Born In The Big Rains

The author describes her life, from her childhood living with a nomadic tribe in Somalia to her position as a spokesperson against female genital mutiliation.

This “impassioned, beautifully written memoir” by a survivor of female circumcision is a “brutally honest” story of tragedy and triumph (Publishers Weekly). As a nomad, Fadumo Korn freely roamed the wild steppes of her native Somalia until her mother delivered her into the hands of an “excisor” to become a woman in the eyes of her tribe by undergoing female genital cutting. But serious complications brought on by the circumcision would force her to leave her home on a journey of survival and self-discovery. Fadumo first traveled to the bustling city of Mogadishu and the household of a wealthy uncle, a brother of the Somali president. There, she entered a world of luxury underpinned by political instability and cruelty in a country eager for rebellion. As her symptoms worsened, she journeyed to Germany, where she received not only therapy but love and acceptance in the most unlikely of places. With this “courageous . . . indispensable testament,” Fadumo Korn weaves together a sensitive understanding of traditional practices with revelations about their disturbing effects. Full of sorrow and surprising humor, Born in the Big Rains provides a candid history of a life sculpted by crippling rheumatism and an unexpected path to recovery (Elfriede Jelinek, 2004 Nobel Laureate in Literature).

The articles investigate representations in literature, both by the colonizers and colonized. Many deal with the effect the dominant culture had on the self image of native inhabitants. They cover areas on all continents that were colonized by European countries.

The twins destiny was decided by an age-old tradition long before they were born, but it was somehow altered through the application of wisdom and intellect by human intervention. The abnormal in society was normalised by custodians of tradition and the rule of customary law, councillors, and respected village elders vested with authority and the power to decide and act. Giving the twins a lifeline and letting them live when they should have been killed without any second thought about who their father is amounted to nepotism and infringed on the right of the one whose destiny was decided in an unorthodox way. This was an unforgivable violation of an ancestral practice, a grave transgression with dire consequences which pitted brother against brother, paving a path of dark hatred, witchcraft, and ultimately, murder in the guise of darkness with no witnesses. With the chiefs wife barren, leaving the clan without a leader, the throne without an heir was apparent and the inheritance shone brighter and larger in the direction of the perpetrator. If Makgabeng was destined to be in Seras hands, then the gods had surely erred in their judgement. How could they have sacrificed Paramount Chief Thaga at the altar of conspiracy, greed, and corruption? Would Lefa live to see the day and his rightful throne?

This book investigates the thematic and conceptual dimensions of insidious trauma in contemporary eastern African literatures and cultural productions. The book extends our understanding of trauma beyond people’s immediate and conventional experiences of disastrous events and incidents, instead considering how trauma is sustained in the aftermaths, continuing to impact livelihoods, and familial, social, and gender relationships. Drawing on different circumstances and experiences across and between the eastern African region, the book explores how emerging cultural practices involve varying modes of narrating, representing, and thematising insidious trauma. In doing so, the book considers different forms and practices of cultural production, including fashion, social media, film, and literature, in order to uncover how human subjects and cultural artefacts circulate through modalities of social, cultural and political ecologies. Transdisciplinary in scope and showcasing the work of experts from across the region, this book will be an important guide for researchers across literature, media studies, sociology, and trauma studies.

Set in an Ibo village in Nigeria, the novel recreates pre-Christian tribal life and shows how the coming the white man led to the breaking up of the old ways.

From the beginning of time, Black people were given a certain way of life by the God of our ancestors. This way of life was passed on to our past ancestors for the benefit of future generations. This way of life, through a period of time, came to be known as isiko (isintu; culture), which was embodied in their lifestyle, traditions, rituals, and customs. These rituals are supposed to be practiced by families within their land. So from inception, God, the ancestors, man, culture, nature, and land were intertwined. These entities should always be in harmony with one another, and any imbalance in this relationship creates a spiritual disalignment and problems begin.