Book Review On Part 2: ‎
The Bedrock Of The ‎
Family By Mohammed Bashe H. Hassan

Part Two by Rhoda A. Rageh

A poem by Ms. Khadija Mohamed Qodaf on the negative view of modern living is an example of how partial the prevailing view of the book is: in rough translation, she says:

  Meals to be made by men is death

Men tugging children to sleep is scandalous
Once the family tradition is shunned
Watching television resulting in the loss of values and
Women not threatened/disciplined by men have become ever more callous
Oh! Why don’t you send us back to the village of Beer?  

In the last line Khadija includes herself in the women she is discussing but only symbolically. Since she admires the women who were beaten by men and she sees men tugging their children in bed as scandalous and those cooking meals for their family as death. She cannot be endorsing the life of the modern women because her worldview is much smaller and narrower than that of modern living. What is interesting is the choice of selection by the researcher and one wonders in what way would his selection convince young hybrid Somali teenagers except for negatively? Modern women have not chosen to be born into a modern world but the book condemns them for that and fails to achieve ways in which young Somali girls in the West can live their life sensibly without being condemned. If the book could show the young Somali girls where the strength of their mothers lies, it would have given them insight into who they are and the confidence to appreciate and celebrate the roots they emerge from. In other words rather than creating a polemical image of good and bad, there would have emerged a continuation of culture whereas young girls look back proudly into their heritage as a single entity of root, bark and branches.

  Whatever the motive, the book creates in the mind of the female reader a chasm between the women of rural and modern Somalia. The views expressed in the book are polemical: either the girls stay home and be nurtures of men even when the men are not home or they are lost. The book underestimates that at any time in any culture, there are some who conform and some who become social misfits. An entire genre cannot be condemned because its youth could not live like their grandparents or great grandparents.

  In this section marked as ‘qeybta 2aad.’ A wide selection of poetry from the ones for donkeys and gourds to a deeply personal and intimate poetry of a mother to a child is agglutinated as ‘women’s creative genius.’ In the short poems for the gourds and small goats, the composer equals herself to the handmade utensil that maintains whatever is poured in, or the little animal that gives meat and milk to the family which shockingly presents women as the symbols embodied in that goat and gourd. The idea of mothers and women as nurturers is all welcoming but is that all they are? Is this a poetry admiring the thing or is it a sorrowful lament expressed to the emptiness since no one else would listen?

  How can the worldview of the woman who compares herself to the guard that keeps milk and ghee for the family similar to the one who inevitably has the misery of the whole world in her fingertips every moment of her life? Modern women are part of a larger culture. Their role is not confined to the rural Somalia but they see themselves as part of women everywhere in this world. In this global village, they are connected to a world larger than the friendship of a goat or a she camel.

In the world of writing, the authors have to be cautious of the material they print. Intellectual property is to be respected and permission has to be sought from owners for any material printed in books. Although most of the material printed in the second section of the book is legendary and it is hard to find the source, there are other materials in the book that come from known individuals. I was surprised to find a poem by my own mother in the book and none of my siblings is aware of her poetry being sold without our knowledge. It was put on the internet by her granddaughter for the sole purpose of cultural studies. It could also be found in the Somali Curriculum but we were all surprised to see it presented for sale without our knowledge especially for monetary gain.

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