Little Warrior
Page 20
Despite the inexorable bleakness and despair, the indignity, violence, and loss, Samia’s determination thrives and a mood of hopefulness prevails throughout her early life. The setting of her childhood years— the two families living around the eucalyptus tree, Samia and her childhood “brother” Alì promising that nothing will ever come between them— is an oasis of calm, an island of normality, in a country racked by poverty and brutal warring among clans. Only when she eventually embarks on the Journey to escape the jagged circumstances of her homeland does Samia’s single-minded, hopeful optimism desert her.
It is on her journey to freedom that Samia becomes an outcast, an exiled refugee, or tahrib, who is ostracized from human society. The process of dehumanization begins in Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa, before she even starts the Journey, when she is forced to watch the other athletes practice from behind a wire mesh fence outside the stadium: “I remained a tahrib, running alone.” As the Journey drags on, the process of marginalization intensifies to the point where she is no longer able to remember who she was before. By the time she reaches Sudan, the traffickers are referring to their downtrodden charges as hawaian, animals.
When I finished reading the book, I was left wondering what had become of Alì, Samia’s onetime “brother” and “coach.” I asked Giuseppe Catozzella whether he had ever tried to find Alì when he was doing his research for the book. I knew he had spoken at length with Hodan, Samia’s sister, but I wondered if he’d been able to speak with Alì or knew where he might be now. I thought a brief word from this individual who is so central to Samia’s story might make a wonderful afterword to the narrative. Giuseppe was quick to introduce a note of reality, explaining that circumstances in Somalia made it impossible to trace Alì. He added that the latest word is that Alì is still in Somalia, although no one has seen him in years.
I also asked Giuseppe if he had copies of any of the letters that Samia read during the time she spent in prison in Ajdabiya. The text reads: “Pray, wait, and read. In fact there were letters in that prison. In Arabic, in Somali, in Ethiopian, and in English, left there somehow, for some reason, tossed aside in a corner, accumulated over years and years. Letters from prisoners or from their loved ones. Maybe they were mementos of the dead that the guards had never had the nerve to discard. In those letters there were lives. And so, reading them, I rediscovered what no longer existed inside of me. Life. Memories. Love. Promises. Courage. Hope.”
Throughout it all, the young woman with the resilience of a survivor remains stubbornly anchored to her family and her homeland, and though she leaves them, it is with the hope of pursuing her goal and finding her way back. All in all, Samia’s story of hope and aspiration, written with the passionate urgency of a firsthand account, is an affecting narrative with truly wrenching, very moving moments.
Anne Milano Appel
GLOSSARY
aabe: father
abaayo: sister
aboowe: brother
angero: a type of crepe
aroos: wedding celebration
buraanbur: Somali women’s poetry that expresses happiness or sadness in times of war or as a celebration of life
burgico: brazier
garbasar: shawl
gobeys: a kind of flute
griir: a game played by tossing pebbles
hawiye: militiamen, affiliated with Abgal
hooyo: mother
kaban: lute
kirisho mirish: a type of spicy meat and rice dish (Samia’s favorite)
koor: the bell a camel wears around its neck
niiko: Somali music danced to during weddings
qamar, hijab, diric: Islamic veils worn by women
shaat: a type of tea drink
shambal: a musical instrument consisting of two pieces of wood with a hole in the middle
shareero: a string instrument; a type of lyre
shentral: a board game
wiilo: tomboy
About the Author
Giuseppe Catozzella was born in 1976 in Milan. Little Warrior, his third novel, won the Premio Strega Giovani Prize 2014, was shortlisted for the Premio Strega Prize 2014, and is being published in over a dozen countries. He has also published a book of poetry and written about culture and the Mafia for many Italian magazines and newspapers.
Copyright
First published in 2016
by Faber & Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
First published in the USA as Don’t Tell Me You’re Afraid
By Penguin Press, 375 Hudson St, New York, NY 10014
This ebook edition first published in 2016
All rights reserved
© Giuseppe Catozzella, 2014
Translation © Anne Milano Appel, 2016
Published by arrangement with Agenzia Santachiara
First published as Non dirmi che hai paura in January 2014 by Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
Editore, Milan, Italy
Cover design by Faber
Cover illustration © Shutterstock
The right of Giuseppe Catozzella to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–32270–1