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The last nomad : coming of age in the Somali desert : a memoir / Shugri Said Salh.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2022Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First paperback editionDescription: 302 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 1643752561
  • 9781643752563
Other title:
  • Coming of age in the Somali desert : a memoir
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Nomads -- Galkayo -- Ageless desert flower -- Carrying out tradition -- Orphanage -- The outside world -- Beautiful Mogadishu -- Journey -- Goodbye, Mogadishu -- Garissa -- Nairobi -- The promised land.
Summary: Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. She spend her childhood chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. Though the desert was a harsh place, it also held beauty, innovation, centuries of tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learn courage and independence. Here she writes with frankness and a fierce feminism of trying to break free of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of her forced female genital mutilation, of the loss of her mother, and of her growing need for independence. Among the millions displaced by the Somali Civil War, Salh ultimately came to North America to learn yet another way of life. -- adapted from jacket.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Biography SALH, S. S164 Available 33111011299217
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A remarkable and inspiring true story that "stuns with raw beauty" about one woman's resilience, her courageous journey to America, and her family's lost way of life.



Finalist for the 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Nonfiction Award

Winner of the 2022 Gold Nautilus Award, Multicultural & Indigenous Category



Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, predators, and enemy clans, it also held beauty, innovation, centuries of tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learn courage and independence from a fearless group of relatives. Salh grew to love the freedom of roaming with her animals and the powerful feeling of community found in nomadic rituals and the oral storytelling of her ancestors.



As she came of age, though, both she and her beloved Somalia were forced to confront change, violence, and instability. Salh writes with engaging frankness and a fierce feminism of trying to break free of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of her forced female genital mutilation, of the loss of her mother, and of her growing need for independence. Taken from the desert by her strict father and then displaced along with millions of others by the Somali Civil War, Salh fled first to a refugee camp on the Kenyan border and ultimately to North America to learn yet another way of life.



Readers will fall in love with Salh on the page as she tells her inspiring story about leaving Africa, learning English, finding love, and embracing a new horizon for herself and her family. Honest and tender, The Last Nomad is a riveting coming-of-age story of resilience, survival, and the shifting definitions of home.

"Originally published in hardcover ... 2021."

Nomads -- Galkayo -- Ageless desert flower -- Carrying out tradition -- Orphanage -- The outside world -- Beautiful Mogadishu -- Journey -- Goodbye, Mogadishu -- Garissa -- Nairobi -- The promised land.

Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. She spend her childhood chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. Though the desert was a harsh place, it also held beauty, innovation, centuries of tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learn courage and independence. Here she writes with frankness and a fierce feminism of trying to break free of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of her forced female genital mutilation, of the loss of her mother, and of her growing need for independence. Among the millions displaced by the Somali Civil War, Salh ultimately came to North America to learn yet another way of life. -- adapted from jacket.

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