Re-imagining the father-figure in contemporary writing about Somalia

Abstract

This article is a critical analysis of writing about Somalia. It is interested in the way narratives about Somalia re-invent the father-son relationship in a manner that not only disrupts patriarchal power, which has been blamed as a source of havoc in Somalia, but also negotiates alternatives to settle the displaced souls. In my analysis, I situate two narratives about Somalia—Nadifa Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy and Jonny Steinberg’s A Man of Good Hope—in the context of political instability: civil wars, migration, exile, and refugeeism in order to examine how these two narratives speak to each other in interrogating the father figure. My main argument in this article is that the father figure in these two narratives has dual implications that represents the fragmentary nature of the postcolonial state and that creates a space for resettlement of displaced Somali souls.