Get The Prophet's Camel Bell: A Memoir of Somaliland PDF

By Margaret Laurence

ISBN-10: 0226470075

ISBN-13: 9780226470078

In 1950, as a tender bride, Margaret Laurence set out together with her engineer husband to what was once then Somaliland: a British protectorate in North Africa few Canadians had ever heard of. Her account of this voyage into the barren region is filled with wit and astonishment. Laurence truthfully portrays the trouble of colonial relationships and the disappointment of attempting to get besides Somalis who had no cause to belief outsiders. There are moments of shock and discovery while Laurence exclaims on the great thing about a flock of birds basically to find that they're locusts, or deals scientific aid to impoverished associates basically to be faced with how little she will be able to support them. in the course of her remain, Laurence strikes earlier false impression the Somalis and is derived to appreciate memorable contributors: a storyteller, a poet, a camel-herder. The Prophet’s Camel Bell is either a desirable account of Somali tradition and British colonial characters, and a lyrical description of lifestyles within the desert.

The Prophet’s Camel Bell has a undying feeling approximately it that units the paintings rather except the standard books of commute and event in far-off and unique parts.”—Canadian Literature

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Additional info for The Prophet's Camel Bell: A Memoir of Somaliland

Example text

Memsahib, I wish to telling you - this Yibir matter is not for our highly considerations. We have no use for bloody these D 40 THE PROPHET'S CAMEL BELL people. We are Muslims, memsahib, Muslims. ' The same answers applied to prostitution or any other subject which might be thought questionable. No such practices went on in Somaliland. Their virtue, as self-declared, was remarkable. They belonged to a nation of paragons. I was somewhat irritated at their pretence, and then amused. But finally I perceived that it was no more than I deserved.

We smiled and went our separate ways, having reassured one another in the darkness of the valley. ish's wife climbed our hillside to bring the allotted two donkey-loads of water, our day's ration. Soon after dawn I would hear the clonking and rattling of the old paraffm tins which were used for water containers, and the sloshing sOWld of the precious liquid being emptied into our buckets. Ali was the school gardener, and Ma'alish was a nickname, an Arabic word which meant 'never mind' or 'it doesn't matter a damn', applied to him because he habitually shrugged off all events in this manner.

It was different in his day. We had men then. When we ftnished tea, the elders questioned Jack closely and 32 THE PROPHET'S CAMEL BELL suspiciously. Mohamed, acting as interpreter, became nervous at the amount of tact necessary to convey one side's words to the other without offending anyone. 'We have heard that the Ingrese are going to make ballehs in the Haud,' Haji Abu Jibril said, a balleh being the Somali term for any dug-out pit that would hold rainwater. ' Jack was anxious that they should understand.

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The Prophet's Camel Bell: A Memoir of Somaliland by Margaret Laurence


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