Mariama Barry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mariama Barry | |
|---|---|
 Mariama Barry in 2000. | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Notable works | La petite Peul |
Mariama Barry is a Senegalese novelist, specializing in autobiographical fiction. Born in Dakar, she spent her teenage years in Guinea before settling in France, where she is also a practicing lawyer. Her first book, La petite Peule, was published in 2000, then in English translation in 2010 as The Little Peul.
Mariama Barry was born in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Her childhood there was difficult. Because she was born in the capital, her uncles labeled her an ndjouddou, a child born in a foreign land who does not know the codes and traditions of the Fula people of Fouta Djallon, where her parents originated. She was subjected to female genital mutilation. A few years later, her parents divorced, and her mother left the children with her father. As the eldest of seven children, she was forced to take charge of managing the household, which impeded her education.[1][2][3][4]
When Barry was a teenager, her father moved the family to Guinea. She managed to avoid a forced marriage, with the help of her grandmother. She then left Africa to move to France, where she studied to become a lawyer at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas.[3][4][5]
