Reason read: ANC
Mohamed Nadifa is a Somali-British novelist. This was her debut novel. This is a story of a coming of age young Somali boy in East Africa and Europe and in this the reader also is given the history of the people and the land. It was interesting and well written. Time period covers the 30s and 40s. It reminds me of other picaresque books. This book was obtained from Hoopla but is also available free on Audible. ( )

Jama and his mother left Somaliland after Jama's father deserted them, and they are now living as dependents with unfriendly relatives in Yemen. To stay out of everyone's hair, including his mercurial mother's, Jama spends his days roaming the markets with other semi-feral children. After his mother's death, Jama decides to search for the father he has never known. At the age of eleven, he travels first to his homeland, then on to Sudan through Italian-held Abyssinia. After a stint as an askaris (local soldier serving in a colonial army), Jama wanders further north searching for a better future in the British merchant marines.

Jama's 1000-mile journey is based on the the life of the author's father. The book opens in 1935 and ends in 1947, covering a very tumultuous period in African history. The Italians and the British are vying for territory and as World War II begins, Jama is caught up in causes he doesn't understand, including, at the end of the novel, the drama of the Jewish refugees on the Exodus. As with all fictional biographies, I wonder where the line is between fact and fiction, but if even the bones of the story are true, it's an incredible one. For a debut novel, it is very well done, and it was long-listed for the Orange Prize. ( )

Jama is a young Somalian boy when his mother dies in the port city of Aden, Yemen, and so he decides he will undertake a trek to find his father, who he believes to be a “driver” somewhere in Sudan. Thus begins his travels across north Africa & on to England all during the most dangerous time the world has ever seen, WWII. He is smart and lucky (thanks to his being born under the lucky sign of the black mamba). But he also makes stupid decisions, which can be inordinately frustrating for the reader. Then you have to remember he is a homeless kid without an adult to love and teach him. To say he remains a mostly ethical, good person is surprising given all he experiences in his travels. There are a few scenes, one in particular, that is beyond gruesome. So trigger warning for violence against children.

The audiobook is free for Audible subscribers but I’m not sure I’d recommend it because Jama meets so many people and travels so extensively, it’s really hard to keep track. Often I just had to acknowledge I didn’t recognize names I should have, or didn’t have a clue where he was sometimes. I wish Audible would include chapter names. That would clarify a lot. The narrator was lovely, however, so no discredit to him. Recommended, if not the audiobook. ( )

This is a case of "it's not you it's me". I cannot get my head around the idea of a fictional memoir. Feels like the author should either have written an account of her father's life , or written fiction. This, as a genre, makes no sense to me.
The story it tells is broad enough in scope to be interesting. Jama is a street child in Aden, but his mother is from British Somaliland. How she came to be there is never explained, but when she dies, he returns to his homeland, then travels North, arrives in Egypt and joins the British Navy before seeing the world. Along the way he witnesses the Italian actions in Africa and the way that they treat the natives. It is all perfectly interesting enough to stand on its own merits, I don't see why it needs to be made fiction. I spent too much time wondering how true each story that was told was. At times she tells of things that our main character cannot have known, a case of I want to tell this, where can a shoehorn it in. At others there was a massively high level of co-incidence. It feels like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive life story. And it ends rather abruptly, just as Jama's horizons have expanded, so they seem diminished by the ending.
I feel this is a story worth telling, the format to tell it just doesn't work for me. ( )

Black Mamba Boy follows a boy named Jama as he struggles through crushing poverty and war in a number of locations: Yemen, Somalia, Eritrea, Egypt, Palestine and England. It's almost more of a travelogue than a novel; we follow Jama as he goes to different places and sees and does different things, but there's no real rising tension or climactic conclusion. Still, depending on your tastes that may well be no deterrent to you. (Feb 2019) ( )