poet (born 1934) who published two volumes of her French-language verse in the 1970s, when there were not many women writers in Senegal. She is known for the mystical quality of her poems, which express a love of nature and of God.
Biography
She was born in 1934 in the coastal town of
Rufisque
Rufisque ( ar, روفيسك; Wolof: Tëngeéj) is a city in the Dakar region of western Senegal, at the base of the Cap-Vert Peninsula. It has a population of 179,797 (2002 census). In the past it was an important port city in its own right, but ...
near
Dakar
Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...
. She had no high school education and came late to literacy in French. This may have freed her from European conventions and contributed a Senegalese authenticity to her work, according to poet-politician Leopold Senghor.Deirdre Bucher Heistad (with contribution from Judy Schaneman) ''Beyond Mariama Bâ: Senegalese Women Writers in the Classroom'' Women in French Studies, Special Issue, 2002, pp. 273–295. Fall felt honoured by the support she had from President Senghor, who wrote an introduction to her first book of poetry. in ''Amina'' magazine. After reading her poems and meeting her, the poet
Birago Diop
Birago Diop (11 December 1906 – 25 November 1989) was a Senegalese poet and storyteller whose work restored general interest in African folktales and promoted him to one of the most outstanding African francophone writers. Senghor thought her work showed a "typically African combination of spirituality and sensuality". Another critic mentions the "freshness, economy, and spirituality" she brings to writing about love, torment, faith and nature.
She was one of an early generation of women writers in Senegal who emerged in the years after independence in 1960 but remained for some time almost unknown internationally. Fall said she was singing for all the girls and women of Africa. Her poems have echoes of regional traditions of orality,Renée Brenda Larrier ''Francophone Women Writers of Africa and the Caribbean'' University of Florida, 2000. most obviously in praise songs,Georgina Collins ''Translating Francophone Senegalese Women’s Literature: Issues of Change, Power, Mediation and Orality'' Warwick, 2010. and echoes too of her native
Wolof
Wolof or Wollof may refer to:
* Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...
language.
Works
* ''Chants de la rivière fraîche: poèmes''. Dakar: Nouvelles Éditions Africaines, 1975
* ''Les élans de grâce''. Yaoundé: Editions CLE, 1979