Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival

#176
Title: Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival
Authors: Fadumo Korn with Sabine Eichhorst
Publisher: Feminist Press at City University of New York
Year: 2006
Country: Somalia
192 pages

Fadumo Korn (her German husband's surname imposed on her by the German government) has written an engaging and unsentimental account of her experiences as a child in Somalia. She lived in a nomadic family whose city connections in Mogadishu turn out to be close relatives associated with the dictatorship. These relationships become important when Fadumo almost dies from infibulation (euphemistically called "female circumcision," though it is much more extreme than that). Fadumo's father brings her to the city to live with relatives; from there, she travels to Europe for medical treatment and, as time goes on, her family's fortunes change. An excellent and candid self-portrait of the making of an activist.