Shugri Said Salh has spun a powerful true tale of her life growing up in Africa, and her journey that eventually led her to have to flee her homeland.

When Salh was six years old, she was sent as an extra daughter to assist her grandmother. Salh's grandmother was a nomad, among the last to truly live that way of life, before political upheaval and truly threatening practices changed everything Salh had ever known. Salh describes this time of her life, not only that of standing guard over her goats and listening to stories shared at night, but including the difficulties women faced-such as being blamed if a man assaulted them and thus took their virginity in the eyes of the community-and the torturous detail of Salh and her sister going through the rite of female circumcision.

Salh weaves her truth to take readers with her as her father (a frightening and violent figure) makes a series of choices that bring heartache and danger to bear on the family, as they find themselves refugees at an orphange, then fleeing to whatever town they can find that has not been swallowed by war. Salh shows us how she continued to rise from the ashes, to find a fierceness and a light and a strength within herself, and she makes sure to honor all those who gave her hope along the way.

This is Shugri's life living as a nomad in Somalia with her grandmother. She describes how she survived day to day and how living within a tribe is. It always amazes me how different life is for each individual on this planet. Once her family took her and put her into school, things completely changed. Bless all these women for having to protect their virginity, dealing with female circumcision and everything in between.

I loved learning about Somali culture and Shugri's story.

Title: The Last Nomad
Author: Shugri Said Salh
Genre: Nonfiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, predators, and enemy clans, it also held beauty, innovation, centuries of tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learn courage and independence from a fearless group of relatives. Salh grew to love the freedom of roaming with her animals and the powerful feeling of community found in nomadic rituals and the oral storytelling of her ancestors.

As she came of age, though, both she and her beloved Somalia were forced to confront change, violence, and instability. Salh writes with engaging frankness and a fierce feminism of trying to break free of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of her forced female genital mutilation, of the loss of her mother, and of her growing need for independence. Taken from the desert by her strict father and then displaced along with millions of others by the Somali Civil War, Salh fled first to a refugee camp on the Kenyan border and ultimately to North America to learn yet another way of life.

This was a fascinating read! I don’t know much about Somalia, so that was pretty much all new to me. Parts of this were extremely difficult to read—the explanation on FGM and how it was accepted and sought after, the way Shugri was abused by her sister when she got to Canada---but it was a powerful, moving read with a lot of hope on its pages.

Shugri said Salh was born in Somalia but now lives in California. The Last Nomad is her story.

(Galley courtesy of Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review.)

(Blog link live 8/3.)

"Stories have always created understanding and connection between humans. In this great era of misunderstanding, I wish to help rein us back to our shared humanity."

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The story of Shugri's life opened a new door for me, one that helped me to understand the life of women in Somalia. Born to a nomadic tribe, she describes the beauty and brutality of a life spent simply trying to survive on what the earth provides. The stories of her clan and the fierceness of her ayeeyo (grandmother) herding goats and camels to protect them from lions and hyenas were immersive. I loved understanding the importance of ancestry in the oral history of the nomadic people. Shugri's circumstances were quite different to the other girls of her tribe because her father valued education. She is pulled from her life in the wild and forced into boarding school and goes from learning essential skills in one world to a completely different set of skills for a different life.

There are lots of heavy stories related to the view of females as property and sexual violence which are hard to read. Shugri describes in detail the experience of her female circumcision, known to us in the western world as genital mutilation. We learn the value of a woman is completely based on her intact virginity, her ability to provide male children and take care of the home. 

I loved gaining an understanding of how religion and culture balanced with the need for the day to day survival in modern Somalia. Shugri describes the impact of disease, injury and warfare on the average citizen. She describes the attempts at bringing women to equality and how religious conservatives fought deeply against that transition. How warfare brought clan against clan without regard to the actual people within those clans. The trauma of the people forced to leave under these conditions and flee their homes as refugees. 

The proverbs at the beginning of each chapter were my favorite part, they gave such insight into the Somali mind.The Last Nomad is a powerful story of female survival and what it means to equally love and feel the need to overcome your culture.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.

The last Nomad is a beautiful memoir written by Shugri Said Salh about her childhood as a nomad in the Somalian desert. She lived in a large family in the city. She has twenty two brothers and sisters. Shugri’s father believed in education and that all his children deserved it. Although her father wanted everyone to go school, her mother had decided that Shugri should leave to live with her grandmother as a nomad so that she could help with domestic life. When Shugri lived as a nomad, she learned so much from her grandmother and her relatives. She learned about the wild, how to raise animals, how to recognize landmarks, she heard old tales over a fire and so much more.
I think this is a book that many will enjoy and will be entertained by it. It has silliness, freedom, happiness, sadness and so much more. Shugri did an amazing job of describing her life as a nomad. I felt like I was living and seeing through her child eyes. Pick up this book, read it and share it with others. I think you will not regret your purchase.
Happy reading!

-Rebeca

The Last Nomad is an unusual and captivating memoir. It covers the author’s recollection of growing up as the last of multiple generations of nomadic goat herders. Her candor is bracing at times, and while she has a deep love for the way she was raised, she doesn’t pull any punches about the hard parts or romanticize the experience. I appreciated her writing style and the uniqueness of her story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book.

I am the last nomad…I am the last person in my direct line to have once lived like that, and now I feel like the sole keeper of my family’s stories. from The Last Nomand by Shugri Said Sahl

A popular says that before you judge a person, walk a mile in their shoes. I would not have lasted a mile in Shugri Said Salh’s shoes. Maybe not even a half mile. And not just because she spent her childhood as a nomadic goat herder in the harsh landscape of Somalia. She survived a changing world, time in an orphanage, war, a refugee camp, starvation, and immigration to a foreign land. Her memoir reveals a woman of such strength and determination that few can equal her. For all the terrors she witnessed, she knew what she wanted, who she wanted to be. She gained an education, found her life partner, and thrives in her life in 21st c. America. But note that it was Canada that accepted her immigration.

Shugro Said Salh does not wring our hearts for pity. She loved her heritage and country and her way of life even while recognizing their faults. She had great adoration and respect for her grandmother and mother, their beauty and strength, and she bristles at how they were treated.

She thrived under a dictator who advanced equal education for girls; her teacher father taught, “if you educate a son, you educate one person, but if you educate a daughter, you educate the whole community.” She found role models and assistance to help her become the woman she wanted to be. She does not pity herself for undergoing female circumcision as a girl since it was an age old tradition, although as a nurse she recognizes its negative impact on women’s lives and its consequences on female health and sexuality.

What she does bemoan is her country’s division, the clan warfare, the religious fanaticism, and the violence inflicted by people on their own countrymen. It is a story that can send chills down one’s spine, especially when looking at America today and seeing the deep divisions fomenting violence and hatred.

Her memories of nomadic life is rendered with great beauty. Her honest acceptance of some of the traditions may disturb some readers, as will stories of life under war. “Survival is woven into the fabric of who I am,” she writes.

I could feel the author’s urgency to tell her story before her world is forgotten. “Stories have always created understanding and connection between humans,” she writes. Some of her happiest memories were of the storytelling around the campfires in the desert nights. Now, she has become a story teller. She will entertain you, and horrify you, and inspire you. Hopefully, her stories will create an understanding of people from a world far removed from your own, and nurture respect.

An old African proverb says, When an elder dies, a library is burned. I an not yet an elder, but I do feel like a portal between two worlds. from The Last Nomad by Shugri Said Salh

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

An interesting memoir about a unique life. The nomadic life the title refers to is that of a goat heading people and the lifestyle she lived for a time in her childhood with her grandmother. Having lived in several distinct cultures, she portrays each with care and clarity.

WOW. I used to read a lot more memoirs. and this reminded me why it's such a powerful genre.

This was a very hard, intense read, but it was so compelling that once I started I couldn't put it down. Shugri describes her feelings and the actions of those around her with such compassion and self-awareness, while still incisively criticizing the social structures that hurt her.

I would recommend this to anyone, it provides such valuable insight into Shugri's life and I will be thinking about it for a long time!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy. It took me a long time, but I’m glad that I finally finished reading this memoir. The anecdotes are memorable and well-written. I think a map, timeline, and family tree would have helped me comprehend a little better. I didn’t follow along with the politics, but I still enjoyed the narrative. I appreciate the author’s point of view that one can be proud of the past, culture, and heritage while at the same time leave out the parts that don’t serve you personally. I learned a lot about Somalia, it’s culture, and the nomadic traditions. I felt the author balances positive and negative views of culture with using perceptions from the people in context. While there are some graphic descriptions of female mutilation and violence, educators could still use portions of the memoir for cultural or social studies without needing to use the book in its entirety.

Through young Shugri's eyes we witness the love of family, culture and country in her childhood in Somalia. Transitioning back and forth between "city" life and the life of a nomad, paints the extreme differences in a country which later tears itself apart through civil war. Pride in clan heritage and alliances protects young girls from harm until the clans go to war, the ruler is dethroned after 21 years and everyone is fleeing for their lives. Shugri and her siblings go from having a loving mother and a stable household to being declared orphans and left at an orphanage when their mother dies and their older siblings cannot care for them. Things worsen as war comes to the area and they must flee to Kenya as refugees. Never losing faith in herself, Shugri has decided that this is not the life she will lead and does everything in her power to overcome each of her life situations to emerge an educated woman, married with children, a nurse and living far away from her ancestral home. She mourns the loss of family and the traditions that she wants to pass on to her own children, which they sadly cannot understand. Following her story gives the reader a huge amount of insight into the culture and lives of so many Middle Eastern women. It is quite the eye-opener to Western readers and makes us amazed at Shugri's accomplishments.