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Mariama Ba didn’t think much of tradition. After all, in the 1920s, women weren’t expected to get college degrees beyond midwifery and typing, but she did it anyway, becoming a teacher! There was something else she chose to ignore, though, that was much more serious.
Her religious tradition mandated that she NEVER speak about anything other than her faith. But Ba refused! She wrote true-to-life stories about women and their experiences with sexism and racism. This was a bold move, and it unfortunately put her in danger.
But she didn’t let that stop her. Not only did she write and publish books about women, she challenged women to get involved against white supremacists colonizing her home country of Senegal. Then she did the ultimate boss move!
Ba became a vocal critic of white supremacy. Africans, including women, should be independent and proud, she argued! This meant an end to discriminatory laws and the removal of white colonizers.
Ba bucked tradition to make her voice heard and to push back against a system that hurt her and her people. She used the power of the pen to question the status quo of racism and sexism. As Ba’s work shows, we must challenge any system that seeks to silence our voices or treat us as second class citizens – even if it means going against the grain.