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. (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.") Her return to Senegal, which concludes the book, presents her with a past she cannot reenter, a painful but necessary realization as she begins to create a new life there.
 As Norman Rush wrote in the New York Times Book Review, "One comes away from The Abandoned Baobab reluctant to take leave of a brave, sympathetic, and resilient woman." Despite its unflinching look at our darkest impulses, and at the stark facts of being a colonized African, the book is ultimately inspirational, for it exposes us to a remarkable sensibility and a hard-won understanding of one’s place in the world.
CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French

The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)

Biographies & Memoirs

KEN BUGUL

Community & Culture

University of Virginia Press

The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman

Describes the experiences of a Senagalese woman living in France and Africa

Lawrence Hill Books

Riwan ou Le chemin de sable - roman (French Edition)

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

PRESENCE AFRICA

De l'enfance sectionee en deux parts, dont une d'angoisse a l'adolescence assiegee par le sexe, au simulacre d'occidentalisation qui est participation a une decadence, cette jeune femme dit tout parce qu'elle a voulu tout dire comme mise en garde a ses freres africains contre l'alienation n'a ete vecue avec une telle insensite par une tel desespoir. 'De plus en plus le fosse se creusait, desesperement. L'Afrique me rappelait a elle par ses elans, ses instants de poesie et ses rites. Mais je tenais bon le lien avec les valeurs apportees par la colonisation. Je ne pouvais plus retourner sur mes pas, ni meme jeter un coup d'oeil en arriere." Ken Bugul est maintenant retournee a son village "se blottir dans les cuisses chaudes de la mere, rouler dans le sable' ecouter les contes et legendes..." Mais est-ce la tout? Les yeux qu'elle porte aujourd'hui sur ce village reste medieval ont vu tant de choses qu'au village on ne saurait imaginer. Et sa sensibilite fremissante peut-elle etre enfouie sous le pagne d'une paysanne? Son prochain livre nous dira peut-etre comment s'est effectue par le pelerin d'une Europe incroyable le retour au pays natal.

Le baobab fou (Vies africaines) (French Edition)

Nouvelles éditions africaines

RUE FELIX-FAURE (ETONNANTS VOYAGEURS)

HOEBEKE

Le Baobab Fou

Les Nouvelles Editions Africaines du Senegal

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by KEN BUGUL. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by KEN BUGUL