Desire under the Tribe in Nuruddin Farah’s A Naked Needle and Ken N. Kamoche’s “Secondhand Wife”

Abstract

Abstract This paper will address the notion of desire in Ken N. Kamoche’s “Secondhand Wife” and Nuruddin Farah’s A Naked Needle; it will be centered on the idea of men’s and women’s sexual desire as caught between being controlled and willing to be free. Desire will be studied as being controlled by the tribe in Kenya and Somalia, which channels men’s and women’s desire into pre-made forms. These channels of desire approved by the tribe are contested in Kenya and Somalia by both men and women. Desire is then situated between collective manipulation and individual freedom.