Ken Bugul 20100328 Salon du livre de Paris 2

Ken Bugul (born 1947 in

Ndoucoumane Ndoucoumane or Ndoukoumane is a province in Senegal. It is an extremely rural and lightly populated area. Although Ndoucoumane holds nearly no importance for western civilization, the area is noted in Ken Bugul's book '' The Abandoned Baobab'' or ...

) is the pen name of Senegalese

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

novelist Mariètou Mbaye Biléoma.'Bugul, Ken', in Simon Gikandi (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of African Literature''. Routledge; 2002. In the Wolof language, her pen name means "one who is unwanted".Ken Bugel
University of Western Australia, Retrieved 30 April 2016

Background

Bugul was raised in a polygamous environment, born to a father who was an 85-year-old marabout. After completing her elementary education in her native village, she studied at the Malick Sy Secondary School in Thiès. After a year in Dakar, she obtained a scholarship that allowed her to continue study in Belgium. In 1980 she returned to her home, where she became the 28th wife in the harem of the village marabout. After his death, she returned to the big city. From 1986 to 1993, Bugul worked for the NGO IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) in Nairobi, Kenya;

Brazzaville Brazzaville (, kg, Kintamo, Nkuna, Kintambo, Ntamo, Mavula, Tandala, Mfwa, Mfua; Teke: ''M'fa'', ''Mfaa'', ''Mfa'', ''Mfoa''Roman Adrian Cybriwsky, ''Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture'', ABC-CLI ...

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

; and Lomé, Togo, and served as the head of the organization's African region section. She subsequently married a doctor from Benin and gave birth to a daughter. Today she lives and works in Senegal. From July to December 2017 Ken Bugul is the 14t
Writer in Residence
in Zurich. Bugul's literary reputation has varied from place to place. She was awarded the

Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire The Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire (one of the major literary prizes of Black Africa for Francophone Literature) is a literary prize presented every year by the ADELF, the Association of French Language Writers for a French original tex ...

for her novel ''Riwan ou le Chemin de Sable'' in 2000, but is better known among American readers for her novel '' The Abandoned Baobab'', which is her only book to date to have been translated into English. Among other themes, the work deals with and critiques African colonialism. On the question of ''The Abandoned Baobab'''s autobiographical nature, Bugul has said of the novel, as well as of the subsequent ''Cendres et Braises'' and ''Riwan ou Le chemin de sable'', "All three books mirror the very deep and radical experiences I went through". As of late, her status among American feminists has diminished somewhat, as many have critiqued her for marrying a holy man who already had more than 20 wives. This is perhaps undeserved, and is a good example of ideologies clashing, as the criticism is the result of American feminists attempting to hold Bugul up to the standards of Western feminism, which is worlds away from her Senegalese experience.

Works

* ''Le Baobab Fou'' (1982); translated into English as '' The Abandoned Baobab: The Autobiography of a Senegalese Woman'' (1991) * ''Cendres et braises'' (1994); "Ashes and Embers" * ''Riwan ou le Chemin de Sable'' (1999); "Riwan; or, the Sandy Track" * ''La Folie et la mort'' (2000); "Madness and Death" * ''De l'autre côté du regard'' (2002); "As Seen From the Other Side" * ''Rue Félix-Faure'' (2005) * ''La pièce d'or'' (2005); "The Gold Coin" * ''Mes hommes à moi'' (2008) * ''Aller et Retour'' (2014) * ''Cacophonie'' (2014) * ''Riwan ou le Chemin de sable'' (2018) * ''Le Trio bleu'' (2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bugul, Ken Senegalese feminists Senegalese women writers Senegalese writers 1947 births Living people Senegalese novelists International Writing Program alumni 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers