Book Title: Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
Author: Warsan Shire
Genre: Poetry chapbook from international scene
No. of Pages: 34
Publisher: Flipped Eye Publishing Limited
Year of Pub.: 2011
Reviewer: Angeline Debbie Haywood
The title of this exemplary work of art originates from the Somáli proverb Waa dhalaankii dhalmada hooyadood baray, which translates as: these youth taught their mothers how to give birth. Ultimately, in the title of her poetry chapbook, the poet illustrates a subversion of certain aspects of the mother/child dichotomy that create chasms which separate these two groups and prevent them from co-existing harmoniously. In this light, Shire’s pamphlet can be seen as an exhortation to first generation women, who have been compelled to assimilate their oppression as a result of patriarchy, to unlearn patriarchal subjugation and start singing a new song of liberation.
Regarding poetic genre, Shire’s Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth can be classified as a confessional poetry since the work largely consists of intimate biographical accounts of the (often harsh) realities that African women (related and not related to her) have been subjected to as a result of their intersectional identities. In this work, Shire dresses challenging events with an intimate poetic voice through the methodology of undressing the personal and the esoteric.
Besides sharing some personal experiences, Shire also explores universal challenges affecting other people, especially refugees. The centripetal themes that Shire’s offering covers encompass the plights of African women, intimate relationships, isolation and war. Additional topics include those of trauma, self-love, coming of age, violence, apathy, youth struggles, alienation, female rebelliousness as necessity, dislocation, dilemmas faced by foreign nationals, nostalgia for motherland, education, healing, religion, tradition and many more.
Other than being a caustic confessional pamphlet, Shire’s Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth doubles as an indictment of toxic Somali warrior culture that has thrust the Horn of Africa into perpetual war; which has ignited the subordination of the Black female body and psyche. Civil war in Somalia was recognised internationally as a crisis in 1991; however, to be specific, it began before this time. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth dives deep into the construction of war in order to confront the faces of patriarchal culture and oppression. Hence, this review treats Shire’s pamphlet as a window to the invisible wounds of violence and trauma. Trauma is Shire’s specialisation since she is intrigued by the open wounds of those who have been affected by it. This being said, her pamphlet penetrates sharply into the womb of patriarchy, violence and trauma so as to diagnose and cleanse the psychosomatic effects of all these.
“Conversations about Home (at the Deportation Centre)” examines the challenges faced by immigrants seeking asylum from the perils of war. Essentially, states of emergency, such as war, cause migrants to leave their countries and seek protection in foreign lands. Shire wrote this poem in 2009 while she was in Rome. She puts pen to paper after having been informed of the death of a young Somali man. In this poem, Shire critiques the violent and exclusionary practices exercised by border control centres and hosting countries that resort to dehumanising practices in the name of population control. It also stresses the necessary apathy of refugees to the discriminatory practices of fascist forces, behind institutionalised violence, who persecute women (immigrants) and those seeking asylum.
In “Things We Had Lost in the Summer” the theme of the policing of women’s bodies is paralleled with socialisation. It is also presented as impacting childhood development negatively, and as resulting in the perpetuation of rape culture and violent masculinities. In the mentioned poem, the persona’s open knees are closed by one of Juwariyah’s sisters who has been indoctrinated to regard unfeminine behaviour as distasteful. However, the persona will not close her knees. One of the purposes of this poem is to illustrate the presence of female masculinity, how it clashes with traditional mores, and how the latter rejects unorthodox forms of female expression by unfairly categorising them as abhorrent.
In “Questions for Miriam”, Shire mentions the popular South African blues songbird: Miriam Makeba. It comes as no coincidence that during her adolescent life Shire was gifted with the title of Makeba. During a conversation with Feminist Stokvel in Soweto (Johannesburg) Shire stated that, “To be called Makeba was a huge compliment considering what a bomb of a woman M[i]riam Makeba was. […] She wasn’t called Mama Africa for nothing.”Other than being about social integration in a foreign country, “Maymuun’s Mouth” is illustrative of the displaced refugee’s linguistic quest to acquire the language (and, in some cases, the accent) of her/his host country. In this poem, language acquisition is aligned with intimacy. Consequently, Shire writes of Maymuun, “I imagined her hoisted by the waist, wearing stockings, learning to kiss with her new tongue.”
Overall, I construct Shire’s Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth as a buraanbur, a Somali poetic genre that is generally linked with the expression of womenʼs emotions, for the emancipation of women. Furthermore, I deduce that Shire’s poetry is a message of empowerment not only for Somali women, but for men and women of all walks who recognise that their subjugation is as a result of vicious patriarchies that have been inherited and have become entrenched in the fabric of their lives.
Despite liberal progress (as seen in the increasing female representation in Somalian male-dominated sectors such as government and the legal fraternity) the patriarchal and repressive culture of war continues to disrupt the lives of Somali women. However, the candid and healing poetry of emerging Somalian poets, such as Shire, demonstrates that there is promising hope of a better life for women in African countries that have been affected by violence and oppression.
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Angeline Debbie Haywood is a South African. She is an avid reader, and a full-time teacher. Debbie has a Bachelor of Education degree in Further Education and Training (FET). She also has an Honour’s degree in English literature. Her reading interests include womanist and African literature written by local and international authors. She enjoys reading both fiction and non-fiction.
