Nation and Narrative: A Study of Nuruddin Farah’s Maps

The article entitled "Nation and Narrative: A Study of Nuruddin Farah's Maps" attempts a postcolonial reading of the text trying to froground the assertion of a national self. The manner in which literature offers itself as a powerful platform to assert national identity and the novel adroitly doing the same would serve as the main thrust areas. Elaborate study on the concept of nation as expounded by critics like Homi Bhaba , Benedict Anderson and the like would serve as the background of the analysis. The notion of national identity and the construction of an image of Somalia as attempted by the author stand as testimony to the same. The author trying to reiterate his lost national self and how he skillfully uses literature as its medium, as part of the postcolonial agenda, is the focus point of the article.

www.ijellh.com e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 127 nation is "not simply an allegory or imaginative vision, but a gestative political structure which the third world artist is consciously building or suffering the lack of" (Bhabha,46). She further says that nation is both historically determined as well as general. It has a dual reference. One is the modern nation state and the other is the ancient 'natio'a local community, domicile, family, condition of belonging (Bhabha,45).
The origin of nation can be traced back to the western imperialist and capitalist tendencies. Benedict Anderson and Ernst Gellner trace the origin of nation in the transformation from an agricultural age to an industrial age. The pre-industrial society had internal cultural variations. This led to professional statuses which were essentially static, following mostly the line of inheritance. And it equally affected the realm of economics as well. All these underwent sea changes in the industrial society where the economic status made a rapid progression owing to the technological advancement. This made the social organization more complex. There arose the need for a homogenous structure with the backup of an educational system and where state is of prime importance.
Thus the idea of nationalism evolved, where every state connected to a homogenous nation. This is how Gellner traces the roots of nation to industrialism.
Similarly, Hegel sees nation as a journey of progress from "the darkness of nature into the light of history" (Gandhi 105). He also sees nation as an adequately suiting structure for the modern world. Timothy Brennan has precisely pointed out that the nation denotes not only the contemporary concept of nation-state in the recent time, but also it indicates to the ancient concept of "nation" or a local community. Hence, the concept of nation is that of "nations of collectivity and belonging, a mutual sense of community that a group of individuals imagines it shares" (McLeod 69). According to the critic Ernest Renan in his essay "What is a Nation?", "the modern nation… is a historical result brought about by a series of convergent factors.
Sometimes unity has been effected by a dynasty…;sometimes it has been brought about by the direct will of provinces…;sometimes it has been the work of a general will of consciousness…" (Bhabha 12). He further adds that for some political theorists nation is nothing more than a dynasty which reminds one of an earlier conquest, established wars or marriages or treatise and then destined to be forgotten soon by the masses. He goes on to make a differentiation between community and nation. When a community is based upon on some kind of trade agreements and purely for commercial needs, nation has a sense of sentimentality attached to it by its people.
What is of prime significance in any consideration of nation is its people. It is a "spiritual principle" and two things constitute its formation, that is, it's past and present. It's past, that is to say, the rich storehouse of legacies and memories and its present that is the desire to live together. (Bhabha19).
This article tries to analyse what images of his respective nation is constructed by the third world writer Nurudhin Farah who have received foreign education and how he presents his nation before the world to see. Such an analysis would definitely have post -colonial undertones, since the country which this novel represent was once a strict colony.
Nationalism is a topic of great applicability in contemporary theory. The concept of nation is largely a constructed entity. It is not something that had a concrete existence since the beginning of times. According to Homi K Bhabha in his seminal work Nation and Narration, "nations, like narratives, lose their origins in the myths of time and fully realize their horizons in the mind's eye (Bhabha,1). Nation, nationalism and national identities are concepts not having fixed meanings. Among the many factors contributing for this flux include politics, religion and language. In the past two decades, the idea of the nation as a text to be narrated has gained prominence.
"Much the most important thing for language is its capacity for generating imagined communities…" says Benedict Anderson in his Imagined Communities (Anderson,136). He defines nation as: …an imagined political communityand imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign. It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will ever know most of their fellow members, meet them or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion….Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity or genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined ( Anderson 6).
It was the novel that historically accompanied the rise of nations by objectifying the 'one, yet many' of national life and by mimicking the structure of the nation, a clearly bordered jumble of languages and styles. Secondly, the novel joined the newspaper as the major vehicle of the national print media, helping to standardize language, encourage literacy and remove mutual incomprehensibility. But it did much more than that. Its manner of presentation allowed people to image the special community that was the nation (Bhabha).
Anderson argues that nation emerged in an era when the forces of enlightenment and revolution were destroying the established dynastic realm. Such new intellectual thoughts sought to terminate the religious affirmation that the king is divinely ordained, which until www.ijellh.com e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 130 then the people blindly believed. Also, coming with the idea of nation is a sense of ownership, belonging and unitary ties. He also adds that nation is limited and is marked by borders outside which lie another nation and its territory. These divisions were inflicted upon the world as a result of imperialism or the domination of the first world over the third world.
This mapping of nations aided the British colonial administration. But it had its repercussions on the people, leaving them homeless. That which was seen as 'cartographic aggressions' were largely ignored by the colonisers. These mapping structures were largely modelled and remodelled as per the wishes of the westerners and were considered as an essential weapon of imperialism.
According to Timothy Brennan, imaginative literature is as much useful in studying nations as is disciplines like history and sociology: The rise of the modern nation state in Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries is inseparable from the forms and subjects of According to Homi K Bhabha, it is through language that nation emerged as a powerful historical idea in the west. He further adds that a study of nation not only requires a study of merely language and rhetoric alone but also an exploration of the complexities of meanings and symbols associated with national life. This would include an ambivalence narration, with culture at its core: It is the project of Nation and Narration to explore the Janus-faced ambivalence of language itself in the construction of the Janus-faced discourse of the nation. This turns the familiar two-faced god into a figure of prodigious doubling that investigates the nation-space in the process of the articulation of elements: where meanings may be partial because they are in medias res; and history may be half-made because is in the process of being made; and the image of cultural authority may be ambivalent because it is caught, uncertainly, in the act of 'composing' its powerful image. (Bhabha 3) Bhabha here associates the narrative of the nation to the Greek God Janus, the God of beginnings and endings, transitions and doorways. This is two faced God rightly captures the ambivalence that is the very hallmark of a nation narrative. The nation narrative is ambivalent as it begins in medias res or the middle of things since the origin of nation is not yet fully known, despite the many theories that have come up. History of a nation is never complete. As history is being written, new history is always being made. And the prime concern of a national narrative is to project the image of its nation as a powerful one, with necessary distortions and additions.
According to the critic Meenakshi Mukherjee, any kind of community, whether it is a tribe or a village etc have to be first imagined, before it can be conceived as real. She attributes to narrative fiction as having the quality of imagining this kind of a community formation in addition to the epic and the oral tale. She traces a "symbiotic relationship" between stories and communities (Mukherjee 138).
Narrative fiction tried to evoke a glorious pre-colonial past and thereby to crystallise a sense of nationhood.
This kind of reconstructing a lost nation-self was not only a monopoly of Third World writers. There are significant contributions made by Western writers as well. Rudyard Kipling and Jane Austen are important writers in this regard.
With regard to the novel, Maps, this theory becomes apt. The image of the respective nation that the novel offers is powerful yet ambivalent. And much has happened to the nation after this works has been written, adding testimony to the fact that history is never fully written. Both Bhabha and Anderson stress on the imaginative aspect of any nation theory. And therefore, fiction offers itself to be the perfect platform for expostulations of any kind on nation. Indeed it can be argued in the light of the novel that the nation is essentially a projected image, with language aiding this projection. novels have been a set in Somalia, to which he refers to as "the country of his "imagination"" (Moolla, 2).
As a novelist, he was bent upon writing trilogies, which he thought would help to develop his ideas structurally. His first major trilogy is titled, "Variations on the theme of an African Dicatorship", which include novels like Sweet and Sour Milk (1979), Sardines (1995), and Close Sesame (1983). The novels Gifts, Maps and Secrets are include in the trilogy "Blood in the Sun" (1986). The third trilogy is titled "Past Imperfect" (2007) and it includes the novels Knots, Links and Crossbones. The major thematic concerns of his novels concerns political and social issues like feminism, colonization, nationalism, post-colonial dictatorship as well as civil war.
The question of "who am I?" grapples his characters and they are found to be seeking answers to the very same. The novel Maps included in the "Blood in the Sun" trilogy was first published in Britain and the United States in 1986. It has as its political background the 1977 war between Somalia and Ethiopia over Ogaden. Dual bonds, one that between a mother to son, and the other between the son to his mother country, forms the major thematic structure of this novel. The major part of the plot proceeds mainly through the fragmented reminiscences of Askar, the protagonist, about his own childhood.
Askar is a Somali orphan, his father having died in the Somali war and his mother in childbirth. He is taken care of by Misra, a woman from the village to which he is born. He develops a strong bond with his foster-mother, a bond so deep and intense that he considers his own body as an extension of Misra's, a third leg . And Misra's own treatment of Askar is explained thus in a striking third person narrative: …you tasted in Misra a motherliness which reabsorbed you, a motherliness in whose tight, warm embrace you felt joyous one second, miserable the following instant…. She helped you minimize life's discomforts…by telling you sweet stories, addressing you, although you were a tiny little mess of a thing, as "my man", "my darlingest man", or some such endearments which would make you feel wanted, loved and pampered. (Farah,5) Farah, like his protagonist Askar, was born in the Somali-speaking region of father left off or to join the university and become a teacher. "So would he take the gun? Or would he resort to, and invest his powers in the pen?" (Farah,57). The choice is made even more troublesome when Misra appears there with the desire to see him. Misra, meanwhile was convicted of having betrayed a resistance cell to the Ethiopians by having fallen in love with an Ethiopian officer. We find him struggling between his divided loyalties towards his mother and mother-country. Later, we find Misra killed by the very organization she thought to have betrayed. And Askar is found living a life of guilt, for he served neither his mother nor his nation.
Ogaden, the place of action of the novel, is also known as the 'horn of Africa'.
The place shares its borders with Somalia and Ethiopia. And the cause of the Ogaden war, which forms the backdrop of the novel, is that, when the Westerners drew up the map of Africa, the Somalia speaking region of Ogaden was made a part of Ethiopia.
The two countries are trying to establish their claims over this portion of land through

war. Nuruddin Farah himself was a witness to the atrocities of this war. And Askar in
Maps becomes the spokesperson of the same.
As Askar grows up the realization of having an Ethiopian mother dawns upon him. This is the very first suggestion that the writer makes in relation to the view that his protagonist and his nation cannot be separated. On reaching at Mogadscio, Askar is taught to live independently by Aunt Salaado, unlike Misra who pampered him to a degree that nullified his individuality. "…I took hold of a different "self", one that had no room and no space for Misra…." (Farah 96).The suggestion here could be the kind of independence that is awaiting Somalia once separated from the tiring hold of Somalia. The nation would seek its fullness only once gained complete independence.
Thus once again an indirect connection is established between the nation and Askar.
Just like Askar is searching for his own identity, Somalia too is searching for its identity, which is now split, since a major part of it is in the hands of a different nation. The spirit of unity would be alien to them as long as their homeland is regained back to its normal. Askar recounts, "Like a bewildered African nation posing questions to its inefficient leadership, I kept asking, "Where are we going? Where are you taking me to?"" (Farah 84 Misra's own leaning towards her Ethiopian nationality surfaces itself when she is alone with a child not old enough to understand the same: "It is in your element to be mean," she would accuse me. "Why, you know I am a foreigner here and that if you fall ill, your people will say it is because I haven't taken good care of your food. You also know that, when you do well, the credit is not mine but your people's, that is your [Somali nation] whose identity I donot share. Why must you make my life a misery?". (Farah 42) Despite these indirect nation associations, there are many overt explications of the culture and manners of Somalia. This has been employed by the novelist as part of his recounting of the relationship between Misra and Askar. For Misra, the core structure of Somali society was incestuous. The novel makes explicit descriptions of these incestuous relationships like that between Aw-Adan and Misra. Such a practice is neither considered a sin nor immoral in the Somalian society as it can be conceived from the novel.
Another instance is Askar's reminiscences wherein he says that it was not supposed to talk about death in the households. Only life was to be discussed. "There were epidemics, there was a drought, causing things to decay and metal to rust-and we weren't allowed to talk about death" (Farah 31). Such crude customs of the Somali society are laid bare before the readers by the novelist without any sort of prejudices. Another similar case is the treatment given to Misra by a woman called Karin when she becomes pregnant with a child. The child is obviously illicit as Misra is not married.
…the women made Misra lie on her back and they trampled all over her body. And if that was not enough they made her sit up and be fumigated with cardamom and then improvised for her a suppository of cinnamon with myrrh. After which, they made her take concoctions….And as if this wasn't sufficient, one of the women inserted a metallic rode into her insides and Misra made a most frightening noise. (Farah 53) The nation is often now and then associated with a mother figure. Somalia is the mother here who is now searching for her lost child that is Ogaden. As a child, Askar is a precocious child who keeps on nagging Misra with his unending doubts.
One question which he asks Misra corresponds to this dimension of the nation as a mother. He asks 'why certain countries are referred as mother lands and others as father lands. Motherland is used by 'people of the heart' and other by 'people of the head', as per Misra's observations. So, Somalia is here revealed as essentially the nation of a people of the heart. However, it is important to note that Misra's notions of Somalia are always biased by her own Ethiopian identity. So, by people of the head she would be definitely referring to Ethiopians. Her further explanations for the very same question stand as a testimony to this: …Somalia is seen by her poets as a womanone who has made it her habit to betray her man…. the poet sees Somalia as a beautiful woman dressed in silk, perfume with the most exotic scents, and this woman accepts all the advances made by the other men-to be precise, the five men who propose to her. She goes sleep with them, bears each a child named after its progenitor and has a number of miscarriages. (Farah 102) Immediately after saying this Misra was apologetic. Farah here tries to make Misra a representative of the Ethiopian notions of Somalia. She further says in a tone of alienation and indifference that the Somalians love talking about their country in their poetry. The nation is spoken of as a 'camel', 'an animal seen as the mother of men'. The novelist cuts off any further explanation on this. The suggestion could be the misdirected notion of Misra, and by large Ethiopia as a whole on Somalia and Somalians.
The treatment of women is not only highly primitive but also heavily patriarchal. Although Somalians are a race of people civilized enough to understand the injustice done to them by the Westerners, the role of femininity is more or less passive. It is mentioned that men marry in haste and go to the warfront leaving their wives behind. As for Askar, "women were victims in all the stories he could think of" (Farah 54). He is told by his class mate that if a woman is not a mother or sister or wife then definitely she is a whore. There are constant references made to menstruation, which explicitly stands for the 'otherness' in the state of women.

Misra,
Askar reveals, suffers excruciating pain at that time of the month, when she becomes bad tempered and "ugly." Menstruation is thus a metaphor for destructive femininity, frustrated motherhood, and Misra's warped, sacrificial devotion to Askar rather than to a husband or child of her own. Interestingly, Askar constantly tries to forge his identity in the novel. He can either integrate himself into a unified Somalia or fulfil his own dreams and that of his nation, or he can accept the disputed, divided nation which resonates his own fragmented self.
For him, he cannot define himself except in relation to his nation. He tries to figure out the history of Somali-Ethiopian conflict and henceforth himself and his own identity.
Askar thus turns into a historian. The nation he is studying is Somalia. This study reflects the historians own desire to define himself. The reader too starts to believe the version of history as interpreted by Askar. His metaphorical role as a historian is granted and accepted. The materials available to him are rather shattered as there are significant lapses in his memory. But this is of no much relevance to him.
He is still actively engaged in fulfilling with zest the historian in him.
There are constant references to gardens in the novel which resonate Askar's dream of a unified Somali society. The Somalia of his mind is a well-organized garden. In one of the gardens which appear before Askar he is informed of his travel to Mogadiscio. Misra foresees "a future of blood, of death, and disasters" for Somalia (Farah 115). This garden is devoid of any greenery and is marked by rotten fruits.
This could be a reference to the tumultuous history of Somalia. "The sterile garden captures the trauma of a self, wedged between the chaos of history and the desire of the mind for a solid structure. In other words, although Somalia is disorganized, Askar imaginatively creates the garden as he wants Somalia to be (Smart 13) But the garden is significant in another regard as well. It reveals the inefficacy of Askar's dreams of a unified nation. It is as fantastical as the gardens he dreams of.
According to Farah, Somali's national character lies in its plurality and diversity. He concedes to the view that Somalia is the only nation in Africa which qualifies itself to be called as a nation. He develops the inherent plurality of the Somali nation by elaborating on the relationship between the native Askar and the foreigner Misra.
Such a cultural diversity is very much part of the Somali society. Thus, Maps is not simply the tale of a mother son bond but that of a whole nation.
The novel is striking in its excellent portrayal of a mother son tie, which is not simply emotional but rather physical. But as its undercurrent the novel amazingly marks out a strong view of the nation of Somalia. Along with the identity seeking of Askar, Farah has interwoven the plight of a nation seeking its war torn identity.
Indeed, the identity of the nation in terms of its culture and manners is revealed in and through the story of the protagonist. The protagonist and the nation as a whole do not have separate lives of their own. They are interwoven and inter-dependent.
The novel has excellently conveyed a sense of the Somalia. It can be cited as a brilliant example for the attempt of the third world writers to recapture what was lost to them as a nation in the colonizing period. The complete distortion of the native cultures that happened with the intrusion of the foreign force has left behind an opinion of these nations as crude and underdeveloped.
Somalia was once a strict colony. The novelist has succeeded in giving a true picture of these in his novel, trying to portray it as that which constitutes their nation and forms an integral part of it. An added fact is that there are no distortions or modifications done to the same. The superstitious religious practices, the inferior In Maps, the maps presented to Askar by uncle Hilaal, occupy a distinct and significant place. While the war was going on between Somalia and Ethiopia, Askar used the atlases given by his uncle to see the towns and to calculate how long it would take the Somali army to capture a given town. In the novel, Askar tries to re-examine the maps as a boundary marker. He believes that a map is always a tool of domination, employed by the colonisers to confine the natives within boundaries. It's a matter of great concern that whether the maps drawn are true.
The next point of consideration is religion. In Maps, religion is not necessarily passive. But they form a part of the everyday life of the individual characters. There are constant references made to the reading of Quran, which reiterates a kind of religious identity. Almost every character whom we meet is rooted in their Islamic culture, even in their names.
It can be argued that the novel Maps has given a real and faithful picture of its respective nation, which has an added role rather than being a mere setting. And thus it has contributed to the third world agenda to revisit their once lost and distorted nation and national identity.