Surveying the contours of ‘a country in exile’: Nuruddin Farah's Somalia

Abstract

The article examines the paradox of Farah's preoccupation with a ‘nation’ that exists neither as a society or a state – only as a ‘country’ in the sense of a geographical expression. Using comments from authorial interviews to introduce the analysis, the article sees Farah's fiction as following historical transitions and social adaptations (or deteriorations) both in Somalia itself, and those manifested in the Somali diaspora. Discussion of the three main texts follows the emotional logic of Farah's concern with a society sick unto death, as he traces its recent existence through stages from the onset of anarchy (in Secrets) to the sorrows of refugeeism (in Yesterday, Tomorrow: Voices from the Somali Diaspora) into the state of brutally competitive warlordism (in Links). In all three texts affiliative, unselfish relationships and upright individuals are contrasted with brutal clannish blood loyalties, balancing hope for national resurrection with fury and despair about Somalia's future.