Ken Bugul
{{Short description|Senegalese writer}}
{{expand French|date=May 2024|topic=bio}}
File:Ken Bugul 20100328 Salon du livre de Paris 2.jpg
Ken Bugul (born 1947) is the pen name of Senegalese Francophone novelist Mariètou Mbaye Biléoma.'Bugul, Ken', in Simon Gikandi (ed.), Encyclopedia of African Literature. Routledge; 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-415-23019-3}} In the Wolof language, her pen name means "one who is unwanted".[http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/KenBugulEng.html Ken Bugel], University of Western Australia, Retrieved 30 April 2016
Background
Bugul was born 1947 in Ndoucoumane. She 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.{{Cite web|url=http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/KenBugulEng.html|title=Ken Bugul|website=aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au|access-date=2016-10-04}} After a year in Dakar, she obtained a scholarship that allowed her to continue studying 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, Congo; and Lomé, Togo, and served as the head of the organization's African region section.{{Cite book|url=http://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/3735|title=The Abandoned Baobab {{!}} The University of Virginia Press|website=upress.virginia.edu|isbn=9780813927374 |access-date=2016-10-04 |last=Bugul |first=Ken |year=2008 |publisher=University of Virginia Press}} 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 was the 14th [http://www.writers-in-residence.ch/en Writer in Residence] in Zürich.
Bugul's literary reputation has varied from place to place. She was awarded the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire 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
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
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Ken Bugul}}
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Category:Senegalese women writers
Category:International Writing Program alumni
Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers
Category:21st-century pseudonymous writers