Tale of growing up in hostile Somalia and escape to the West

The book Desert Flower is named after the writer, Waris, a translation of her name from Somali.

Waris Dirie, full names, was born in the desert sands of Galkayo, southern Somalia, in the mid-60s to nomad parents as one of 12 children.

Early on in the book Waris remembers being raped at age four by her older cousin, Guban, while going out to bring back the goats after a day of feeding. She writes as she remembers, in the manner of the oral tradition that is common with nomadic communities.

Waris explores contentious issues in her pages among them the culture of female genital mutilation.

The pain and agony of going through the cut in the name of being considered “a woman” is heart-wrenching and agonising to read.

Running away from an early childhood marriage like Josephine Kulea, her heroine from Samburu, to pursue her education and life away from a doomed existence seems understandable under the circumstances.

Waris also brings up the issue of being a refugee. What does it mean? A man will only run away from home if it represents the jaws of a lion. Consider the migrants crisis in Europe, besides Germany taking the biggest share of responsibility over the refugees, most of the continent hasn’t been as warm.

Locally, there’s been renewed debate over the same. Kenya has been hosting Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps for decades without much fuss from the international community until the recent announcement to close the camps.

Perhaps that might explain the Kenyan Government’s resolve besides economic and security implications.

Is naturalising refugees a solution? Tanzania did that for Burundi refugees.

Some of those in Dadaab have been there for a quarter of a century. Others were born and raised in Kenya. So, is repatriation the final solution to the refugee crisis?

Reading Waris’ book helps one appreciate how international agencies like the United Nations help the stateless. This is her narrative, of moving from the poverty and war of the desert sands of her home town to metropolis of the western world.

The Desert Flower is written in a youthful and easy to grasp style, almost childlike.