Recalling the Other Third World: Nuruddin Farah's "Maps"

Author(s): Francesca Kazan

Source: NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, Vol. 26, No. 3, African Literature Issue (Spring, 1993),
pp. 253-267
Published by: Duke University Press
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 RecallingtheOtherThirdWorld:
NuruddinFarah'sMaps
FRANCESCA KAZAN

Yourstory,becauseitis nota translation me.I takeitas itis,

interests
ofreality,
and
artificial painful.
TaharbenJelloun

... a rememberedeventis infinite, thathap-

becauseitis onlya keytoeverything
penedbeforeit and it.
after
WalterBenjamin

To say that cartographyexpresses ideology is hardly news, but perhaps

nowhereare thecrucialrepercussions of thistruthmoreevidentnow thanin
Africa.' As far as the visual image of this continent is concerned,afterthepe-
riod of mappaemundi (fifthto fifteenth century), firstrelativelyavailable
the
representations emerged in the sixteenth century,themostpopular of which
was a map printedfroma woodcutin 1540,Munster'sCosmographia. It lacks
geographicaldetail, but is adorned with an a
elephant, cyclops, and so on. The
sixteenthcenturysaw a rise in accuracythough,as we mightexpect,by the
nineteenthcenturythe primaryinterest, accordingto R.V.Tooley,lay in the
"historicalrecordingof thespreador penetration ofa Europeanelementin the
the
interior, gradualdiscoveryand namingof physicalfeatures, thetownsand
tradingposts established" (99). It is worthremembering even now thatthemap
of Africawe see mostcommonlytodayis not the Peters' but that
projection,
based on Mercator'ssixteenth-century globe: themap whereEurope's 9.7 sq.
millionkillometres appears largerthanSouth America's17.8 million,where
the formerSoviet Union's 22.4 million appears considerablylarger than
Africa's30 million,and so forth. In fact,Europeancolonialismin Africais over
2,000yearsold,beginning on a largescalewithCarthage'sdefeatby Rome,and
developingto its fullestexpressionduringthe 1880s,with "the scramblefor
Africa."The BerlinConference of 1884-85begana processwhichwas to culmi-
nateafterWorldWar I withthepartition ofan entirecontinent: Africawas, in
effect,(re)mapped.2
So it is in thecontextof thesefactsthatwe can turnto a recentpostcolonial
AnglophoneAfricantextentitled, quitesimply,Maps.Thisworkby theSomali

1 A shorter Divisionpanelon Farahat San Franciscoin

versionofthisarticlewas readat theMLA's AfricanLiterature
ofAlabamafora SummerResearchGrantwhichenabledme to completethispiece.
to theUniversity
1991.I am grateful
Richard Helgerson's importantessay, "Cartography, Chorography,and Subversionin RenaissanceEngland,"
demonstrateshow ideologyis expressedthroughcartographic of how atlasesfacilitated
images.For an examination the
growth ofcapitalism
see ChandraMukerji(79-130).
2 GN. Uziogwetellsus thatthereis someargument as tothenatureoftheboundaries. Around30%weredrawnas straight
acrossethnicand linguistic
lines,cutting buttheremaining
boundaries, bordersfollowednationalboundaries(43-4).For
ofAfrica'shistory
graphicrepresentations from175millionyearsago to 1978see ColinMcEvedy.

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254 I
NOVEL SPRING
1993

novelist,NuruddinFarah,investigatesthe fissuresrentin nationaland per-

sonal identity in the disintegrationthat follows such topographical
"reorganization."Not onlythedisintegration resulting fromEuropeancolonial-
ism (in thiscase British,Frenchand Italian),but also thedisintegration result-
ing fromwars over the Ogaden territories-territories whichwere ceded to
neighboring EthiopiaafterWorldWar 11 by theAlliedPowers.3
To re-mapis to re-border, and certainlybordersare at the heartof Maps.
This textdemonstrates the driveand desirefor,as well as the inefficacy of,
borders-whetherlinguistic, temporal, or
corporeal, psychic.Throughmultiple
shiftsin narrativevoice,the"you,""he" and "I" ofthesinglenarrator renounce
pronominal definitionto weave us back and forthin a shiftingtemporalper-
spectivefromhis mysteriousbirthto his writingpresent.In the processthe
boy's senseofgenderdissolves(he evenexperiences a formofmenstruation) in
whatI can onlydescribeas a kindofpsychic-somatic unionwithhis surrogate
mother, wherehe projectshimselfas her"thirdleg" or "thirdbreast."
But Farah's itineraryis also clearlypolitical,and these personalborders
spillover,fusewiththelargerissue of nationalborderlands.4 He tracesa route
whichtraversesboththerealmof personalidentitycharacterized by diffused
boundariesand liminalpsychiczones, and the realm of politicswhere the
Somali nationis in searchof its state.Almostexactlymidpointin the text,
Askar, the young Somali protagonistof Maps, asks his surrogatemother,
"Misra,wherepreciselyis Somalia?"(111). His poignantquestionpinpointsa
problemwhichresonatesthroughout thiswork:can one definethebordersof
one's self(evenprovisionally) ifone cannotdefinethebordersofone's nation?5
Askar's parallel searchfornationalas well as personalidentitycould in
theorylead him towardsnationalisticinsularity.But,given the broadlyex-
ploratory and boundary-breaking natureofhis innerself,I wantto insteadread
his politicalquest as a demonstration of FrantzFanon's expansivebeliefthat
"Nationalconsciousness,whichis not nationalism, is theonly thingthatwill
give us an internationaldimension....It is at theheart ofnationalconsciousness
thatinternationalconsciousness grows and grows. And thistwo-foldemerging is
ultimately the source of all culture."This meshing of the nationalwiththe in-
ternational consciousness createsa largerentity. In addition,"Ifa manis known
by his acts," writesFanon, "then we will say that themosturgentthingtoday
fortheintellectual is to build up his nation"(199). So theintellectual concen-

Such issues of place and displacement are frequentlycentralto postcolonial writing.And I use the term "postcolonial" in
the way defined by Slemon and Tiffin,as "writing that is grounded in the cultural realities of those societies whose
subjectivityhas been constitutedat least in part by the subordinatingpower of European colonialism" (ix).
Somali society is essentially homogenous, and in contrastto the vast majorityof independent Africanstates Somalis are
essentially a one nationalitystate. The particulartragedy is that of its estimated population of 6 million,only 3.5 million
lived in the Somali Republic; the restwere dispersed in Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopi-a situationwhich is now magnified
by the mass dispersal of refugeesin the currentclan wars. Yet all Somalis "speak the same language, respond to the same
poetry,derive theirwisdom (and their experience) fromthe camel economy, and worship the same God" (David Laitin
and Said Samatar, xvi). Also, see I.M. Lewis.

A good deal has been writtenof late about the concept of the nation. See Homi K.Bhabha's Nation and Narration fora
collection on this subject. Rhonda Cobham also connects the boundaries of nation and self, but her emphasis is on the
destabilization of gender in the text which, she argues, challenges us to "resist the reflexiveurge to pin down a single
version of the African reality as 'true'" as well as uncriticallyaccept the notion of "essence that underlies much of the
discourse around nationalism and sexualities in modern Africanfiction"(96).

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 FRANCESCA I THEOTHER
KAZAN THIRD
WORLD 255

trateson the"inside"space ofthenationin orderto movebeyond,"outside"to

theglobe.
This raises an interesting problemformanyof thosepost-colonialwriters
who are alreadyfirmlypositionedwithinthe international community, who
are,in fact,exiledfromtheirnation.Theyare alreadywriting from outside.This
politico-globalexpansiveness finds an aesthetic in
parallel Maps, not only
thematically withthe breakdownof traditionalgenderassignation,but with
the textualexperimentation of narrativalvoice and the ambiguityof resolu-
tion.
In manyways,then,NuruddinFarahis an exemplaryfigurein Africanlet-
ters.He has been activelypublishingfortwentyyears,thelast fifteen or so in
enforcedexile fromhis nativeSomalia.6His own thoughtson exile are clearly
statedwhenhe refersto himselfas a writerwho,"in essence,has acceptedthe
dualityofhisrole:thatofbelongingto a particular country occupyinga marked
latitudeon the globe,and ofbeinga denizenof theworldwhichhe calls his
home.... I am home everywhere;and everywhereis home" (African
Commentary, 58).
This "worldliness,"if I can call it that,marksa new breedof post-colonial
writer.(And I am usingthissomewhatdifferently to EdwardSaid, forwhom
the termsignifiesa "circumstantial reality,"that realitywhere textsare
"alwaysenmeshedin circumstance, time,place,and society-inshort,theyare
in theworld,and henceworldly"(The World, 34-35).But "worldliness"in the
sense thatin re-positioning, re-situatingthemselvesthroughoutthe world
thesewritersin a sense call attentionto, even theorize,their"displacement"
and hybridity, and makeproductiveuse of theinevitabletensionthatresults.
Tim Brennancharacterizes themas "spokespersons fora kindofperennialim-
migration, valorisedby a rhetoric of wandering,and rifewithallusionsto the
all-seeingeye of the nomadicsensibility"(2). But not only do thesewriters
writeoutsidetheirculture;theyusuallywriteoutsidetheirmothertongue-
theadvantagesand drawbacksof whichare increasingly debated.Theyoper-
ate, then,withina kind of double outsiderness.Farah's positionas novelist
takesthisone step further, because Somalia's highlyprivilegedoral literature
is poetry,notprose,and it was onlyin 1972thatan official orthography forthe
Somalilanguagewas introduced. Thislatterfact,ofcourse,raisesa questionre-
gardingthevirtuesof writingin theindigenouslanguage.Farah's firstnovel
was publishedin 1970,two yearsbefore theofficialscriptforSomaliwas even
introduced-prior to thistime there was Cusmaaniya,an underground Somali
script.It is anothercomplexity to add to thedebateon writingin themother
tongue.'
6 His firstnovel, Froma CrookedRib, appeared in 1970, followed by A NakedNeedlein 1976. The trilogy,Sweetand Sour Milk,
Sardines, Close Sesame was published between 1979 and 1983; the overall title is Variationson the Themeof an African
Maps is the firstpart of a projectedtrilogy,the second and thirdpartscurrentlytitledGiftsand Secrets.
Dictatorship.
7
For a polemic against the use of the colonial tongue see Ngugi. Also, see the so-called "troika" of Chinweizu, Jemieand
Madubuike for an argument supporting Afrocentrism.Soyinka and Achebe are examples of those on the other side,
arguing fora syncretism.For a briefintroductionto Somali literaturesee AlbertS. Gerard (155-70),and forthe crucial links
between politics and poetry see Said S. Samatar (Oral Poetry,1982). The firstliterarypublication in the Somali language
appeared in 1981. Translated as Ignoranceis theEnemyofLnve,by Faarax M.J.Cawl,the novel is approximatelyhalf poetry,
and half prose.

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256 NOVEL I SPRING1993

Finally,though,to be a Somali outsideSomalia,writingprose ratherthan

poetry,and in EnglishratherthanSomali,is to be triplyoutside.(Perhaps,
even,threeworldsremoved.)Smallwonder,then,thatbordersare theissue.8

or,theOtherThirdWorld
I. MappingtheMother/Land,

The narrator ofMaps,Askar,is a childoftheOgaden:he is bornin a borderter-

ritory claimed by bothSomalia and Ethiopia.Thisinvolutionof originsis fur-
therexacerbatedby thefactthat,althoughbornof Somali parents,his adop-
tive motheris Ethiopian. His natural motherhaving apparentlydied in
childbirth, he is foundunwashedand unattendedwithbloody fingerstains
roundhisneck.Fromthesedubiousbeginnings Askar,an almostmagicallyintu-
itive and preternaturally memoriedchild, negotiateshis path throughthe
fraughtterrainof genderand nationality. Maps is in parta taleofdividedloy-
alties,of a young man's struggleto define
identity in relationto theseopposing
forces.
ChapterFive of Maps opens withsomethinglike a reverieon the protago-
nist'srelationto Misra,his adoptivemother:

Therewas nothing likesharingtherobethewomancarrying youwas wrapped

as
in, nothing warm, with the bodies,yoursand oozingand
hers,touching,
sweatingtogether-I naked and she not--andtherubbing ofthebod-
together
ies producing itchyirritations,
scratchy and
rashes crotchyeruptionsofskin.
Thenthequietofthenightwouldcrawlin likean insectup one'sback-ticklish
and laughter-producing.Thedarkness ofduskwouldtakeoverone'simagined
senseofbeing:thistime,likean insectbiteso scratchythatyoucannotthinkof
anything else.And I
so,foryears, contemplated theworldfromthesafethrone
carvedoutofMisra'sback,sleepingwhenI pleased,swinging fromherbackas
a fruitthethornwhichis its twin,makingwaterwhenI had toand getting
scoldedforit;foryearsI viewedtheworldfroma height abovethatofa
slightly
pigmy's head.
I seemto haveremained a mereextension ofMisra's bodyforyears-you
saw mewhenyousetyoureyeson her.I waspartoftheshadowshecast-in a
sense,I was herextended self.I was,youmightevensay,thespacesurround-
ingthegeography ofherbody. (75)

I willreturnto thecorporealworldso intimatelyevokedhere,butfirstwant

to examinewhatmaybe consideredsomething ofa corporeallack.Towardsthe
end ofthepassage Askardescribeshimself bothas a "mereextension... partof

Of course, the whole question of this "outsiderness" and borders is exactly what is being addressed when established
American criticaljournals put togetherissues on Africanliterature,as ModernFictionStudiesdid recently,or when PMLA
calls forarticles on "Colonialism and the Postcolonial Condition." There is currentlya recognitionthat what happens at
the borders and margins is that which is potentially most interesting.Some of those "outside" are thereforeinvited
"inside" the academy. Farah's is an interestingcase: he is not a prominent"Third World cosmopolitan celebrity"(to use
Brennan's somewhat unfortunatephrase that jars, I think,in an otherwise fine essay); his readership is larger in Europe,
and it would be productive to identifythe criteriathat allow one "third world" writer greater "access" over another.
Ahmad points out that the useful inquiry would be to see "how the principle of selective incorporationworks in relation
to texts produced outside the metropolitancountries." (17)

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 KAZANI THEOTHER
FRANCESCA THIRD
WORLD 257

the shadow she cast" and as "the space surroundingthe geographyof her
body."He is incorporated intoher,whilehe simultaneously surroundsher.Her
body defines the border where he begins, while he is simplyspace. But the
"extendedself"formedby his shadow also extendsherboundaries,enlarges
her,as it were.And space, in theabstract,is boundlessand knowsno limits.
This is a systemof complete,yetparadoxical,reciprocity, a systemthatcannot
be fixed.
Askar'sdescription of his relationto Misrais paradigmatic in Maps because
it suggeststhequestionthatpreoccupiesthenarrator throughout his narrative:
wheredoes theselfbegin,theother end? Farah'sinitialanswerforAskarseems
tolie inblurring bothgenderedand corporealboundaries;thesedistinctions blur
notjustinandrogynous not in
empathy, just pull a towards a system of nurturance
whichdependson psychicmerger(thoughitis boththesethings), butalso in an
intellectualstrivingto answer the question that resonates more generally
throughout thetext:whatthen,is theother?"UncleHilaal helpedyou homein
on theother,"Askar reflectsto himself(149). (This phrase is always empha-
sized in Maps.) For postcolonialwriters,engagedin re-negotiating theirown
subjectpositions, theseare keyquestions.
The firstthingto note is thatin Maps theotheris not the racial Otherwe
have come to recognizein our recentreadingsof texts.At least,not a racial
Otherin thesense thatblackand whiteare inevitablyotherto each. Thereare
no whitesin thistextualworld,and whileWesternintellectualthoughtdoes
influencesome characters(in particular, Askar'suncle and aunt) "whiteness"
and "blackness"are notgivenplay in theactualnarrative, whichis set firmly
in theHornof Africa.So in a generalizedsense theotheris whattheselfis not,
and here quite specificallyit is femaleto Askar'smale. But we are immedi-
atelydivertedfromsucha conclusionbecause timeand timeagain Askarem-
pathizeswith,is totallyabsorbedby,is initiatedinto,theworldof women.He
is finelyattunedto Misra'smenstrualcycle;it is somethinghe enviesher(98),
and one morningthereis evenbloodon hisgroin.Misratellshimwithcomplete
seriousness,"You've begunto menstruate.... The questionis: willyou have the
monthly curseas we womendo or willyoursbe as rareas themalefowl'segg?"
(105).9
So forAskar,theotheris notsimplyfemaleto his male,because thefeminine
and masculineco-exist:"I have a strangefeelingthatthereis another in me,one
olderthanI-a woman.I have theconsciousfeelingofbeingspokenthrough, if
you know what I mean. I feelas ifI have allowed a woman older than I to live
insideofme,and I speaknotmywords,myideas,buthers.Andduringthetime
I'm spokenthrough, as itwere,I am she-not I" (151).Theother, then,seemsnot
to be opposed to theselfhere,butresideswithinas thecomplementary gender,
notdependingon binaryopposition.Itis nota stableentity, buta morecomplex

In addition to menstruating,Askar witnesses and describes in graphic detail an abortion.Hilarie Kelly misses the point,I
think,when she sees what she calls Askar's "fixationon menstruation"as an example of how Farah "fetishizeswomen....
Menstruation is a metaphor of destructivefemininity,frustratedwomanhood, and Misra's warped, sacrificialdevotion to
Askar rather than to a husband or child of her own" (31). Derek Wright, however, argues that in creating such an
emphasis on the corporeal "Farah has writtenthe firstAfricannovel of the body" ("Somali Powerscapes,"33).

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258 NOVEL I SPRING1993

mutable forcewhich rejectsthe oppositional,hierarchizedothertypicalof

Westernthinking.1'
Butiftheotherresideswithintheself,can selfand identity everbe defined?
Or is one somehowalwaysmarginal?The answerto thefirstquestionmaybe
no-at least in thesense thatidentitycan neverbe absolutelydefined;instead
it shiftscontinually, thusimplementing a procedureof renewal.And further-
more,it is onlythepossibilityof theotherthatmakestheidentityof theselfa
possibility.The answerto the secondquestionconcerningtheendlessnessof
marginalitymay be affirmative, with the clear recognitionthatmarginality
has benefits:livingat theborder,livingat theedge allows one theadvantage
of incorporating diversequalities,allows one possibilitieswhich the center
cannotallocate."
Theseboundaryissuesinevitably returnus to Misra,buthereI wantto con-
siderhernotjustas femaleto Askar'smale,butmorespecifically in hermater-
nal role.In thelengthydescription citedearlierherbodyis configured through
geography;she is, it is obvious enough,the mother/land.However,this is
complicated,and marred,by the factthatshe literallyrepresentsEthiopia,
theenemyin theOgaden borderwars,and notSomalia.Eventuallythisadop-
tivemotherwill be renounced-ina violentand unsettling way.Years pass in
physicalseparation, and Askar is brieflyreunited with her justbeforeshe is
washed ashorewithherheartrippedout,dismembered in whatis probablya
ritualistic
politicalmurder.In fact,thisrenunciation is openlyaddressedearly
in the textwhen thenarratortellsMisra in his uncannilydirectmanner,"To
live,I will have to killyou" (57).12So Askar'searliercorporeallack-when he
perceives himselfas virtuallybodiless in his mergerwith Misra in the
shadowysymbiosisthatblursthedistinction betweenselfand other-becomes
insteadMisra'scorporeallack.Butthisis notsimplyimaginedor empathized,
becauseMisraactuallyloses life.Her corporeal"lack"is finaland complete.
This takesus back to theseductiveintensity of thecorporealworldevoked
earlyin Askar'srecollections, the worldof themother/land. This is a world
wherebodies blend in intimacy, whereMisrawhispers"endearments thelike
ofwhichI am notlikelyto heareveragain" (23),and wherein pronominaldis-
tancingmode Askarrelatesthat"she smelledof yoururinepreciselyin the
samewayyousmelledofhersweat:uponyourbodywereprintedimpressions of
herfingerprints, thepreviousnight'smoisture:yoursand hers"(9). Whileit is
10 Farah is not, I think,in any danger of becoming what Sara Suleri has called an "othernessmachine" (qtd. in Appiah, 356).
Rather, he uses the term in order to undo its restrictedmeaning, to expand its potential,to reappropriate it for his own
purposes.

Ashcroft, Griffithsand Tiffin write that "imperial expansion has had a radically destabilizing effect on its own
preoccupations and power. In pushing the colonial world to the marginsof experience the 'centre' pushed consciousness
beyond the point at which monocentrismin all spheres of thoughtcould be accepted without question. In otherwords the
alienating process which initiallyserved to relegatethe post-colonialworld to the 'margin' turned upon itselfand acted to
push that world througha kind of mental barrierinto a position fromwhich all experience could be viewed as uncentred,
pluralistic,and multifarious.Marginalitythus became an unprecedentedsource of creative energy" (12).
12 This is not a literal intention,but one that Askar explains elsewhere: "only in [her] death could she and I be related,only
then would I somehow feel as though we were a mother and her son. And then, and only then, would I find myself,
alone and existingand real-yes, an individual with needs of his own-no longer an extensionof a maternalhand whose
touch quietened the childish cry in one" (37). And while Askar's statementis more premonitionthan threat,there is a
constantslippage between the real and unreal in Maps, what Derek Wrightcalls a "deliberatelypuzzling indeterminacy...
as regardswhere metaphorends and literalrealitystarts"("Zero Zones," 28).

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 FRANCESCAKAZAN I THE OTHERTHIRDWORLD 259

clearthatAskar'smemoriesofMisraare drivenby nostalgiaand longingas he

attemptsto recreatethepast,theyare nonethelessan unusuallydensesummon-
ing of themother-child dyad. This worldcollapsesborders,and prolongspsy-
chicbondinglongafterthesequesteredspace ofinfancy. Misracreatesa secure
mother/land, and yetis also perceivedby himto be "thecosmos"(6)-an en-
one thatmovesbeyondtheidea of thenation.13
tirelylargerentity;certainly
So whereis Askarsited?In themother/land, or in theworldbeyond?There
is a curiousmomentin Maps whenAskar'suncle,Hilaal,asks,"Askar,whereis
thethird? Where'stheother?"(138) Askar,precociousthoughhe is, cannotan-
swer;thequestionis lefthanging.This juxtaposition of thirdand otherinfil-
tratesthetextin suggestiveways,and I wantto read it as explicitly
connecting
thebody withpolitics.Towardstheend ofMaps, afterMisra has disappeared
fromthe hospitaland he is awaitingnews of herwhereabouts,Askarreflects
that"she was myuniverse,she was theone who determined thecircumference
ofmycosmos,herbodywas an extensionofmine,mybodyherthirdleg as we
slept and snored away time,my head her thirdbreast ..." (232).
As before,the systemis reciprocal,herbody extendinghis even as his en-
largeshers.This timetheintimaterelationis evokednotonlythroughtheab-
stractionof space and shadow of symbiosisas selfand othermerge,but also
throughtheaccretionof body parts,a leg and a breast.14The body extendsto
includea third,and in so doing createsan alternativecorporealspace-per-
haps, even, an alternative "third world." Askar is sited both in the
mother/land and in theworldbeyond.
Thisstrategicrevisionofbodyspace withinthetextenablesus to reconsider
nationalidentity(Somaliand Ethiopianconverge)and to readdressthatprob-
lematictermcoinedby a Frenchman, "theThirdWorld,"a termwhichAijaz
Ahmadargues(in manywaysveryconvincingly) is a "polemicalone, withno
theoreticalstatus whatsoever" (4).15 For while Askar's projectionof himselfas
the "thirdleg" or "thirdbreast"could possiblybe read as a kindof grotesque
representation,a distortedview of thefilial,it can be read moreproductively
as creatinga site where"third"does not signify"less" in a verticalcounting
system,butrathercountsfor"more"in a systemofempowerment, a sitewhere
consciousnessis nourished,tosummonFanononcemore,bothnationally and in-
A
ternationally. site, then,which denotesa potentiality in the term"Third

13 Thereare severalreferences ofthiskindthroughout Maps,fromtheexampleofMisrabeing"thecosmos,"to theirbeing

so engrossedin eachother"theydidn'tneedto acknowledge theexistence
oftheoutsideworld"(192).Clearlythereare
also eroticovertonesto therelation: Askaris jealousofAw-Adan(Misra'slover),and hisdescriptions
ofMisralingerat
timeson herbody,and in a verymovingmomenthe confesses(withina dream),"1was utterly in lovewithher"(214).
Whilean eroticallysensuallongingis certainly and mayindeedbe moreexplicit
present, becauseMisrais his "adoptive"
ratherthanbirthmother, itis not,I think,
theprimary focusofhisbond.
14 Thereareotherspecific references
tothis:"Misrawho eventually
tuckedme intotheoozywarmth betweenherbreasts...
so muchso I becamea thirdbreast... and I wouldfindmyselfbetweenheropenedlegsthistime,as thoughI was a third
leg" (24); "... and you werein hercuddle,you wereherthirdleg or herthirdbreast"(141).CobhamarguesthatAskar
becomes"Misra'spenisor thirdleg,"readingthis"eitheras Askar'smasculinization (or empowerment)ofMisra,or his
erasureofheras he incorporates herentirefeminine intohimself"
identity (90).
15 Ahmed'sessay is a responseto FredricJameson's"Third-WorldLiterature Capital"which
in theEra ofMultinational
arguesfora "theoryofthecognitive
aesthetics
ofthird-world See KetuH. Katrakforanotherresponse.
literature."

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260 NOVEL I SPRING1993

World" and which enables Askar to be at home both in the body of the
m/other, and in thebodyofpolitics.16
So why,we mayask, is thism/other(actually,bothm/others)so violently
eradicated?Misrais firsthospitalizedfora mastectomy, thereshe is abducted
and her heartis literallytornfromher body, when she is washed ashore;
Askar's unnamedbirthmotherdisappearsafterhis birth,indeed,practically
at hisbirthbecausein Askar'spreternatural memoryhe tellshimself, "you were
an adult ... you believedyou werepresentat yourbirth"(13)-in a symbolic
sensehe delivershimself, and in a magicalwayis fullyselfconsciousfromthen
on. The questioningof this violenteradicationcannotbe simplyanswered.
Certainly it would be triteto implythematernalpresencemustbe destroyedin
orderforthe boy to achieve an independence.The pointis, Askardoes not
achieve an independence-thetextrevolvesroundhis entangledrelationto
Misra.Relatingeventsdoes notnecessarilyresultin a catharsis.Clearlythere
is a violenceat workin thetext,but one thatgoes well beyondOedipal con-
flicts,and involves,amongotherthings,a violencedirectedat theself.'7
And among these otherthingsis the "violence" thatinvolves language.
Askarmustleave the"thirdworld"of thenurturing bodyin orderto enterthe
larger"thirdworld"of politics,theworldof social reality.Initiationintothis
world involves the acquisitionof the Word,and even more importantly in
Muslimculture,initiation intothelanguageof Allahentailsa separationfrom
the worldof women.The highlyreflective narratorof Maps, just priorto his
graphically describedcircumcision, muses,"TheWord,I said to myself, was not
a womb"(86). So one mustleave nurturein orderto enterlanguage.Askarpro-
vides a rationalewhenhe remindshimself,"Misrabelongedto my 'non-liter-
ate' past-by whichI mean thatshe belongedto a past in whichI spoke,but
did not writeor read, in Somali" (164).18
To enterliteracyis a proclamation
of a new kindof power,one thatdiffers
fromtheimmensepowerof theoral tradition to whichhe belongs,and Askar,
whose name means "bearerof arms," has no doubt of the power of writing:"...
everyletterbecamea sword-by pronouncing it,I sharpenedit;by drawingit,I
gave it a lifeof itsown; all I had to do was to say 'Cut' and it would cuttheen-
emy's head" The
(168).19 text spans theeighteenor so yearsof his life'sexpe-
16 Fernandez Retamar,in his essay "Caliban Revisited," is also concerned about this term: "If there is one thingthat troubles
me now about the term "Third World," it is the degradation that it perhaps involuntarilypresupposes. There is just one
world in which the oppressors and the oppressed struggle,one world in which, rathersooner than later,the oppressed
will be victorious." (55)
17 Kelly sees Farah's portrayal of Misra as disappointing, because his ambiguous treatment "implies that women's
victimization is inevitable, and that women may even bring this on themselves by their own inherent'flaws'" (31); she
suggests it is a "classic case of unresolved Oedipal conflict,[where] the boy child wants to separate himself from the
mother,but he cannot accept her separation fromhim" and where eventually he "compromises the female 'in' him ... for
male privilege and emotional remoteness,just as he compromises the warrior in him forthe safetyof abstractionsand an
academic life" (31-33).
18 It is clear enough, I think,that a Lacanian reading of Maps could prove fruitful.Along with the issues of self and other,
there are several critical referencesto mirrorsand mirroring,and Askar's acquisition of the Word initiateshim into the
"symbolic order"-after his circumcision.One could also speculate ifAskar emerges fromthe "mirrorstage."
19 And in factthis connectionof the power of language to that of the sword is more than metaphoric,because it was actually
enacted in Somalia's quite recenthistory.Poetry's forceis so formidablethat it enabled one of the nation's most acclaimed
warriors,Sayyid Mahammad 'Abdille Hasan (known to his enemies as the Mad Mullah), to use it for political purposes
and effectivelydefy the Ethiopian, Italian and British"infidels" in the holy war he led against them between 1900-1920.

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 FRANCESCAKAZAN I THE OTHERTHIRDWORLD 261

rience.It beginswithhimrecreatinghis originsand attempting to "conjurethe

past" (3); it ends withhimnaminghimself to thepolice. He repeatsthestory
until"timegrewon [his] face,as he told thestoryyetagain,timegrewlike a
tree ..." until finally,"allowing forhis differentpersonae to act as judge, as au-
dienceand as witness,Askartoldit to himself"(246).He leaves oralityand en-
tersliteracy;he leaves the mother/land and entersthe largerworld.But the
procedure of endless and
telling re-telling froma varietyofperspectives draws
on Somalia's oral tradition,thusyokingit to the literacyhe now so eagerly
embraces.
The storyhe tells is the storyof maps and borders,of politicalaffiliation
and nationalidentity.The storythatconnectsall these stories,however,is
thatof Misra.Perhapsa clue to theneed forherviolenteradicationlies in the
epigraphfromTahar ben Jelloun'sThe Sand Child,itselfa tale of mis-sited
genderand theretrieval oforigins:"Yourstory, becauseitis nota translation of
I and
reality,interestsme. takeit as it is, artificial painful"(135).20
It does notattemptto representreality,therefore it is interesting.It is arti-
ficial;it is pained. Clearly,thetale ofa boy who menstruates and remembers
his own birthis nota "translation ofreality"--in otherwordsit does notfollow
literaryconventionsof realism.(Neither,forthatmatter,does it fallintothe
categoryof "magicalrealism.")But the connectionof thatwhichis artificial
and painfulis also of interest.It is artificialin the sense thatit is artful,in
thatit createsan artifactfrompain. AskarmustpainfullyeradicateMisra in
orderto situateherand himself, in orderto tellherstoryas well as his own,in
orderto attempt thestoryoftheother, in orderto determine ifthereis,or can be,
separation.21

or,"Do theDead Dream?"

II. The ArchivesofMemory,

At thebeginningofTheArtofMemory FrancesYatesrepeatsa storyfromCicero

wherethe poet Simonidesescapes death when the roofof a banquetinghall
fallsin. The corpsesare so mangledthattherelativescannotdistinguish them,
butSimonides,said tobe theinventor oftheclassicalartofmemory, remembers
theseatingarrangement Simonides,we
and so is able to makean identification.
mightsay,spoke for the dead. I repeat thisstorybecause it quite wonderfully
demonstrateshow memoryand language cooperateto invokethatwhichis
past,and thuscompensateforitsloss (2).

See Samatar (1982) fora fineanalysis of the power of the Sayyid's poetryand oratoryin political resistancein Somalia. He
writes that his power was such that he "was thought to 'inflictwounds' on his enemies, and indeed those who were
attackedby his literarybarbs oftenresponded as iftheyhad received physicalwounds." (1)
20 It is the story of a man with seven daughters who desperately wants a son; when the eighth daughter is born he
announces the birthof a son and raises the child as male.

21 African writers have long criticized Western readers for their tendency to universalize, to ascribe their own values to
other cultures. Perhaps the real problematicissue, then, lies with the criticalenterpriseitself,with the (Western?) critics'
disinclinationto accept ambiguous characterswho disappoint them, ideologically speaking. The argumentthat the double
death of the m/othersis unwarrantedcarries with it the implicationthatAfricanwritersshould assume the unreasonable
burden of creatingcharacterswho are without contradictionin order to serve a specific political agenda, one that fulfills
"firstworld" criticalexpections of what mightbe considered ideologically "acceptable." Bishop provides a useful broad
overview (1947-1966)of the early criticalreceptionto Africanliterature.

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262 NOVEL I SPRING1993

And it is memory'stransmutative drive whichimpelsMaps. Misra is the

ghost who passes through, who is invoked throughthevicissitudesof Askar's
memory as he attempts to retrieve and situateher: "So, he asked, who was
Misra?A woman,or morethanjusta woman?Did she existas I remember her?
Or have I rolled her into a greatmanyotherpersons,spun fromthe thread
leadingbackto myownbeginnings, incorporatingwiththosetakingone backto
otherbeginnings, otherlives?"(243).
Shortlyafterreflecting on thisquestionof Misra's past identity-"So,he
asked, who was Misra?"-Askar returnsto the presentand asks, "Who is
Askar?"(245) Thesetwoquestionsmustbe posed together in orderforanyan-
swerto be attempted. At thispointwe learnMisra'sfuneralhas takenplace. If
questionsof theotherhave preoccupied,even obsessed,Askarall along,then
now he is facedwiththeultimateother-intheformofdeath.
The textis drawingto itsclose:thepointat whichhe recitesthestoryofbe-
trayaland politicalintrigue, bothto thepolicecourtand to his variousreflect-
ing selves.And it is at thispointthatI wantto draw attention to Misra'sstory,
thestoryofherown self,thestorythatrevolvesnotroundAskar,butoccursbe-
forehe is born,and thenafterhe leaves theOgaden to live withhis uncleand
auntin Somalia.Bothstoriesare in some senseelided,are almostparenthetical
to theelegaicenterprise ofMaps.
Misra'schildhoodbeginningsare briefly recountedto Askarin PartOne of
thetripartite structure of Maps (anotherexample,perhaps,of Farah's operat-
ing withinthreeworlds). Part One opens witha tantalizingepigraphfrom
Dickens:"No childrenforme.Givemegrown-ups." We aredulywarned.
Fromthesecurity oftheirbed and "cuddledup in eachother'sembrace... she
spoketoyouofa raid,so farundocumented in historybooks."(68) Butthisis no
bedtimestory,because Misra is the offspring of a damoz union betweenan
Oromo woman and a marriedAmharanobleman-a temporary unionwhich
comes about as the resultof the man's legal wives failingto produce sons.
Misra'sgender,ofcourse,providesno solution,so sheand hermotherareaban-
doned. Misrais kidnapped,and eventuallyis takenin by a wealthyman who
bringsherup as his daughter,but "withan eye to takingheras his wifewhen
she grewup." She is forcedintocomplying, but "In theend,theconflicting loy-
altiesalienatedher,primarily fromherself.And she murderedhimduringan
excessiveorgyofcopulation"(69). Finally,she tellsAskarof two miscarriages,
and ofcarrying a dead childwithinher,onlyto be replacedby the"livingmir-
acle" of his own self,whomshe findsabandoned.(The tellingof thishistory
takesabout a page of theoverallnarrative.)
The secondpartofMisra'sstory,thatwhichoccursafterAskarleaves,is the
storyof possible politicaltreachery, and whethertrueor not,it apparently
leads to her brutal murder.She is accused of betrayinga Somali freedomfight-
ers' camp in which 603 men lost theirlives; part of the impetus forthe commu-
nity's accusation comes fromher living with a young Ethiopian soldier-that,
and her own status as foreigner,makes her suspect. But this storyand the first
are linked further.It transpiresthat the young Ethiopian soldier is, in fact,her

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 FRANCESCAKAZAN I THE OTHERTHIRDWORLD 263

halfbrother.The Amharanoblemanfinallyfoundsuccess in anotherdamoz

union,whichborea son.
So murder,betrayaland incestcombinein two tales.Thistriadis difficult to
situatewithinMaps, partlybecause of the melodramaof coincidence,partly
because of thedescriptiveelements-murder afteran "orgyof copulation"ad-
mittedlydoes not sit easy. It seems over-written. to situate
But it is difficult
mostly,I think,because the hastyrenditioninterrupts theprimarynarrative,
thenarrativeof Askar,in a way thatjars.And perhapsthisis thepoint.
I said earlierthatboth storiesare somehowelided,are almostparentheti-
cal to theelegaicenterpiseof Maps. The subjectof theelegyis thelostobject.
Or, is it reallythesurvivingsubject?22 Becauseifthisis so, thestoryoftheother
is perhaps incidentalto the storyof the self,particularlywhen thatself is
young and strivingto findits own identity-a factthatis made even more
complexbecauseAskaris clearlyuncertain whereselfand otherdivide.So that
whichseems overwritten (bothin termsof styleand event)is also, paradoxi-
cally,underwritten, minimized.
A readingofMaps inevitablyproducesmorequestionsthananswers:ques-
tionsof originand memory,identityand violence.Whilewe are leftin doubt
about manyissues(something Farahwould approveof,givenhis openingepi-
graphfromSocrates:"Livingbeginswhenyou startdoubtingeverything that
camebeforeyou"),I wantto suggestthatinMapssomething likea post-colonial
interrogation is initiated,a practiceakin to what Edward Said has called, in
thespecificcontextof theexile,theaim forthatwriter's"scrupuloussubjectiv-
ity."He refers,I think,to theneed forexiled writersto cultivatea subjective
and rigorousquestioningin responseto thepresent,to "regardexperiences as if
theywereaboutto disappear"("Reflections," 54-55).But this"scrupuloussub-
jectivity" is pushed further in Maps: thepost-colonialinterrogation further ex-
tendsthis"subjectivity" to includean emphaticretrievaland re-negotiation of
theactualsubject, a subjectwho refusesobjectification and allocated"othering,"
and instead scrupulouslyseeks the otherwithinthe self.In a recentarticle
Farah writes:"Colonial childhoodsuch as mine is discontinuous:the child
growsup neitheras a replicaof his parents,norof thecolonialruler....It was
withthis in mind thatI began writing-inthe hope of enablingthe Somali
childat least to characterize his otherness-andto pointat himselfas theun-
named,the divided other,a schizophrenic child livingin the age of colonial
contradiction." ("Childhood")
This agenda is given furtheremphasis with Farah's displacementof a
pronominalhierarchy;the "threeworlds" of his divided self emergeas the
"you,""he" and "I" of thenarratorallow forthediffering perspectivesto en-
gage. This interrogation relieson memory'sarchiveseven as it acknowledges
possible inaccuracies: "I'll admit," says Askar, "that many thingsare confused
in my memory. My head, I feel sometimes,will explode with the intensityof
the anecdotes I remember-events which in all likelihood didn't take place,
not, at any rate,as I rememberthem" (40). By creatinga protagonistwho con-
stantlyengages self with self in an endless retelling,Farah reminds us again

I am indebted
heretoPeterM.Sacks'studyon theEnglishelegy.

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264 NOVEL I SPRING1993

thatwhile Askar readilyembracesliteracyhe is also the productof an oral

culturewhichvalues thegiftsof speechand memoryabove all, even when,as
in this case, the educated youngnarratoracknowledgeshis own weakness,
caughtas he is at a transitionalpointin theculture.23
The postcolonialwriteris "the divided other,"writesFarah;it is not sur-
prisingthatsuchdivisionbringsviolenceto theheartof thisnarrativeof iden-
tity.The violence thatallows the narratorto say, "Whatmattered,he told
himself, was thatnow he was at lasta man,thathe was totallydetachedfrom
his mother-figure Misra,and weaned.In theprocessoflookingfora substitute,
he had foundanother-Somalia,his mothercountry"(96). It is the violence
thatcompelsFarah to eradicatethatwhichhis narratormostdepends on-
Misra,who loses firstherbreast,thenherheart.
Finallythough,forall Askar'sambivalencetowardshis adoptivemother,
forall his efforts
to sitehimselfin his motherland, we mustremember thatthe
projestof Maps is to recallMisra,to recalltheotherThirdWorld theyinhab-
itedso intimately-torecallbothin thesenseofremembering, and in thesense
of renaming. Justpriorto his hearingof herdeathMisraappearsto Askarin a
dreamand says,"All thatone hopes to remainofone is a memorydwellingin
someone'shead. In whose will I reside?"(237) It is a poignantstatement, the
foreshadowing of a demise;it asks to linger.24This takesme to my opening
epigraphwhereWalterBenjaminstatesthat"a remembered eventis infinite,
because it is only a key to everything thathappenedbeforeit and afterit"
(202).Thisconfiguration ofmemory andboundlessness comesfromBenjamin's es-
say on Proust,wherehe lovinglyacknowledgesthehauntingpowerof remem-
brance-Proustis also hopingto reconstruct his origins,his privateversionof
themother/land, butis exiledonlywithincorkedwalls. I turnto Benjaminbe-
cause his words acknowledgethe liminalspace whichmemoryinhabits;its
poweris infinite, withoutboundary, becauseevenas itprovidesthekeytoexpe-
rience(and Benjaminsays in thefirsthalfof thesentencethat"an experienced
event is finite"),it cannotbe contained:it is poised foreverat a temporal
threshold connecting pastand future,movingfreely fromone to theother.Once
again, boundaries are blurred.
The secondpartof thissection'stitleis "Do thedead dream?"Thesewords
occurjustafterMisraappearsto Askarin thedreamwhichexpresses"all that
one hopestoremainofone is a memory dwellingin someone'shead."(237-38)Of
course,"dwelling"hereis used initsverbform, butwe cantransposeitfora mo-
mentintoa nounso thatwe have a memoryhouse,a homeforrecollection, an
archivalrepository. And justa page furtherin Benjamin'shomageto Prousthe
describeshow "fromthehoneycombs ofmemory he builta housefortheswarm

In fact Somali respect for memoryand oration is so strongthat the pastoralist ridicules the urbanized fordependence on
writing. Said Samatar cites a traditionalstorytelleron the subject: "When such people are called upon to give a public
speech, they resortto their writtensymbols. Withoutthese they can hardly open theirmouths. To registerour contempt
forsuch a person, we say: 'He who looks at a paper neverbecomes a memorizer'" (33).
24 Misra is just one representativeof the dead in this text,and while she is clearly the most significantto Askar, there are
many "unburied corpses" (122) whose stories remain untold. Misra's invocation throughMaps simply suggests Farah's
larger agenda of giving Somalis a voice and a homeland, a place where the living (and the dead) can be heard. It also,
importantly,demonstratesthat the novel, while not Somalia's traditionalnor privileged literaryform,performsthe act of
memorizing so crucial to that culture.

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 FRANCESCAKAZAN I THE OTHERTHIRDWORLD 265

of his thoughts" (203). The power of this statementlies, I think,in its evoca-
tion of the sweetness of the enterprise,an enterprisewhich culminates in what
we can thinkof as a poetics of loss, but which may answer the question, "Do the
dead dream?" The answer is yes: theydream to be spoken for.

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