The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert

Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a largefamily, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age sixto live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-commonway of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs,climbing termite hills, herding goats, and movingconstantly in search of water and grazing lands withher nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert wasa harsh place threatened by drought, predators, andenemy clans, it also held beauty, innovation, centuriesof tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learncourage and independence from a fearless group ofrelatives. Salh grew to love the freedom of roamingwith her animals and the powerful feeling of communityfound in nomadic rituals and the oral storytellingof her ancestors.

As she came of age, though, both she and herbeloved Somalia were forced to confront change,violence, and instability. Salh writes with engagingfrankness and a fierce feminism of trying to breakfree of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of herforced female genital mutilation, of the loss of hermother, and of her growing need for independence.Taken from the desert by her strict fatherand then displaced along with millions of others bythe Somali Civil War, Salh fled first to a refugee campon the Kenyan border and ultimately to North Americato learn yet another way of life.

Readers will fall in love with Salh on the page asshe tells her inspiring story about leaving Africa,learning English, finding love, and embracing a newhorizon for herself and her family. Honest and tender,The Last Nomadis a riveting coming-of-age storyof resilience, survival, and the shifting definitionsof home.