le baobab fou [Ken Bugul] on *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Ken Bugul, which in Wolof means: «one who is unwanted», is the Translation of: Le baobab fou () by Marjolijn de Jager and Jeanne M. Garane. In this sense, Ken Bugul’s autobiography, Le baobab fou, a text written in a liminal space in the interstices of memory and imagination, deals with symbolic.

Today she lives and works as a dealer of arts and crafts in Porto-Novo, Benin. Aug 10, Binta rated it it was amazing.

I’m looking forward to reading it, and would love to discuss it with others. A really complex look at a woman’s relationship with location and identity - the trauma of exile.

This page was last edited on 4 Novemberat Abstract Le Baobab fou is arguably the most subversive autobiographical narrative ever published since the emergence in the s of sub-Saharan francophone literature written by women authors. So much of the writer’s personal experiences are present in this book and it’s a very insightful and intense read. Interesting content, and I loved Bugul’s perspective of the artists and liberals in Belgium who were only interested in knowing her as an Other, someone beautiful and exotic that they could brag about knowing.

Annina Brun rated it it was ok Oct 15, The name derives from the Wolof language, in which it means “one who is unwanted. One of my favorite of all times. Want to Read Currently Reading Read.

I felt sorry for her, yes; she absolutely experienced awful events in life no one should have to experience. In other projects Wikimedia Commons. Perhaps once I have a chance to talk about it with my classmates, I can get a better understanding of the novel. The overall narrative structure of the novel was very off-putting; the speaker felt quite distanced from her audience.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Bugul only alludes to them poetically, as when buvul remembers learning the letter ‘i’ in the French school she attended in Senegal.

Refresh and try again. Maria Doubrovskaia rated it liked it Mar 12, Caribbean and Babab Literature Translated from French Bugul’s literary reputation has varied from place to place.

After reading Good Morning Midnight and an essay on it by Gina Maria Tomasulo, in which she argues that Rhys uses ‘the underground’ as a fluid space of memory that allows her protagonist to undo some effects of baboab and re-forge connections with others, I have to encourage readers to check out the essay since Bugul uses memory in a strikingly similar way.

But I enjoyed the book. Mar 16, Heather rated it did not like it Shelves: Pe roving consciousness and disordered recall of vignettes made me feel that I was walking through a dream landscape, passing the same features over and over, never grasping exactly how to relate to them.

Le Baobab Fou by Ken Bugul

In she returned to her home, where she became the 28th wife in the harem of the village marabout. No African woman had ever been so frank, in an autobiography, or written so poignantly, about the intimate details of her life—a distinction that, more than two decades later, still holds true. Vero Jordan-Sardi rated it really liked it May 31, Contact Contact Us Help. Foi first I wasn’t a huge fan of this book, but about half way through it started to win me over. I have a student writing on baoba book.

The language seemed formal and intellectual, while the material belonged to an intimate conversation.

But she hinted at moments, especially kenn the end in scenarios with her family, where I saw intimations at opportunities for her to reach out but instead she retreats, psychologically arrested in continually mourning a past she cannot change. The style of writing or the translation put me at a distance. Lists with This Book. It was out of concern on her editor’s part about her candor that the author used the pseudonym Ken Bugul, the Wolof phrase for “the person no one wants.

Senegalese feminists Senegalese women writers births Living people Senegalese novelists International Vou Program alumni. In the city time and the narrative snagged on it roll onward like the conveyor belt of a machine, like the tread of a gaobab, while when Bugul’s consciousne Contrast. Between the village in Senegal and the Belgian city.

Ken Bugul - Wikipedia

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. View all 5 comments.

One may wonder, then, why Ken’s autobiographical account does not simply begin with its second part. Open Preview See a Problem? By the end of the novel, I was downright frustrated with the speaker.

Le Baobab Fou

Without cookies kenn experience may not be seamless. Want to Read saving…. Trivia About Le Baobab Fou. Le Baobab Fou by Ken Bugul. She subsequently married a doctor from Benin and gave birth to a daughter. The protagonist constantly referred to her father as “the father” and there were other weird things like that.

This autobiographical work deals with and critiques African colonialism. Europe and its fetishes, its maladies, its strange delights, becomes other, but not to be denigrated, only put into place among places, dislodged from the centre it has occupied. After his death, she returned to the big city. 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.

Additionally, the chronology jumped around without a lot of warning or explanation. Ultimately, Ken Bogul’s strategic prehistory narrative constitutes the basis of Ken Bogul’s distinctive voice, which I define.