Yasmeen Maxamuud lives in San Diego, but she set her debut novel in Minneapolis because "when I visit, it feels like home," she said.
Maxamuud, who grew up in northern Somalia, has written "Nomad Diaries," what may be the first attempt by a Somali woman to tell the story of her people in America through fiction. She is one of a growing number of native-African women fiction writers who are chronicling their culture's history in English, whether it be homeland unrest or battling culture shock in a new world.
Maxamuud, 36, first visited Minneapolis in 2002, when she came to stay with friends and saw familiarity everywhere, from the names of Somali-owned stores to passersby on the sidewalks. She conducted focus groups of local Somalis as part of her pre-book research, and based central character Nadifo on the strong mothers she met.
"San Diego has a sizable Somali population, too, but Minnesota Somalis are unique," she said. "It has to do with the environment, which is very welcoming to newcomers, an amazing opportunity for people who just came from war. They seem to thrive here better than anywhere else in America."
The self-published novel interweaves the lives of several people, many of them from one family, from the horrors of war to emigration to efforts to reshape lives in a strange land:
• Middle-aged Cartan was once an important foreign minister. Now he feels lost and powerless in a new world where he can find only low-level employment.
• Teenaged Henna is gang-raped in Somalia, then shamed by her family for the resulting pregnancy. When they move to the United States, she defies them by wearing revealing clothes and going out with men from other cultures.
• Nadifo and her favorite son, Haybe, are at odds because they have experienced America completely differently: She wants him to be grateful to "nice white people," mind his business and get a good education, while he is tired of unjustified traffic stops and being followed around department stores.
