Fellow Sonoma County author Shugri Said Salh's raw and unforgettable memoir The Last Nomad sat on my bedside table for a couple of months waiting for its turn in a rather large pile of must-read books. I met Shugri at VIBE Gallery in downtown Petaluma where we both have our books. Lots of friends in town know her through kids and school and sports but we hadn't crossed paths prior to this year. By the time I picked up her book, I couldn't put it down.
It's extremely humbling to process all that has happened to this modern mother of three. I have nothing but respect for her rich and compelling storytelling and sheer humor and spirit that jumps from the page. It also makes sense to learn from her acknowledgements that she had a staunch local writing partner to work with at this stage of such an extraordinary personal journey — Sonoma County teacher Gayla Overmeer. I'm amazed at how much detail is captured and the sharing of such vivid, personal and often times unimaginably painful memories must have been made much more bearable by having Gayla's support in the pouring over of word-by-word.
It's an important book to read right now as we consider the cost of war on families, communities and entire cultures that are forced into the perilous human migration trail. That Shugri found her way ultimately to Sonoma County, forged ahead with a career as a nurse and has raised a beautiful family of her own with her Ethiopian-American husband gives me hope for some of the hundreds of thousands of struggling souls who have had to flee their homelands.
Here's the publisher's blurb, which is an excellent recap of Shugri's incredible, detailed story of survival, determination, compassion — set against the most traumatic backdrop of human suffering and sheer individual will to survive and ultimately flourish.
A remarkable and inspiring true story that "stuns with raw beauty" about one woman's resilience, her courageous journey to America, and her family's lost way of life.
Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once-common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought, predators, and enemy clans, it also held beauty, innovation, centuries of tradition, and a way for a young Sufi girl to learn courage and independence from a fearless group of relatives.
Salh grew to love the freedom of roaming with her animals and the powerful feeling of community found in nomadic rituals and the oral storytelling of her ancestors.As she came of age, though, both she and her beloved Somalia were forced to confront change, violence, and instability.
Salh writes with engaging frankness and a fierce feminism of trying to break free of the patriarchal beliefs of her culture, of her forced female genital mutilation, of the loss of her mother, and of her growing need for independence. Taken from the desert by her strict father and then displaced along with millions of others by the Somali Civil War, Salh fled first to a refugee camp on the Kenyan border and ultimately to North America to learn yet another way of life.
Readers will fall in love with Salh on the page as she tells her inspiring story about leaving Africa, learning English, finding love, and embracing a new horizon for herself and her family. Honest and tender, The Last Nomad is a riveting coming-of-age story of resilience, survival, and the shifting definitions of home.
NPR did a great interview with Shugri when the book released in 2021. Click here to read.
Pick up a signed copy at VIBE Gallery, in downtown Petaluma at 1 Petaluma Blvd North, order directly from author Shugri Said Salh's links or online from my local author bookshelf at Bookshop.com.
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