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My Mother, My Teacher: A Memoir from Western Sahara
Separated from his family in the aftermath of the failed decolonization process in Western Sahara, Bahia Mahmud Awah was sustained by recollections of his mother. In this memoir, he describes her sacrifices, her optimism, and her deep love. His family's experiences exemplify the larger story of loss and displacement in the region even as his story shows how shared memories can nourish community and culture across generations, even in exile. Incorporating poetry in Hassaniya, the traditional Saharawi language, the work highlights the role of language in shaping identity and resisting colonialism.
First published in 2011 as La maestra que me enseñó en una tabla de madera (The Woman Who Taught Me on a Wooden Slate), this edition includes the first complete English translation and a new epilogue by the author featuring further remembrances of his mother and examples of her poetry.
First published in 2011 as La maestra que me enseñó en una tabla de madera (The Woman Who Taught Me on a Wooden Slate), this edition includes the first complete English translation and a new epilogue by the author featuring further remembrances of his mother and examples of her poetry.
181 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 31, 2024
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August 20, 2025
I love Sahrawi storytelling. It goes against the rules we are taught in the West - there is no focus on dynamics, no vivid descriptions of people or of setting the scene. We rarely get to know what someone looks like; instead we learn how their presence feels.
My Mother, My Teacher is one of the very few works of Sahrawis available in English and that makes it even more precious. Bahia Mahmud Awah gives us here something more than just a memoir - his book is a whole act of resistance. It’s fragments of memories, poetry, family stories, and oral tradition woven together. This is exactly how Saharawi identity survives in exile: through memory, gatherings, poetry, and the voices of women, like his mother, who is at the centre of the book. Through her, Bahia Awah shows how women safeguard identity in exile, even as they face loss, displacement, and never seeing home again.
It’s also political: the stories of family, of camels and gatherings, even of pulling down Spanish flags, are all about resistance to colonialism and occupation. His use of Hassaniya words, poetry, and oral storytelling keeps Saharawi culture alive throughout the book.
Reading it, you feel like you’re sitting among Sahrawis, on the badia, drinking tea while Bahia’s mother tells her stories.
My Mother, My Teacher is one of the very few works of Sahrawis available in English and that makes it even more precious. Bahia Mahmud Awah gives us here something more than just a memoir - his book is a whole act of resistance. It’s fragments of memories, poetry, family stories, and oral tradition woven together. This is exactly how Saharawi identity survives in exile: through memory, gatherings, poetry, and the voices of women, like his mother, who is at the centre of the book. Through her, Bahia Awah shows how women safeguard identity in exile, even as they face loss, displacement, and never seeing home again.
It’s also political: the stories of family, of camels and gatherings, even of pulling down Spanish flags, are all about resistance to colonialism and occupation. His use of Hassaniya words, poetry, and oral storytelling keeps Saharawi culture alive throughout the book.
Reading it, you feel like you’re sitting among Sahrawis, on the badia, drinking tea while Bahia’s mother tells her stories.
Displaying 1 of 1 review