Desert Flower: The Extraordinary Journey of a Desert Nomad

Dirie describes her nomadic childhood before the events of Chapter 1. Her family tasks her from age six with caring for the sheep and goats. She takes the animals from her family’s camp out into the desert, searching for grass and water, and returns home and builds a pen for them using saplings. One day, Dirie is devastated when her favorite goat, Billy, is taken by hyenas.

Usually, Dirie’s only sustenance is camel milk; milking the camels is the first task of her morning. The family drinks camel milk for breakfast and then milks the animals again for dinner. Occasionally, their meals are supplemented with rice, which Dirie’s father can sometimes afford to buy if they are near a village, dates from date palms, or roots foraged from the desert. Food is always communally shared among whichever families are traveling together. Animals are only slaughtered for very special occasions, such as weddings.

Dirie loves living in the desert, playing with her siblings, and living alongside the landscapes, plants, and animals. One day, while taking the camels out, Dirie must pass through a camp of armed soldiers; scared of being raped, she skirts the edge of the camp as the camels walk through the middle.

Camels are a staple of Somalian life. They transport possessions and people across the vast desert, and their milk sustains the nomads. Camels can survive for months without water. They are often traded, including in exchange for wives.

Dirie’s happy childhood becomes less joyful when her older brother goes to school in the city and her sister runs away. Of the 12 children her mother births, only six survive into childhood. Old Man, Dirie’s wise younger brother who grows white hair by the age of six, is often sought out for advice.

Dirie asks Uncle Ahmed, her father’s brother, for a pair of shoes. She covets sandals like her mother’s, but she is angry when he brings a pair of cheap rubber flip-flops.

Dirie’s father’s friend Guban visits their camp. While he pretends to help Dirie pen the goats, he urges her to lie down with him on his coat. Dirie is wary and confused, and Guban rapes her. Revolted, Dirie runs to her mother. Guban lies and says that Dirie got scared of a story he told her.

Dirie continues to describe her childhood before she runs away. She and her family live a simple life. They travel constantly in search of water and feed, including grasses and plants, for their animals. Dirie does not know how old she is, and she has no knowledge of history or modern technology like telephones, electricity, or cars.

The adult Dirie reflects on her mother. She regrets not asking her mother more questions about her life. Her mother grew up in the city of Mogadishu and ran away with Dirie’s handsome, nomadic father when she was 16. Dirie’s mother was lonely in her father’s extended family, as she came from the Hawiye clan and Dirie’s father came from the rival Daarood clan. Dirie’s mother birthed all 12 of her children alone in the desert, as was customary; she would sometimes have to walk for days to find the family again if they had moved on.

When Dirie was a child, her family would sometimes send her into the desert to find water, and she would walk for days to find it. As an adult, she marvels at the ease of the Western world and the fact that people complain about their workloads.

Dirie’s father, Papa, marries another woman, who is only a few years older than Dirie. Dirie’s mother is upset and jealous. When the new wife slaps Old Man, the siblings tie the new wife upside down in a tree. Papa rescues her when he returns two days later; he is very angry with his children. The new wife is kinder to Dirie’s mother and her children after this.

Dirie explains that weddings are a time of joyful celebration in Somali culture. The bride wears many colorful scarves and sashes, and a great feast occurs. Rain storms are also celebrated joyfully and enthusiastically by the desert nomads, especially after periods of intense drought.

Dirie is jealous that her older sisters, Halemo and Aman, are being circumcised; Dirie doesn’t know what this entails, but she knows that it is an important rite of passage for girls to become women. Their father’s friend, who sometimes travels with the family, dismisses Dirie and her younger sister as “unsanitary little girls” because they are uncircumcised (40). Aman is out looking for water when the traveling woman who performs FGM arrives, so only Halemo undergoes the procedure. Dirie realizes later that Halemo, who never returned, died from the procedure; she didn’t question Halemo’s absence as a child.

Later, Dirie watches from behind a tree as Aman undergoes FGM; Dirie sees her sister forcibly held down by the traveling woman and their mother. Aman’s face is contorted in pain. She tries to escape but is recaptured, and the procedure continues. Aman tells Dirie that the procedure was horrible. Dirie tries to put the horror out of her mind as her own time approaches.

When she is five years old, her mother wakes Dirie early in the morning. The traveling woman is waiting. Dirie’s mother puts a root in between Dirie’s teeth and begs her to stay still so that it will be over faster. Dirie hears the jagged razor blade sawing through her; the pain is immense and unbearable. She passes out and wakes up with her legs tied together. The pieces of her clitoris, clitoral hood, and labia minora are drying in the sun beside her on a blood-soaked rock.

Dirie is put into a hut alone, and her mother brings her food and water. When Dirie needs to urinate, her sister or mother tips her to one side so that the urine can run out of the tiny hole left by the operation. The pain is unbearable. The wound becomes infected, and Dirie develops a high fever.

Finally, Dirie recovers enough to return to her family. Her legs remain tied together for over a month while the wound heals. Dirie is surprised to see smooth skin with only a scar down the middle where her vulva used to be.

As an adult, Dirie reflects on the deaths of Halemo and her cousin, who died at six years old from an infection after her circumcision.

Dirie begins to consider the possibility of marriage for herself when her friend, Shukrin, who is only slightly older than her, is married. Papa fiercely guards his daughters, whom he refers to as his “queens.” Papa has beaten up numerous men who have assaulted his daughters, even once receiving a knife wound while defending Dirie’s sister Fauziya after she was assaulted in the night.

One day, Papa confirms that he has found Dirie a husband. Dirie doesn’t want to leave her family; she is distressed about marrying, but she secretly hopes that it will be to Jamah, a family friend a few years older than Dirie whom she has a crush on. She is disgusted and appalled when her father introduces her to a man with a long white beard who is at least 60 years old: Mr. Galool.

Papa encourages Dirie to be proud because Mr. Galool is paying five camels for her. Dirie speaks to her mother, but she has no control over the arrangement. Dirie tells her mother that she is going to run away, and her mother reluctantly agrees to wake her before dawn. They hug, and Dirie’s mother tells her not to forget about her. Dirie runs into the night.

Chapter 6 picks up where Chapter 1 ended. Dirie gets out of the handsome man’s Mercedes when he reaches his destination and continues on foot. A truck stops to pick her up. Dirie is wary, but she has few other options. The truck driver explains that he is going to the city of Galcaio. Although this was not her intended destination, Dirie remembers that Uncle Ahmed lives in Galcaio, so she gets in the truck. The truck driver realizes that Dirie has run away and threatens to turn her in. Dirie quickly gets out when the truck arrives in Galcaio.

At a market, she asks people if they know where Ahmed lives. A man offers to help, but instead, he takes her to his house and tries to rape her. She escapes. A woman helps the distressed Dirie and escorts her to Ahmed’s home.

Uncle Ahmed and his wife tell Dirie that they are going to take her back to her family. He is especially worried because Dirie is great at looking after his livestock, which her family cares for. Dirie knows that even if she explains that she is escaping an unwanted marriage, Ahmed will still insist on her return. Luckily, Dirie’s cousins lend her money and give her directions to reach Mogadishu, where her sister Aman now lives.

Dirie reaches Mogadishu through a combination of walking, hitchhiking, and paying for a ride on an African bush train. At a market, she finds someone who knows Aman and goes to her home. Aman feels guilty for leaving their family and is worried that with Dirie gone too, their mother has no help. She is unconvinced by Dirie’s explanation that she would be forced to leave home with her new husband anyway.

Dirie helps Aman with her new baby and chores like shopping at the market, where she learns how to haggle. After living there for a few weeks, Dirie decides that the situation isn’t working for her and decides to leave, not knowing that she will never see Aman again.