These books are important in the context of human innovation in that they provide an insight into a completely different way of living which is much simpler and closer to Nature. Similarly to Ten Canoes, a movie about the Indigenous Australian Yolngu people well before western colonisation (website; see my review - coming soon), you get a feel for what a simple nomadic life is like, fully immersed in Nature and part of the land. Waris often talks of how finely tuned her senses and her intuition were, and that of her mother and others, in that environment - not just in terms of being able to tell the weather and read the land, but also intuition for the wellbeing of others or of looming trouble. There is something about a raw and basic connection to the land that strips away many of our superficial worries and distractions and brings us back to our essential nature, the place from where true creativity emerges.
Of course, this life was no bed of roses - certainly not a pleasant stroll in the desert. It was a tough life of very hard work and often hunger. Even today her feet still bear the scars from walking barefoot over sharp rocks and thorns, some of which even went right through her foot. In many aspects it was also a brutal life, especially as a girl and woman. Waris is outspoken about the horrific practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) which is so common, mainly on the African continent.
Yet in spite of all of this hardship, Waris feels blessed by her rich and colourful childhood and especially the incredible family closeness that she experienced. As we hear so often, in spite of all our material wealth in the West, we still often lead lives that miss out on many of these treasures of a simpler life. She often contrasts her African ways with Western ways - from family and community structures to how to carry a child. This serves as a useful reminder to all of us that much of what we take for granted as reality is actually only cultural convention and that we can learn so much from meaningful interaction with other cultures and recognising that just because we have running water, plasma TVs and particle accelerators, it most certainly doesn't mean that we know everything. In fact, our preoccupation with these things often means that we miss the most basic and obvious aspects of life.
Our challenge then is to learn and benefit from our amazing diversity and to be able to have that innate connection to Nature, strong intuition and strong community and family bonds at the same time as good health and living conditions, personal safety and the ability for intellectual and spiritual growth.
Desert Flower - The Extraordinary Life of a Desert Nomad (1998)Details: Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
This is the story of Waris' life from her time looking after goats in Somalia, to running away into the desert at a young age and dodging lions, to being 'discovered' in London and becoming an international supermodel.
Desert Dawn (2002)Details: Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
In her second book, Waris returns to Somalia to look for her mother nearly 20 years after running away from home with no contact at all.
Desert Children (2005)Details: Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
This book focuses on the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), especially its prevalence by immigrants in Europe. (I haven't yet read this book.)
To finish, here are two poems that introduce Desert Dawn:
To You
To sit and dream, to sit and read,
To sit and learn about the world
Outside our world of here and now---
Our problem world---
To dream of vast horizons of the soul
Through dreams made whole,
Unfettered, free--- help me!All you who are dreamers too, Help me to make Our world anew.
I reach out my dreams to you.
Langston Hughes
Africa You are Beautiful
Has anyone told youyou are beautiful
Africa?Your full body
and sensuous lipshave kissed my soul
and Africa, I am bound to youby the drumbeat of
my heart that pumps theblood of my birthright
and you are mine.
Rashidah Ismaili
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