A Tree for Poverty (1954): the first Somali poems and stories in English

What the book is

A Tree for Poverty: Somali Poetry and Prose is a collection of Somali gabay and other poems, with folk tales and a short historical background, translated into English (Goodreads; 49th Shelf). It was the first book by Margaret Laurence (1926 to 1987), who later became one of Canada's best-known novelists (Margaret Laurence, Wikipedia).

How it was made

Laurence went with her husband Jack, an engineer, to the British Somaliland Protectorate in 1950 (Canadian Writers Abroad; Penguin Random House Canada). She did not speak Somali. The linguist B. W. Andrzejewski, who had come to the Protectorate for language research, and his Somali colleague Musa Haji Ismail Galaal gave her literal translations, and Galaal discussed the finer meanings of words with them; Laurence then wrote her own English versions (Canadian Literature, UBC; Goodreads).

The book was printed in a small edition in 1954 (Goodreads), with Nairobi given as the place of publication in at least one citation (African Poems). Laurence later wrote a memoir of her years in the Protectorate, The Prophet's Camel Bell (1963) (Internet Archive).

How it was received and used

The book has been cited as the first collection of Somali literature in English translation, a decade before B. W. Andrzejewski and I. M. Lewis published Somali Poetry: An Introduction (1964) (Margaret Laurence, Wikipedia; Somali Poetry, Internet Archive). Literary scholars in Canada study it as the start of Laurence's writing about Africa (Canadian Literature, UBC). A facsimile edition with a new preface by Laurence appeared in 1970 (Canadian Writers Abroad), and it was reissued by ECW Press in Toronto in 1993 (Blackwell's).

Where to read it

• 1993 edition: Internet Archive
• In a library: WorldCat

Related pages

• Somali poetry
• Books about Somalis, 1884 to 1960
• Books about Somalis: every era