Le pays sans ombre (1994) by Abdourahman Waberi: The Land Without Shadows

The book

Le pays sans ombre (French for "The Land Without Shadows") is a collection of stories by Abdourahman A. Waberi, a writer born in Djibouti who writes in French. It was published in Paris in 1994 by Le Serpent à Plumes in its Motifs series, with 177 pages (Talking About Books, 2023). An English translation by Jeanne Garane, with a foreword by Nuruddin Farah, was published by the University of Virginia Press in November 2005 in its CARAF series of Caribbean and African literature translated from French (University of Virginia Press).

The French word ombre means both "shade" and "shadow". Garane chose "shadow" because, she explained, it better conveys the lack of shelter from the sun and the struggle to exist in a dry land (Talking About Books).

What is in it

The book holds seventeen short stories in two parts, "Pages torn from the novel of the imagination" and "Pages torn from the land without shadows". They move between the precolonial and colonial past and the present after independence, and their characters include poets, colonists, refugees, nomads and people living in Balbala, the settlement on the edge of Djibouti city (University of Virginia Press). Djibouti and its Somali population are described on Djibouti.

Among the stories are (Talking About Books):

• "The Primal Ogress", a tale of origins that links the country's name to a defeated ogress
• "A Ferrous Tale", about the building of the 784-kilometre railway, written with repetition and rhythm that echo the train
• "A Woman and a Half", in which a young woman named Marwo flees a marriage her father has arranged with an old man and takes refuge with her uncle
• "The Seascape Painter and the Wind Drinker", about three unemployed friends living in their own world while war goes on around them
• "The Gallery of the Insane" and two other stories about people who chew khat, which, the reviewer notes, slows city life every afternoon

The use of khat is described on Khat.

Style and sources

Waberi draws on Somali and Djiboutian oral traditions, including legends, proverbs and poetry, and refers to writers from elsewhere such as Wole Soyinka, Léopold Sédar Senghor and Shakespeare (University of Virginia Press). Readers have described the result as a mix of oral tradition, irony and plain realism, and some have noted that the pieces read more like short sketches than conventional stories. One reviewer singled out the railway story as the most beautifully written and noted that Waberi is harsh in his portrait of khat users (Talking About Books).

Where to read it

The English translation is in print in paperback from the University of Virginia Press. Related reading on Somali poetry and oral literature is on Somali poetry.