Join the author Nadifa Mohamed to discuss her first novel Black Mamba Boy. Set in 1930s Somalia, the novel is about Jamma, a boy who made a long walk to freedom through the landscape of Second World War East Africa. A story of displacement and family, the book is based on the true story of Nadifa’s father.
In association with the Centre for African Studies, SOAS.
Kate Saunders' fiction reviews of the week, January 16, 2010, The Times
Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed (HarperCollins, £12.99; 280pp)
The most exciting, original new fiction is coming out of Africa. Nadifa Mohamed, who was born in Somalia, has produced a first novel of assured elegance and beauty. Jama’s son is telling his father’s story, “because no one else will”. In 1935 Jama is 10, growing up in the slums of the ancient city of Aden. His earliest lessons have been in love and survival — the passionate love of his mother, as she tries to strengthen him to life on the streets. When he is left alone in the world, he sets off on an epic journey to find his father, who vanished years before. He travels through Eritrea and Sudan, to Egypt and beyond — this is also the story of a continent torn apart by world war. Watch out for this one in the prize season; it’s a stunning debut.
Catherine Taylor's choice of first novels - The Guardian
Black Mamba Boy, by Nadifa Mohamed
Mohamed has turned her researches into the life of her father – a Somali who ended up in postwar Hull – into a compelling account of the refugee experience. Mixing startling lyricism and sheer brutality, she plunges into the chattering, viscous heat and "hyena darkness" of Aden, 1935, in her portrayal of Jama, a young street boy. His nomadic father abandoned the child and his mother, who dies in squalor; but Jama, cheeky and resourceful, scavenges, steals and works where and how he can, along with friends Shidane and Abdi. However, Mussolini's forces are making inroads into Abyssinia, and for the next 10 years Jama's journey will take him across a ravaged landscape. His sufferings are too relentless and dehumanising to be called mere hardship – this is a significant, affecting book of the dispossessed.
Talent spotting: the ones to watch in 2010, The Evening Standard
Mark Lawson nominates Nadifa Mohamed, 28A first novel that I expect to make an impact this year is Black Mamba Boy by Mohamed, born in Somalia but now living and working in Battersea. The book draws on her father's experiences of the shifting politics and geography of Africa during the 20th century. American literature owes much of its richness to the multiplicity of voices and the autobiographies of immigrants. We are now seeing the same benefits in British writing.
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