"Ma" is a touching story of a mother and daughter who are torn between tradition and modernity, between Africa and Europe, as they search for their own identity. At the center of the novel is the mother, Massiré Dansira, who immigrated from Mali to France at the age of 15 and, after the death of her husband, struggles as a single parent against the hardships of life, especially in the male-dominated world of her tribal origins. She sacrifices everything she learned in Mali to raise her children to be decent and upright individuals: dignity, strength of character, respect for traditions, and a fighting spirit. The novel draws much irony, humor, and wisdom from the constant struggle between the daughter and the first-person narrator as she lives with her mother. She grows up in Paris as a modern girl, living in contradiction.