The men pick different parts to bring to the sultan with little success: a rib, a liver, a shoulder of meat. The sheep’s part should symbolize what can divide people or unite them as one.” The one who can do so will be honored as a wise man. Long ago Wiil Waal set forth a riddle, “bring me part of one of your sheep. Like all folktales though, this doesn’t claim to be a true story, but one filled with wisdom. He was known to be a great leader who was brave, and clever, and used riddles to unite people. The book starts with an author’s note explaining the tradition in East Africa of having a nickname and that Wiil Waal was the naanay of Garad Farah Garad Hirsi, a man who was a sultan for a brief time. There is no Islam present or hinted at, but the illustrator’s and translator’s names suggest that they are Muslim as the majority of Somali’s are, and the picture at the back of the book of members of the Somali Book Project show multiple females in hijab- so I’m sharing it on my platform to inshaAllah encourage often rarely seen, in western literature, cultures and traditions to be brought to more peoples’ attention. The lesson however, is rich with culture, insight, charm, and perhaps surprise.
Based on a real Sultan from the mid 19th century, the book does not claim the story to be true, and leaves it up to the reader to form their own impression.
This bilingual (English and Somali) book tells the folktale of a wise leader challenging the men in his province with a riddle, and it being solved by a poor farmer’s eldest daughter.
0 kommentar(er)
