Ken Bugul

Ken Bugul (born 1947) is the pen name of Senegalese Francophone novelist Mariètou Mbaye Biléoma.

After completing her elementary education in her native village, she studied at the Malick Sy Secondary School in Thiès.

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.

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.

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".