Re-imagining the father-figure in contemporary writing about Somalia

Abstract

This article is a critical analysis of writing about Somalia. It is interested in the way narratives about Somalia re-invent the father-son relationship in a manner that not only disrupts patriarchal power, which has been blamed as a source of havoc in Somalia, but also negotiates alternatives to settle the displaced souls. In my analysis, I situate two narratives about Somalia—Nadifa Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy and Jonny Steinberg’s A Man of Good Hope—in the context of political instability: civil wars, migration, exile, and refugeeism in order to examine how these two narratives speak to each other in interrogating the father figure. My main argument in this article is that the father figure in these two narratives has dual implications that represents the fragmentary nature of the postcolonial state and that creates a space for resettlement of displaced Somali souls.

Keywords:

• Home
• Father-son relationship
• The uncanny
• Nadifa Mohamed, Jonny Steinberg

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 This paper derives from chapter six and other portions of my doctoral thesis.

2 Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy is set in 1930s while Steinberg’s A Man of Good Hope is set in 1991.

3 Here I am referring to African oral narratives that are featured by absence of the protagonist from his/her family and eventually coming back with something precious.

4 Helman and Ratner are talking about the failure of states such as Haiti, the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, and Cambodia.

5 Menkhaus is speaking of Somalia as a failed nation in maintaining peace and security. See also “State Collapse in Somalia: Second Thoughts” by Menkhaus for more discussion on the failure of Somalia.

6 See The Uncanny by Sigmund Freud for further information on how the concept of ‘the uncanny’ involves creating unfamiliar figures.

7 See “In Conversation: Nadifa Mohamed” posted by Otas on http://belindaotas.com/?p=2638 for more discussion on the life of Mohamed as a writer and what influenced her in her writing career.

8 Zeleza is speaking of the contemporary migration of people and properties as opposed to the Black Atlantic migration. See also “Rewriting the African Diaspora: Beyond the Black Atlantic” by Zeleza for more discussion. The third wave applies in this context to an author who migrated to London when she was six years old.

9 An Arabic term to describe white Westerners referring to white British colonial soldiers” (Christopher Ian Foster, 100).

10 I use the concepts of ‘negritude’ and ‘mother Africa’ in this context in Cessairean and Senghorian sense to mean the Pan-African feelings and awareness about Africa as a motherland to black race. In other words, ‘mother Africa’ as a negritude concept means, in Florence Stratton’s words, “the embodiment of Africa in the figure of a woman” (39). See also Contemporary African Literature and the Politics of Gender by Stratton.

11 Dhegdheer appears only once in the novel. She used to stay in the same apartment as Jama’s mother. After the death of Jama’s mother, Dhegdheer too disappears in the novel.

12 Whereas Black Mamba Boy focuses on colonial period, Offspring of Paradise concentrates on clan politics.

13 This is a kind of wrap around sarong. It is traditionally worn by Somali men.

14 I use the concept of ‘diaspora’ in this context of Jama to mean an individual who settles in a distant land (outside Africa) and suppresses the feelings of homeland because of being traumatic.

15 Marx is discussing how Adichie’s novel, Half of a Yellow Sun, supplements think tanks statistics about the Biafra War.

16 Whereas Asad is Daaroog by tribe, Sadicya is Galgae, a tribe which, according to Asad, is known through ‘negatives’ or stereotypes in Somalia. They are ‘outcasts’ of a sort.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by African Humanities Program (AHP).

Notes on contributors

Yunusy Castory Ng’umbi

Yunusy Castory Ng’umbi, PhD is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His PhD research at Stellenbosch University was on politics of the family in contemporary East and West African women’s writing. His areas of interest in research and teaching are African Literature, Folklore and Literature, Perspectives in Writing, Literature and Environment, Literary Theory and Criticism, African Women Writers, Postcolonial Literature, and East African Literature.