Black Mamba Boy

Jan 18

Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
Reviewed by Linda
📙📒📕

Black mamba boy, the first novel by Nadifa Mohamed, describes the soul searching quest of a young Somali boy for his father. Protected by the stars and his mother's love, Jama traverses colonial Africa alone during WW2 - from Yemen to Somalia, through the west of the continent: from Djibouti to Eritrea then Sudan to Egypt and Palestine, and years later arriving in London. This was an educational read for me as I got to touch a part of the world that I hadn't reached before. Jama's story describes one of many gruelling and perilous escapes made by Somalians and other West Africans to Europe, in search of a better life, which reminded me of how privileged the life I lead is. At times the journey felt aimless, but when I learned that Jama's story was based on a true recount of Nadifa's father's life, I finished this book feeling enlightened and grateful.

Black Mamba BoyNadifa MohamedLindaFictionwartime fictionwriters of colourwomen writers

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

Black Mamba Boy

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