April 2020
23
ISSN 2278 0742
Nadifa Mohamed’s The Orchard of Lost Souls: Somalia from a Feminist Viewpoint James Joseph & Sr Celine E
Abstract:
A land once rich in resources is turned into a wasteland; people lived in peace and harmony fight for survival; men who supported the family are either taken to the police station or recruited to the police force or are involved in the rebel movement. Thus the responsibility of running the family rests in the hands of women. Somalia after the conflicts in the1980s has lost its rich culture. Now the nation struggles for survival. Nadifa Mohamed, a forced expeller from Somalia in her childhood, returns to Somalia in her imagination to see the land from the perspectives of three women characters of her novel The Orchard of Lost Souls. The presentation of war and the civil conflicts by male authors or even by some female authors may focus on the visible casualties of bloodshed, bombing and the destruction of the building, nature and other living organisms. The history of Somalia is seen from the point of view of three women. The struggles of the women in a war torn land is narrated in The Orchard of Lost Souls. This paper tries to see the narration of hardships of the women in the aftermath of civil war in Somalia by the Somalia-born Nadifa Mohamed.
Key words: Army, Civil War, Harlots, Refugee Camp
Nadifa Mohamed, in The Orchard of Lost Souls, gives emphasis to the experiences of women characters rather than those of men. In order to focus on the experiences of women, she has given expression to the lives of women rather than that of men; a very few male characters appear in the novel. The role of the male characters is limited to imparting pain and torture in the female characters. Instead of concentrating on the general catastrophe of a war torn land, the author narrates the normal lives of ordinary citizens; their struggles for meeting the daily needs are more emphasized. Nadifa Mohamed sees the land of Somalia after the war with its struggles for survival.
The narration concentrates on three women in three stages of life: a widow in her late 50s, a police officer in her 30s and an orphaned girl in her tender age of ten. All the three of them
Volume 9 Issue 1
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