Title: Black Mamba Boy, 2010
Author: Nadifa Mohamed
Genre: Novel, allegorical format
Literary elements: allegory, symbolism, imagery, magical realism, fictional history
Comfort level: Easy reading, but one should be alert to the intensely historical nature of the text. The true merit of this work is to be found in the author’s accounting for the Black, African history of men and women during World War I.
Fascinating note: Nadifa Mohamed was an attentive student. She listened and learned from the fascinating ‘desert tales’ of her father. Young, aspiring writers should take note of the lessons of your elders too. Toni Morrison was also a student of her father’s stories. The oracles of the elders fashion beautiful, lyrical melodies upon script.
Synopsis: Jama, the primary protagonist of this work, is orphaned by the disappearance of his father and the death of his mother. He is impelled to embark upon a crusade to find his father. The reader is beckoned to come along and to experience the perils of a precarious existence. The orphaned child, Jama, learns to cope with abandonment, first, at home by his family. Later, a cruel world will not forgive him of his Blackness or nationality. As a reader, you will sleep with Jama, alone, in the streets of Aden, Yemen. You will carouse with his market boy friends by day. You will, also, suffer the heat and fall victim to his hunger for nourishment (in terms of food and a connection to someone or something). Finally, as a reader, you will revel in the knowledge that it is not colour or creed which denotes your identity. Jama and the reader come to an awareness of the identity of those who came before us. This identity is the link to our past, the present, and the future. We can never escape or be truly estranged from that which links us (from the past) and prompts us (to the future).
Critique: Nadifa Mohamed succeeds in unraveling the mysteries of the role and experiences of Africans during World War II. She weaves genealogical studies into a historical text well. Yet, at times, the reader may become lost in the technical aspect and lose grasp of the humanism that she aspired to incorporate into her text. Isabel Allende (Island beneath the Sea, 2010) and Ben Okri (Stars of the New Curfew, 2010) master the art of infusing the humanism of man’s experiences well in their works. Mohamed may come reach the same level of proficiency in this area soon. Still, only Gabriel Garcia Marquez (100 Years of Solitude, 2006) and Nadifa Mohamed can excel in the craft of creating a fictional and historical work that graphs the pilgrimage of an entire people.
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