28 November

Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

Desert Flower
Waris Dirie
(UK: Virago, @ViragoBooks, 2001; USA: William Morrow Paperbacks, @HarperCollins, 2011)

Waris Dirie (the name means ‘desert flower’) lives a double life – by day she is a famous model and UN spokeswoman on women’s rights in Africa; at night she dreams of her native Somalia.

One of 12 children, Waris was born into a traditional family of desert nomads in East Africa. She remembers her early childhood as carefree – racing camels and moving on with her family to the next grazing spot – until it came her turn to meet the old woman who administered the ancient custom imposed on most Somalian girls: circumcision. Waris suffered this torture when she was just five years old. Then, aged 12, when her father attempted to arrange a marriage with a 60-year-old stranger in exchange for five camels – she took flight.

After an extraordinary escape through the dangerous desert she made her way to London and worked as a maid for the Somalian ambassador until that family returned home. Penniless and speaking little English, she became a janitor in McDonalds where she was famously discovered by a fashion photographer. Her story is a truly inspirational and extraordinary self-portrait of a remarkable woman whose spirit is as breathtaking as her beauty.

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Please visit our Book Bulletin 2019 crowdfunding project at CrowdPatch to buy recommendations for our Winter 2019 catalogue and to volunteer your skills, experience and contacts. All funds raised will support not-for-profit Jolabokaflod CIC’s forthcoming programme of events.

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