Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman by Ken Bugul

Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman Reviews

• 
  Zanna

  Contrast. Between the village in Senegal and the Belgian city. Between Bugul's means of conveyance and my mode of decoding. It is always hot there. It is always cold there, she says of the village, a line I'd usually have read as a boring paradox but that here leads out from me a humbled understanding that this place is out of the time I know. In the city time and the narrative snagged on it roll onward like the conveyor belt of a machine, like the tread of a tank, while when Bugul's consciousness shifts to the village, she could be anywhere in her history or in the time of generations before. She alights there like a butterfly. But for the anchoring tree the place would vanish entirely into the desert, into an eternity where change flickers over land, hot and cold, day and night, stillness and wind.
  
  Contrast again, between a child playing under the Baobab, experiencing the world as, it seems, a synaesthesia of sound, heat and dance, and a woman in a European city living like Europeans in malaise, searching for lost wholeness, for satisfaction and purpose, in people and drugs and art and days. She is racialised and exotified, she collapses into despair many times, but her lively spirit always blazes up undimmed.
  
  As Ken's story in Belgium ploughs onward in fragments to a crisis, pausing in the remembered village to draw breath whenever it needs to, friends also give rest and breath. Bugul decries the lack of love and kindness between women in Europe, where patriarchy works on a divide and rule basis. She makes friends easily and take pleasure in them, as well as lovers. She names colonialism as a destructive force that has shattered her, but does not elaborate; the reader has to imagine or search elsewhere for a literal description of the actions of this force: Bugul only alludes to them poetically, as when she remembers learning the letter 'i' in the French school she attended in Senegal. The moment is imbued with portentous tension and even horror as the 'i' cannot be un-enunciated
  
  Details of her attention are like ornaments standing out from the background. She wonders why the figure of Jesus on the cross is so sensually modelled, why his exposed thighs are muscled and manly, when Catholicism is so virtuous. And I remembered that Catholics believe they are eating the body of christ (
  exchanging horror for horror with god) and the firm thighs are perhaps meant to remind of appetites lavishly denied, self-denial as a kind of muddy pool at the base of being where we can wallow in piety and voluptuous hunger. Such thoughts throw exotification, the othering of the other, back at whiteness. 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.
  
  The style of writing or the translation put me at a distance. The language seemed formal and intellectual, while the material belonged to an intimate conversation. Ken's 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. I closed the book and felt that I had only just started a journey...
  
  
  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 trauma 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.
• 
  magali she|her

  Vieles davon habe ich wahrscheinlich nicht aufgenommen und verstanden, dennoch war es super interessant. Sicherlich eine Lektüre, die man beim 2. Mal lesen deutlich besser versteht, weil man mehr Details aufnimmt. Bin auf die Besprechungen im Unterricht gespannt, um die Lücken zu füllen, die ich beim und nach dem Lesen hatte/habe.
• 
  Rachel

  I didn't much enjoy this book. Perhaps once I have a chance to talk about it with my classmates, I can get a better understanding of the novel. I don't have high hopes, though. The overall narrative structure of the novel was very off-putting; the speaker felt quite distanced from her audience. At times it felt like listening to someone talk to herself -- you feel like you're intruding, a little awkward and confused at hearing only one side of a conversation. Additionally, the chronology jumped around without a lot of warning or explanation. By the end of the novel, I was downright frustrated with the speaker. I felt sorry for her, yes; she absolutely experienced awful events in life no one should have to experience. But she hinted at moments, especially towards 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. Again, maybe my classmates can help me better understand this novel and this character. For me, she did very little in the narrative form to help me really understand and connect to her.
  
  *edit* After discussing this in class, I can at least appreciate what this novel tries to discuss and address. I still don't think it's a book I would recommend to others, but I can at least respect the discussion it evokes.
• 
  Max Heimowitz

  Ce baobab que tu vois là, il est mort depuis longtemps... Le rendez-vous manqué lui avait causé une profonde tristesse. Il devint fou et mourut quelque temps après.
  
  Ce livre se lit très facilement, et je trouve cela une des qualités les plus importantes, parce que Ken Bugul a vécu une vie assez difficile. La traduction en anglais doit être terrible, parce que je n'ai de difficulté avec la compréhension de l'histoire de Ken Bugul.
  
  Au Sénégal, Ken Bugul (pseudonyme) habite dans une très petite village, Ndoucoumane. Elle décide de quitter le Sénégal pour aller faire ses études en Belgique, pour atteindre l'apogée de l'Occident--la vie occidentale. Et ce rêve, ce n'était qu'un rêve, parce qu'elle découvre que dans l'Occident, elle échange une forme d'oppression pour une autre. Elle n'y appartient pas du tout.
  
  C'est autobiographique, mais elle poètise pas mal des choses pour montrer les conséquences du colonialisme sur une femme sénégalise. Elle narre les difficultés avec lesquelles elle essaye de trouver un moyen pour l'assmiliation dans une culture qui la rejète constamment, qui ne la veut pas. Il y a une très grande division entre les Blancs et les Noirs, et elle est constamment rappelée de ça. Elle apprend rapidement que une femme ne peut être rien d'autre que la consommation et que Tu plais aux hommes, Ken, tu es une noire, tu peux te faire une fortune. . C'est à la mode d'avoir des "amis" noirs, mais de vraiment connaître et former un lien avec un noir, pas du tout.
  
  Le récit est toujours frappant et quelquefois difficile à lire parce qu'elle a tant souffert. La fin n'est pas très heureux non plus. C'est à la fois pessimiste et réaliste. Mais ce sont les effets de colonialisme, on doit se souvenir de cela.
  
  J'etais souvent avec les Blancs, je discutais mieux avec eux, je comprenais leur langage... je m'identifiais en eux, ils ne s'identifiaient en moi.
• 
  Clara

  I feel bad for disliking this book? I think the story Ken Bugul is telling is really important and also interesting, I just didn‘t like the way she told it. I didn‘t like the writing style and never really felt invested…
• 
  Anna

  I felt quite bad disliking this. A female Senegalese author writing about being black and beautiful in Europe - should be a no brainer. But I didn't like the writing, the narrative changed between an idealised Africa and a demonized west, where everything bad happening, ever wrong decision is somehow due to uniform "white" culture. I got annoyed at the narrator. The ending is highly problematic as well. And in the middle I lost interest in the trials and tribulations of the woman. Maybe it was easier to read in the eighties, but I just wanted this to end and felt bad for disliking the narrator that much.
  
  However, I think parts of it - especially when she reflects on how being educated in French schools estranged her from her family and other children and how she celebrated her "westerness" were interesting.
  
  It just wasn't enough for me.
• 
  Begoña

  Ken é unha nena senegalesa que sofre o abandono familiar e inicia unha búsqueda identitaria como africana moderna no mundo occidental. A incomprensión, a alienación, o racismo e a inadaptación son unha constante neste libro no que a procura da identidade é vital para acadar a supervivencia e o sentido como ser humano nun mundo decadente e colonialista.
• 
  Matías Pérez Ojeda Del Arco

  Historia interesante sobre el choque entre la modernidad occidental y la tradición africana, a lo 'Aventura ambigua' de Cheikh Hamidou Kane, aunque menos filosófica. Narra la experiencia de transitar en esa visión construida, impuesta, de la 'tierra prometida': el norte. El descubrir de Ken, las experiencias vicerales por las que pasa, el descubir de su cuerpo, los recuerdos vívidos de la madre abandonandola y la desazón de las luchas de la independencia en su país trayendo oligarquías necoloniales, más de lo mismo, su descubrir en Europa sobre el hecho de ser mujer negra, la idea erótica en relación al color de su piel, etc. Por ratos el libro se puede volver un poco reptitivo, pero el penultimo capítulo parece canalizar y cerrar bien la historia, abriendo la puerta al eterno retorno.
• 
  Anais Brl

  Une sensation de malaise et désordre.
  L’autrice poétise beaucoup son récit et la chronologie des faits ne se suivant pas forcément sur la fin. Malgré tout, j’ai aimé son écriture et la rudesse de ses mots. Elle pensait réaliser son rêve ; vivre à la manière des occidentaux en arrivant à Bruxelles mais son destin aura été tout autre. Constamment rappelé à sa couleur de peau, elle cherchait à s’identifier à eux mais ce n’était pas leur cas.
• 
  Robert

  So many layers of looking at life, through the lenses of womanhood, Blackness, foreignness, colonialism and so much more. This is a super heavy book (in content not length, coming in at ~170 pages) where I often could only read 10-12 pages at a time. But this is a story that had to be told, should be told, must be told to people who want to understand the complexity of the world.
• 
  Ana Enriques

  Es una lectura atrapante, diferente. La historia cautiva hasta el final y el mundo interior de la protagonista nos absorbe, pero me resultó opresiva y angustiante.
• 
  Leyendo en el sofá

  Es una novela que se lee sin parar. Plantea temas interesantes como la búsqueda de una identidad. Es autobiográfica por lo que resulta muy fuerte en ese sentido. ¡Recomendable!
• 
  Palesa Mbali

  “Ken Bugul lays bare an alienated self ravaged by colonialism and familial social dysfunction.”
• 
  Alma

  3.5
• 
  Lapetitem

  Serein et tourmenté - Un malaise général, d'un continent à l'autre, des gens qui, sans doute tentent de rêver leur vie au détriment des réalités et le moi dans la douleur toujours de sa conscience...
  Extrait :
  
  ..."Il faut se demander parfois comment allait ce monde sans appréhender de répondre; chaque jour de la vie, les événements se succédaient inéluctables. On pouvait rêver sa vie, mais on ne pouvait pas rêver sa réalité. Le quotidien n'est constitué que par des instants.". Comment un être humain à qui échappe son destin pouvait-il entrainer avec lui une femme, des enfants, dans un mouvement perpétuel qui était une fuite? Les religions promettent l'au-delà, les rêves un monde meilleur et le moi, à peine at-il pris conscience, se justifie à lui-même pour seulement, demain, mourir...
• 
  Jessica

  At first I wasn't a huge fan of this book, but about half way through it started to win me over. There were a lot of little quotes in here that I really enjoyed and rang true to me. But there were also times where it seemed to me that the book was one huge poem. But I enjoyed the book. It was also interesting to hear about how this woman interacted with white men and how they only saw her as an object. That was really interesting to me as well.
• 
  Lindsey

  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. But the writing, or the translation, is earnest and melodramatic. "Again a school year flowed by like the liquid that holds together the hot couscous on which we'd feast in the evenings in the village," etc. I found it hard to finish.
• 
  Heather

  While I can appreciate the importance of this book, I found it rather tedious to read (perhaps it would have been better in the original French, but I only had it in English), and never made it all the way to the end. I was looking for something by a Senegalese author before going on a trip to Dakar, and this was the only thing that was readily available at the time.
• 
  Anna (Themiscyra Library)

  Eine spannend geschriebene Autobiografie und gleichzeitig eine aktuelle Erzählung einer Suche nach Bedeutung in der Moderne.
  CNs: Suizidalität, Vergewaltigung, sexuelle Übergriffe (teilweise an Kindern), (auch internalisierter) Rassismus, (auch internalisierte) Homofeindlichkeit, Polyam-Feindlichkeit, Drogen, Misogynie
• 
  Amiee F-C

  A really complex look at a woman's relationship with location and identity - the trauma of exile. So much of the writer's personal experiences are present in this book and it's a very insightful and intense read.
• 
  Anastasia

  I think this book was poorly translated. I couldn't read more than a few pages-- the language was terrible: formal, stilted, distanced. The protagonist constantly referred to her father as "the father" and there were other weird things like that. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it.
• 
  Mendi

  I have a student writing on this book. I'm looking forward to reading it, and would love to discuss it with others.
• 
  Rachel Baker

  J'aurais aimé que la narratrice soit plus fiable. Je ne croyais pas toujours ce qu'elle racontait mais c'est peut être la structure non chronologique qui me fait douter ses souvenirs.
• 
  Kovalsky

  Senegal suma reew.. namunala trooop! 🇸🇳
• 
  Joy

  Book club read