone who might care for her in her old age. Farba Diouf gives her his own daughter, also called Nabou. The two Nabous, young and old, return to Mawdo’s home.

Aunty Nabou raises young Nabou in a strict, traditional home. Young Nabou attends the local French school, but also learns traditional homemaking skills and is constantly reminded of her “royal origin” (30). As she grows into a teenager, she is sent to become a midwife, one of the few feminine occupations that Aunty Nabou, who believes “a woman does not need too much education” (30), approves of. One day, Aunty Nabou goes to her son and informs him that she has raised young Nabou to be his second wife.