‘My body is burning with the shame of not belonging’: gender, violence and shame in diasporic Somali women’s writings

ABSTRACT

Looking at recent writings by British-Somali female authors, this article examines the articulations of shame in relation to Somali women’s bodies and against the backdrop of the Somali civil war. The article evaluates the different levels in which shame operates, linking gender and postcolonial studies.

KEYWORDS:

• War
• violence
• nation
• female shame

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Somalia has recently dropped to number two in the ‘fragile states index’, the first place going to South Sudan in 2018 and to Yemen in 2019 (Fund for Peace, 2019). For the labelling of Somalia as ‘the most dangerous place in the world’ see Curry (2011) as well as Fergusson (2013).

2. ‘Living in a highly structured patrilineal society women and girls in Somalia are traditionally assigned a status inferior to men, who take the dominant roles in society, religion and politics. […] And although within most groups women have always played a significant role in the economy, traditionally their sphere of influence and decision-making was, publicly at least, confined to the home’ (Gardner and Bushra, 2004: 9).

3. See also Jane Schneider’s study of the honour-shame axis in different communities of the Mediterranean: ‘As a political phenomenon, honor can attach to any human group from the nuclear family to the nation state. The problem of honor becomes salient when the group is threatened with competition from equivalent groups. It is especially salient when small, particularistic groups, such as families, clans, or gangs, are the principal unites of power, sovereign or nearly so over the territories they control’ (1971: 2). This reference to clans is quite relevant also for understanding the importance of honour in Somali culture.

4. We could read this absence of the word ‘rape’ as a manifestation of the very shame discourse in Somali society and culture. However, I would add that the very presence of the notion between the lines of these texts makes its violence all the more powerful. Both Shire and Mohamed do not shy away from exploring situations and emotions that are considered ‘dishonourable’ by the standards of the patriarchal discourse of Somalia, so it would have presumably been just as possible that they would use the word ‘rape’ in their texts. The omission, I would argue, is very intentional. The silenced act itself haunts the texts and the readers’ minds.

5. On the importance of flags and anthems for the constitution of young nations, see Michael Billig: ‘National anthems not only fit a common pattern, but it is part of their symbolism that they are seen to do so. They flag the nation as a nation among nations, as flags themselves do’ (1995: 86).

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Ana Sobral

Ana Sobral is Assistant Professor of Global Literatures in English at the University of Zurich. She is finishing a book on Rap and Postcolonial Studies and has published articles and book chapters on cultural memory in the Caribbean, rap and poetry in the Global South, Islamic feminism, the performative aspects of the Arab Spring, and the links between popular music, migration and cosmopolitanism. Her articles have appeared in journals such as African American Review, European Journal of English Studies and Journal of Modern Literature among others.