LatinosUSA

Rating : 5 Stars

It’s been a month since I wrote my last review. October was a month of festivals. That, and the fact that I began reading books I couldn’t finish because they were either too slow or didn’t keep me engaged, slowed my reading. ‘Daughter of Dust’ by Wendy Wallace is a book I got from my book swap group (more about that in another post). I decided to try it to escape the other two I was already reading, and I simply couldn’t put it down. It’s a biography of Leila Aziz, a girl abandoned at 15 months, raised in an orphanage, married at 22, mother of four by 29, and divorced, who sets up an institute for adults who find themselves abandoned by society. 

Set in Sudan, from the sixties to the eighties, the book throws light on the culture, traditions, and beliefs of the people there, the position of women in society, and the impact of the political changes in the country on the ordinary people, and what it means to be an outcast (daughter of sin) in the country. Heartbreaking, inspiring, and beautifully written. The author of the book, Wendy Wallace, an award-winning journalist turned author, narrates the story from the point of view of Leila (in the first person). The story uses concise sentences and vivid imagery to transport readers to Sudan’s desolate areas, depicting the upbringing of abandoned children who grow up isolated and excluded from mainstream society.    As the narrator is Leila (a child), the story carries the innocence and wonder of the first time one sees or experiences something, offering a fresh perspective. As an adult reading the book, the reader has a deeper understanding than the innocent protagonist.

Although ‘Daughter of Dust’ depicts society’s disadvantaged class, its universal themes of family, belonging, community, growth, marriage, and motherhood make it relatable to many. 

I found the book especially interesting as I learnt about the culture of a country and a people that I had no idea of earlier. If you enjoy reading about other cultures and true stories, then this book is for you.

Although I have read the book, I plan to buy it. That should say enough about the book.

About the story

‘Daughter of Dust’ is based on the real-life story of Leila Aziz. Leila is a daughter who is not born out of wedlock, and yet, she finds herself in an orphanage at the age of fifteen months. She feels abandoned, just like the other children at Mygoma orphanage—kids who were found in trash dumps, at the doors of mosques, or out in fields before they were brought to the orphanage.   Managed by the government, the children are fed and provided the basic requirements to survive, and are kept in cribs, the whole time. Love is not regarded as a necessity.   Not every child survives. Many die of malaria, fever, and other illnesses due to the poor conditions at the orphanage. The survivors are subsequently transferred to the Institute of the Protected.  

‘My fingers find the cool bars; as I grip them, my crying slows. Crying is useless. Crying brings nothing. I pull myself up, still searching for a face that doesn’t come. I bang my head against the metal. Feel the judder that runs through the bars and back into my hands. The jarring of my head against the cot tells me there is something there.Bang, Bang, Bang.‘

Of the children wailing at the orphanage, Leila, her friends Amal and Wagir are taken to the Institute. It is here that she meets her older sister Zulima, who acts distant. Leila does not remember her but does feel a sense of familiarity. Leila and Amal start going to a public school where children from normal families study. The parents don’t like their children mingling with children from the Institute. Although hurt by the other children’s attitude, the girls love their teacher, Mrs Khadija, who is kind to both of them.
Leila realises she is different from the other children—not abandoned, but shaped by circumstances—when the sisters at the Institute of the Protected take her and Zulima to visit their mother in a mental asylum.  She learns much later that her father loved her and so did her mother, and that after the divorce, her mother tried hard to take care of Zulima and her. As a child, Leila decides to take her mother out of the asylum and make a home for her.

Zulima is married off against her wishes, at the age of fifteen, to an older man, who is a security guard. There is nothing she can do about it, as abandoned children have no options. However, fortunately for her, her husband turns out to be a good man who provides for his family.

‘All the other nannies are excited about Zulima’s wedding. Zulima has to have six of everything to get married. Six tobes, six pairs of sandals to match the tobes, and handbags to match the sandals. Six kinds of perfume. Nightdresses for a bride. Knickers. More bras. ‘

After Zulima’s marriage, a few of the children are moved to the Village, a new facility set up by President Nimeiry, to house abandoned children. The village has buildings called houses, and each house is managed by a woman, who they call ‘Mother’. 7 or 8 children are housed in each house, and all the children in a particular house become a family. The children are matched to the mother based on the colour of their skin. Children of the same house are not allowed to marry, but they can marry someone from another house. At the age of ten, Amal and Leila go through female circumcision. They are told it is purification. When a new director appointed by the government, Father Sayf, a newly married man educated in London, comes to live there, there are positive changes in the village. Leila has a good friend, Abir, at school, who comes from a well-to-do family, and Leila’s school years include visits to Abir’s home, shopping with Abir and her mother. It is only when she tells Abir of the ‘Purification’ and Abir tells her that her parents think it is barbaric, does she realize that things followed by the community, including female circumcision, could be questioned.

After school, Abir goes to London for higher studies, and Leila is stuck with the ‘unfuture’, a term she uses to describe the state of emptiness, of waiting, that never ends. Luckily, Father Sayed gives her a job in the office at the Village where she is to manage the filing and the other paperwork of the children. She is also required to call sponsors and ask for donations to help fund the Village. Leila is sent to Jordan via Egypt to train in secretarial services. In Egypt, she meets ex-President Nimeiry, who is in exile there, and who had first started the Village. In Jordan, she attends college and sees the difference between the girls there and those in Sudan. It is during this time that Sudan has undergone a change and become more conservative.

Returning from Jordan, Leila gets to work. Hungry to find out more about her father, Leila meets her father’s brother, a fisherman, in Senner. Her uncle expresses his wish that she marry his wife’s younger brother, Muiz, who is educated and works as a government employee. Eager to live an everyday life outside the village, Leila accepts the suggestion and gets married. She does everything she is taught by the town’s mothers to be a good wife. She has four children. Muiz is a good man until he loses his job. He abandons his family and remarries. It is normal for men to have more than one wife there. Leila is faced with the unfuture again. She cannot return to the Village, as it is meant for children, not adults. In a conservative Sudan, she needs to protect her children, so they do not face the lives that she and her sister face, and work towards building a place for abandoned adults, people like her, who, were abandoned as children, have no family to lean on as adults. Leila manages to build an institution and care for her children.

I enjoyed learning about the wedding customs in Sudan, the generosity with which people are hosted, even with minimal funds, the love and affection provided to the children by the Mothers at the Village, and that similar villages exist in countries like Egypt and Jordan, which house children from other Villages during their time in the country.

Who is the book for? Anybody who loves learning about other cultures, enjoys reading biographies, and likes a good, heartwarming story well-told. If you like books written by Khaled Hosseini, Marjan Kamali, and Anita Desai, then this book is for you. 

© Smitha Vishwanath

Paperback and Hardcover
(New and used copies are available for $4.00 -$10.00 from other sellers.)

About Smitha

Smitha Vishwanath’s poems are found in several International online publications, including Thieving Magpies, Spillwords Press, MasticadoresUSA, Silverbirch Press, Borderless Journal and other noteworthy anthologies. She has received many awards and honors from Spillwords, and has been nominated for Best of the Net. She received the Reuel International Prize in 2022. Her poem, ‘Out of Order’ was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Smitha is the author of Coming Home (2023). She co-authored a book of poems, ROADS : A Journey with Verses (20190. You can follow Smitha on her blog: https://smithavpennings.com.