The Last Camel: True Stories about Somalia [Hardcover]

Jeanne D'Haem (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"The stories in The Last Camel deal with fiction, facticity, and the space between the two. never the swashbuckling Peace Corps volunteer, D'Haem's stories teem with compassion, impish curiousity, and downright humility. The stories introduce all sorts of characters, delightful and/or frightening. These are tales of exposure and advocacy woven with care and diligence. The result is a brilliant tapestry corpus on Somali, but opportune." -Professor Ali Jimale Ahmed, author of DAYBREAK IS NEAR and editor of The INVENTION OF SOMALIA

"Most interesting...D'Haem tells [true stories] through the voices of Somali women, some of them excruciatingly honest..." -Publisher's Weekly

THE LAST CAMEL is a collection of stories about the people who live in a little village in Northern Somalia. These are compelling tales about African spirits, clever women, untouchable Midgaans, sagacious elders who struggle with modern technology, bandits, and a few goats. The stories are embellished; each one illustrates a special aspect of Somali culture. The tales are told by a young American Peace Corps teacher who lived alone in the village of Arabsiyo in Northern Somalia in the late 60s. The village had no electricity, no telephone, no reliable water supply, and little food. The Somali villagers who were born in Arabsiyo, and the American who came to live among them, struggled mightily to understand each other and the changing world about them. The book reveals the complex hearts and minds of the Somali people because it was written by a young woman who slept among the camels, spoke the language, starved, smiled, and savored life in Africa. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Jeanne D'Jaem was a Peace Corps volunteer in Somalia in 1968. She was posted to the village of Arabsiyo in Northern Somalia, where she learned to speak Somali and was adopted by the villagers and made a member of the Sa'ad Musa tribe. D'Haem has a Ph.D. from New York University and is public school administrator in New Jersey. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and writes and lectures frequently about her adventures. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Red Sea Press (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156902040X
• ISBN-13: 978-1569020401
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,339,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing stories about an exotic life adventure., November 8, 1999

By 

J. Jiumaleh (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Camel: True Stories about Somalia (Hardcover)

D'Haem's adventures as a Peace Corps volunteer are absorbing and full of startling twists and turns. She tells stories not only from her own perspective but also from the point of view of some of her Somali friends and acquaintances. This underscores her point that listening and understanding (perhaps even to the extent that one can get inside another's head?) are crucial to cross-cultural communication. D'Haem writes with the benefit of decades of hindsight; she seems to be foreshadowing Somalia's present problems and filtering her youthful adventures through a mature understanding of human nature. If she had written immediately after these events took place in 1969, this might be a very different book. Readers may start with any chapter to enjoy an absorbing and complete story but read from cover to cover to get the best picture of the personalities she writes about. Her stories are sometimes painful and disturbing but provide lots of food for thought about the human and political state of our world.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful, fascinating account of life in Sommalia., October 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Camel: True Stories about Somalia (Paperback)

The Last Camel is told with skill which takes the reader on a journey through the lives of the inhabitants of Arabsiyo, a small village in Northern Sommalia. Jeanne D'Haem lived there in the late sixties as a Peace Corp volunteer who taught at the village school. She tells the story of the village by telling several stories from the perspective of some one living in the village. She links the stories by telling some of the same events in each story, but giving a new perspective each time. The book opens when young Jeanne arrives in the tiny village. She is invited to a wedding that night where she meets to her surprise a young Sommali woman who speaks English complete with English accent. In the next chapter we hear this woman's story. On the night of the wedding when she met Jeanne she was on her way to be with the bride, her friend who is to be "cut open" in preparation for her husband... ...D'Haem's skill as a story teller is admirable. She draws the reader in by allowing us to hear what it's like to be a Sommali woman and endure this torture, but never judges or condemns this barbaric practice. She just tells the story which comes directly from the young bride's mouth.

Other stories are of Jeanne's nightwatchman who used cunning and stealth to support his family. The outcast woman who overcame great adversities to support herself and her daughter. The children in her village and the culture of the dessert.

A thoroughly good read, highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars About as good as "A Spirit Catches You...", January 22, 2012

By 

gudruncita - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Camel: True Stories about Somalia (Hardcover)

I loved this book, and am so glad to have found it in my Minneapolis library. D'Haem does an excellent job of trying to bridge some of the mysteries between our American cultural world view and that of Somalis of 1968. The book was published in 1997, and certainly has so much still to teach us about being open-eyed and open-minded as we interact with immigrants of East African cultures, or any culture. Humorous and thoughtful, with more description than evaluation, more narrative than judgement, the reader experiences the same humiliations and awakenings of understanding as the young writer. If you loved the book, "A Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down," you will appreciate this book as well. Cultural anthropology at its best. The price to order it is outrageous now, and I HOPE it comes back into print soon!