The Abandoned Baobab: the Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman
The Abandoned Baobab: the Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman
Description
The subject of intense admiration - and not a little shock, when it was first published - ""The Abandoned Baobab"" has consistently captivated readers ever since. The book has been translated into numerous languages and was chosen by ""QBR Black Book Review"" as one of Africa's 100 best books of the twentieth century. 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.Abandoned by her mother and sent to live with relatives in Dakar, the author tells of being educated in the French colonial school system, where she comes gradually to feel alienated from her family and Muslim upbringing, growing enamored with the West. Academic success gives her the opportunity to study in Belgium, which she looks upon as a ""promised land."" There she is objectified as an exotic creature, however, and she descends into promiscuity, alcohol and drug abuse, and, eventually, prostitution.