Abasse Ndione

It took eight years for Ndione's first novel, La Vie en spirale (Life in a Spiral), to be released in Senegal. It discusses the use and trafficking of "yamba" (marijuana) by unemployed youth, police officers and whites in Senegal, discussing yamba as a social metaphor.^[5] It caused a stir and attracted the attention of the Parisian publishing house Éditions Gallimard, who published it in 1998. It is now studied in Senegal schools.

Ndione's novel Ramata (2000) was also translated into Spanish. It tells of a beautiful and wealthy Senegalese woman who, aged 50, discovers the pleasures of the flesh in the arms of a little thug 25 years younger, causing her life to unravel.^[6] Ramata was the basis for a 2007 feature-length film directed by Léandre-Alain Baker, starring the model Katoucha Niane in the title role.^[7] Ndione's last work, the novella Mbëke mi, describes the emigration of young Senegalese in pirogues trying to reach the Canary Islands and Europe.^[8] His novels show that Ndione thought first in Wolof and then transcribed into French.^[9]

A selective list, with dates for publication in France:

• 1984 – La Vie en spirale, first part from the presses in 1984 in Senegal
• 1988 – La Vie en spirale II from Nouvelles Editions Africaines, second part
• 1998 – La Vie en spirale, Gallimard
• 2000 – Ramata, Gallimard
• 2008 – Mbëkë mi, Gallimard