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The Desert and the Drum
The Desert and the Drum is the first novel ever to be translated into English from Mauritania. It won the Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize in 2016.
Everything changes for Rayhana when foreigners with strange machines arrive to mine for metal near her Bedouin camp. One of them is the enigmatic Yahya. Rayhana’s association with him leads to her abandoning all she knows and fleeing alone to the city. When her tribe discover she’s stolen their sacred drum they pursue her to exact their revenge. Though Rayhana has her own missing person to seek.
The Desert and the Drum tells of Rayhana’s rift with her family, the disturbing characters she encounters in the metropolis, her attempts to separate friend from foe and to find a place for herself amidst the contradictions of contemporary Mauritania.
Everything changes for Rayhana when foreigners with strange machines arrive to mine for metal near her Bedouin camp. One of them is the enigmatic Yahya. Rayhana’s association with him leads to her abandoning all she knows and fleeing alone to the city. When her tribe discover she’s stolen their sacred drum they pursue her to exact their revenge. Though Rayhana has her own missing person to seek.
The Desert and the Drum tells of Rayhana’s rift with her family, the disturbing characters she encounters in the metropolis, her attempts to separate friend from foe and to find a place for herself amidst the contradictions of contemporary Mauritania.
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
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About the author
Mbarek Ould Beyrouk
6 books13 followersMbarek Ould Beyrouk (Beyrouk) was born in Atar, Mauritania, in 1957. A journalist, he founded the country's first ever independent newspaper, Mauritanie Demain, in 1988, and is a recognised champion of free speech. He was honoured for his media work in 2006 through an appointment to the Higher Authority for the Printed and Audiovisual Press in Mauritania, and he is currently an advisor to the President of the Republic.
He has written four books, including three novels: Et le ciel a oublié de pleuvoir (2006); Le Griot de l'émir, (2013) and The Desert and The Drum (Le Tambour des larmes, 2015).
From: http://www.dedalusbooks.com/our-autho...
He has written four books, including three novels: Et le ciel a oublié de pleuvoir (2006); Le Griot de l'émir, (2013) and The Desert and The Drum (Le Tambour des larmes, 2015).
From: http://www.dedalusbooks.com/our-autho...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
January 14, 2022
Book no 88 in my quest to read a book that takes place in each country of the world.
This story takes place in Mauritania.
Mauritania is in northwest Africa; has a small Atlantic coast and is bordered by five countries. It is an Arab nation and its main religion is Islam.
A young girl is wronged and steals the tribal drum.
The girl: Rayhana, defiled by a foreigner
Her mother: ashamed and mortified; strong personality. This quote about her spoke to me:
"She had crossed the Sahara of doubt long ago..."
Her best friend: Mbarka; had been a slave in her house but ran away to Atra; Rayhana finds her there as she runs from her own tribe with the drum
Such beautiful sentences and thoughts, many of which I have highlighted in my Kindle notes.
One of my favorite Reading the World books.
5 stars
This story takes place in Mauritania.
Mauritania is in northwest Africa; has a small Atlantic coast and is bordered by five countries. It is an Arab nation and its main religion is Islam.
A young girl is wronged and steals the tribal drum.
The girl: Rayhana, defiled by a foreigner
Her mother: ashamed and mortified; strong personality. This quote about her spoke to me:
"She had crossed the Sahara of doubt long ago..."
Her best friend: Mbarka; had been a slave in her house but ran away to Atra; Rayhana finds her there as she runs from her own tribe with the drum
Such beautiful sentences and thoughts, many of which I have highlighted in my Kindle notes.
One of my favorite Reading the World books.
5 stars
June 14, 2023
Rayhana é uma jovem mulher, membro da tribo Oulad Mahmoud, que cresceu longe do mundo moderno, não frequentou a escola e nunca teve contacto com outro tipo de vida para além dos costumes tradicionais da sua aldeia.
A história começa com a fuga de Rayhana que viaja durante a noite pelas dunas do deserto em busca de uma nova vida
It was time to detach myself from the old ways: I was no longer from here. I was from nowhere, and I was going faraway. Straight ahead.
Mas, não vai sozinha. Carrega com ela um objecto sagrado da sua tribo.
The tribal drum, the rezzam, was never allowed to touch the earth, or be held by an impure hand. It was not allowed to leave the heart of the camp. The drum was the tribe; its presence, its confidence, its voice.
The Desert and the Drum é um romance de conflitos entre a tradição e a modernidade - não propriamente um contra o outro, mas principalmente os conflitos dentro de cada um.
60/198 – Mauritânia
A história começa com a fuga de Rayhana que viaja durante a noite pelas dunas do deserto em busca de uma nova vida
It was time to detach myself from the old ways: I was no longer from here. I was from nowhere, and I was going faraway. Straight ahead.
Mas, não vai sozinha. Carrega com ela um objecto sagrado da sua tribo.
The tribal drum, the rezzam, was never allowed to touch the earth, or be held by an impure hand. It was not allowed to leave the heart of the camp. The drum was the tribe; its presence, its confidence, its voice.
The Desert and the Drum é um romance de conflitos entre a tradição e a modernidade - não propriamente um contra o outro, mas principalmente os conflitos dentro de cada um.
60/198 – Mauritânia
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January 2, 2024"I marvelled at how such hyenas could be praised to the skies...what could I ever expect from a world that lauded those who violated people's trust and their dreams?"
From THE DESERT AND THE DRUM by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk, translated from the French by Rachael McGill, 2015/2018.
#ReadtheWorld21 📍 Mauritania
The story follows Rayhana, a Bedouin teenager, as she flees from her tribe's encampment in the Sahara. Alternating chapters trace Rayhana at two different times - a before / after approach - revealing what lead her to run, taking her tribe's ceremonial drum with her in flight.
We learn of the family dynamics, daily life, and the gender roles and expectations of a Bedouin girl. We also see the rapid expansion of modernity, neo-colonialism, and resource extraction in the form of gold and ore mining operations - that zone where an ancient way of life borders the modern industry and economy. It's a stark juxtaposition and image of a Bedouin camel caravan side by side with drilling machinery. This story of intersection is the crux of the novel - the intersection of people, cultures, and physical landscapes.
Mauritania's land is 90% desert, with the majority of the population gathered on the southern coastal capital, Nouakchott. In the last two decades, as desertification has increased, many people have permanently moved to the city, doubling the population there and causing a social and economic strain. Beyrouck's novel, while focusing on the fictional story of Rayhana and her life, tells some of this history.
The first book to be translated into English from Mauritania, The Desert and the Drum is immersive, with vivid descriptions of both the desert and the coastal city, and intriguing characters that Rayhana meets in her flight.
At only 170 pages, this was a swift read, but one with big impact. I hope that more of Beyrouck's (and other Mauritanians) work will be translated.
From THE DESERT AND THE DRUM by Mbarek Ould Beyrouk, translated from the French by Rachael McGill, 2015/2018.
#ReadtheWorld21 📍 Mauritania
The story follows Rayhana, a Bedouin teenager, as she flees from her tribe's encampment in the Sahara. Alternating chapters trace Rayhana at two different times - a before / after approach - revealing what lead her to run, taking her tribe's ceremonial drum with her in flight.
We learn of the family dynamics, daily life, and the gender roles and expectations of a Bedouin girl. We also see the rapid expansion of modernity, neo-colonialism, and resource extraction in the form of gold and ore mining operations - that zone where an ancient way of life borders the modern industry and economy. It's a stark juxtaposition and image of a Bedouin camel caravan side by side with drilling machinery. This story of intersection is the crux of the novel - the intersection of people, cultures, and physical landscapes.
Mauritania's land is 90% desert, with the majority of the population gathered on the southern coastal capital, Nouakchott. In the last two decades, as desertification has increased, many people have permanently moved to the city, doubling the population there and causing a social and economic strain. Beyrouck's novel, while focusing on the fictional story of Rayhana and her life, tells some of this history.
The first book to be translated into English from Mauritania, The Desert and the Drum is immersive, with vivid descriptions of both the desert and the coastal city, and intriguing characters that Rayhana meets in her flight.
At only 170 pages, this was a swift read, but one with big impact. I hope that more of Beyrouck's (and other Mauritanians) work will be translated.
June 10, 2019
Beyrouk provides a rarely seen view of a young Bedouin woman who dares to defy her tribe. She changes her life when she flees the desert finding herself alone in the city. In the city the story revolves around those people who are despised outcasts. Compelling and devastating in it’s ability to bring their world alive. This is the first novel from Mauritania to be translated into English.
February 14, 2022
It’s hard not to grade on a curve when reviewing books from obscure countries, or that otherwise have some cultural value apart from their literary merits. Nonetheless I try not to, as it seems patronizing to the authors and unhelpful to other readers. This is a perfectly okay read if you’re looking for a book from Mauritania, which I was, but I don’t think it has much merit beyond that.
The Desert and the Drum is a novella about the experiences of a young woman from a Bedouin tribe, as she flees the only life she has known and escapes to the city. It’s told in the first person and dual timelines, one in the present beginning with her flight and the other tracing the backstory that led up to it.
The plot was reasonably interesting, at times I was bored but other times I did want to know what happened next. The contemporary Mauritanian setting is certainly interesting, the author is a journalist from the country and so presumably familiar with the settings, and the book explores the merits and pitfalls of tribal life (on the one hand, providing a sense of belonging and meaning absent from city life, but on the other, rigid social norms that may be brutally enforced), and issues of corruption in contemporary politics. The translation is fairly smooth and readable.
On the other hand, the character depth here is quite limited; I never had the sense that Rayhana, our narrator, had an inner life or personality aside from her various victimizations and her response to them. The story ends abruptly, and there are aspects that are never really explored (such as why Rayhana blames the whole tribe for her mother’s decisions). I get the sense that this book is perhaps intended to inspire Mauritanians to social change rather than to be great literature, and those types of op-ed novels often do feature two-dimensional victims as protagonists, and can nevertheless be quite effective in achieving their political goals. On the other hand, it’s also possible that much of it was lost in translation—or, that it’s just not a great book.
Interestingly, this has been touted as the first book from Mauritania to be translated into English, which always seems a bit odd when the book in question was translated quite recently despite only being written in French; I don’t believe there’s any shortage of French-to-English translators. However, while this isn’t necessarily a bad book and you can definitely learn a bit about Mauritanian life from it, it seems unlikely to inspire much international interest outside of those with a connection to the country or who are doing world books challenges.
The Desert and the Drum is a novella about the experiences of a young woman from a Bedouin tribe, as she flees the only life she has known and escapes to the city. It’s told in the first person and dual timelines, one in the present beginning with her flight and the other tracing the backstory that led up to it.
The plot was reasonably interesting, at times I was bored but other times I did want to know what happened next. The contemporary Mauritanian setting is certainly interesting, the author is a journalist from the country and so presumably familiar with the settings, and the book explores the merits and pitfalls of tribal life (on the one hand, providing a sense of belonging and meaning absent from city life, but on the other, rigid social norms that may be brutally enforced), and issues of corruption in contemporary politics. The translation is fairly smooth and readable.
On the other hand, the character depth here is quite limited; I never had the sense that Rayhana, our narrator, had an inner life or personality aside from her various victimizations and her response to them. The story ends abruptly, and there are aspects that are never really explored (such as why Rayhana blames the whole tribe for her mother’s decisions). I get the sense that this book is perhaps intended to inspire Mauritanians to social change rather than to be great literature, and those types of op-ed novels often do feature two-dimensional victims as protagonists, and can nevertheless be quite effective in achieving their political goals. On the other hand, it’s also possible that much of it was lost in translation—or, that it’s just not a great book.
Interestingly, this has been touted as the first book from Mauritania to be translated into English, which always seems a bit odd when the book in question was translated quite recently despite only being written in French; I don’t believe there’s any shortage of French-to-English translators. However, while this isn’t necessarily a bad book and you can definitely learn a bit about Mauritanian life from it, it seems unlikely to inspire much international interest outside of those with a connection to the country or who are doing world books challenges.
January 2, 2024
#ReadAroundTheWorld. #Mauritania
The Desert and the Drum is the first novel to be translated into English from the largely Islamic northwest African nation of Mauritania. Although this translation is from French, so slightly puzzling as to why this took so long.
Rayhana is a young Bedouin woman whose life is turned upside-down when foreigners arrive to mine for metals nearby her camp. She falls for the charming Yahya, leading to her having to flee the camp and stealing their precious rezzam or tribal drum.
She flees to the nearby town in search of former slave girl Mbarka. Here she is confronted by many new things and a new way of life, illustrating the contradictions in contemporary Mauritania, and the struggles of being a young woman here. Rayhana is full of anger at her tribe and at the injustices perpetrated against her. The ending of the book felt abrupt and somewhat unsatisfactory. I appreciated some of the insights into this country but I felt some of it was probably over my head.
The Desert and the Drum is the first novel to be translated into English from the largely Islamic northwest African nation of Mauritania. Although this translation is from French, so slightly puzzling as to why this took so long.
Rayhana is a young Bedouin woman whose life is turned upside-down when foreigners arrive to mine for metals nearby her camp. She falls for the charming Yahya, leading to her having to flee the camp and stealing their precious rezzam or tribal drum.
She flees to the nearby town in search of former slave girl Mbarka. Here she is confronted by many new things and a new way of life, illustrating the contradictions in contemporary Mauritania, and the struggles of being a young woman here. Rayhana is full of anger at her tribe and at the injustices perpetrated against her. The ending of the book felt abrupt and somewhat unsatisfactory. I appreciated some of the insights into this country but I felt some of it was probably over my head.
July 24, 2021
Cleverly interwoven story of how a good beduin girl ends up in the big city with little hope, despite caring friends and helpful strangers - it is also the story of industry destroying the traditional land (in this case for mining) and interfering with local cultures, urbanisation and modernity living side by side with traditional tribes.
Also: first/only(?) book from Mauretania translated into English - but a good one!
Also: first/only(?) book from Mauretania translated into English - but a good one!
May 19, 2022
Desert fury. Hurt me and you will all pay the price.
When the dearest thing has been taken away from the protagonist, she steals the one thing that will hurt her tribe most: the revered drum. She takes it hostage with her on her quest to find (….) and won’t relinquish it til she gets what she’s after.
The story was reminiscent of Kill Bill, without the death toll, though that may just be a me thing. It is also an insightful story about the oppressiveness of traditions and how they can ruin you so easily.
The other characters were interesting. I loved Memed (would hate to be him though). The mother was horrible. Her friends were nice. Her allies were cool and interesting. I liked it how the protagonist would have judged some of their behaviors if not for some of her own misfortunes. Although I’m not sure why women enjoying having free love is seen as a bad thing, like something to be resorted to. There’s nothing wrong with just enjoying it. I liked the diversity of the city folk, and the gradual appreciation of unconventional people.
This book was a fantastic, easy read. It was part of my around the world challenge for Mauritania. Not only was it a hard country to find books on, it was also translated and high quality. I learned a fair bit about the country. If you’re doing the same challenge, definitely read this one.
When the dearest thing has been taken away from the protagonist, she steals the one thing that will hurt her tribe most: the revered drum. She takes it hostage with her on her quest to find (….) and won’t relinquish it til she gets what she’s after.
The story was reminiscent of Kill Bill, without the death toll, though that may just be a me thing. It is also an insightful story about the oppressiveness of traditions and how they can ruin you so easily.
The other characters were interesting. I loved Memed (would hate to be him though). The mother was horrible. Her friends were nice. Her allies were cool and interesting. I liked it how the protagonist would have judged some of their behaviors if not for some of her own misfortunes. Although I’m not sure why women enjoying having free love is seen as a bad thing, like something to be resorted to. There’s nothing wrong with just enjoying it. I liked the diversity of the city folk, and the gradual appreciation of unconventional people.
This book was a fantastic, easy read. It was part of my around the world challenge for Mauritania. Not only was it a hard country to find books on, it was also translated and high quality. I learned a fair bit about the country. If you’re doing the same challenge, definitely read this one.
December 12, 2019
A Bedouin girl's tale. A series of unfortunate events lead Rayhana into a hopeless existence of endless searching and fearful suffering. When she is seduced by a miner from a nearby mining camp, she is sucked out of her safe nomadic tribal life into a in-between existence. Pregnant with this stranger's baby, she hides it well enough, feigning sickness. Her mother takes her to a nearby coastal tribe's encampment to change up her diet and nurse her to health. Instead, Rayhana's baby boy is born and her mother inflicts tribal punishment upon the girl. The baby is given away. Rayhana's return is marked by a hasty marriage. Her husband is none too pleased when he learns of the baby's existence, but promises to find the baby. What he discovers enrages Rayhana into stealing the tribe's fetish object, their totem drum. Carrying the weight of her upbringing and out dated tribal customs, she makes her way into the cities. Nothing goes as planned and City life is no easier than the desolation of the desert she just crossed.
Overall, Beyrouk is a great storyteller of small moments, but Rayhana's tale feels rushed at the end and unfinished. Not in a way that is unresolved, but actually, left untold to us. Not as brutal or horrific as the story might have turned, the loss of the child in the middle of a desert is troubling enough.
Overall, Beyrouk is a great storyteller of small moments, but Rayhana's tale feels rushed at the end and unfinished. Not in a way that is unresolved, but actually, left untold to us. Not as brutal or horrific as the story might have turned, the loss of the child in the middle of a desert is troubling enough.
May 7, 2020
A lovely book. I read it because it is the only novel from Mauritania available in English translation but was happily surprised by how much I enjoyed for its own qualities rather than some element of discovery or novelty. This seems to be a very good translation too.
March 4, 2024
“How could I ever really escape? The immense desert is actually a tiny place: every step bears the name of its owner, every presence tells its story.”
womanhood vs personhood, tradition vs modernity, urban vs rural. handles grief so beautifully
womanhood vs personhood, tradition vs modernity, urban vs rural. handles grief so beautifully
September 16, 2021
This book comes from the list Ann Morgan compiled on https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/. The book was written in French by a Mauritanian writer and is set in Mauritania, I read the English translation.
I find reading books from the list transports me to places and situations I’ve never dreamed of. This is a story of a Bedouin girl fleeing her camp and culture and struggling to adapt to life the city. It’s a lively story and the emotions are both foreign as well as recognizable. My only gripes were a little bit of repetitiveness and a rather abrupt end to the story.
I find reading books from the list transports me to places and situations I’ve never dreamed of. This is a story of a Bedouin girl fleeing her camp and culture and struggling to adapt to life the city. It’s a lively story and the emotions are both foreign as well as recognizable. My only gripes were a little bit of repetitiveness and a rather abrupt end to the story.
January 11, 2023
This brief novel tells the story of a young Bedouin girl who flees her tribe in search of her son in the city. There's a lot to like in this novel, not least the education it provides the reader in Bedouin life, a subject presumably unknown to most readers (including me). In addition, it sensitively examines the role of tribalism and community in Mauritania. Our heroine, Rayhana, is the ultimate victim of a repressive, patriarchal tribalism, yet cannot bring herself to completely condemn it, as she retains a great deal of fondness for the tribe's sense of community and belongingness. She is repulsed by the isolation and chaos of the city--this is not the old story of the country bumpkin spreading her wings in the big city. A particularly telling scene sees Rayhana obtain a government ID card, something she finds unsettling--in the tribe, one does not need a card to prove one belongs, one simply belongs.
Unfortunately, there are too many flaws and loose ends for this to make a successful novel. The dialogue is stilted and artificial, though this could be a fault of translation. Most glaringly, the novel ends far too abruptly. All the themes--about tribalism, justice, community, city vs rural life--are just getting developed when the novel ends without any warning. You feel as though you've been walking on a nice garden path and then you turn a corner and there's a wall blocking your way. Furthermore, the novel ends on a supremely bleak note, but there hasn't been enough characterization or thematic development to justify such an ending. Perhaps after 50-100 pages more, but not where he chose to end it. It feels cheap to end a novel so bleakly when the novel hasn't yet put in the work to make such an ending inevitable, or at least acceptable. And this is setting aside any questions of plot, which is also a massive problem--the author hasn't put in the work to justify such an ambiguous non-resolution of the plot.
I almost feel like Beyrouk just got bored writing this novel and tacked on a generic 'despair' ending so he wouldn't have to properly finish this one up. It's a shame too, because this would have made a fine novel had it been complete.
Unfortunately, there are too many flaws and loose ends for this to make a successful novel. The dialogue is stilted and artificial, though this could be a fault of translation. Most glaringly, the novel ends far too abruptly. All the themes--about tribalism, justice, community, city vs rural life--are just getting developed when the novel ends without any warning. You feel as though you've been walking on a nice garden path and then you turn a corner and there's a wall blocking your way. Furthermore, the novel ends on a supremely bleak note, but there hasn't been enough characterization or thematic development to justify such an ending. Perhaps after 50-100 pages more, but not where he chose to end it. It feels cheap to end a novel so bleakly when the novel hasn't yet put in the work to make such an ending inevitable, or at least acceptable. And this is setting aside any questions of plot, which is also a massive problem--the author hasn't put in the work to justify such an ambiguous non-resolution of the plot.
I almost feel like Beyrouk just got bored writing this novel and tacked on a generic 'despair' ending so he wouldn't have to properly finish this one up. It's a shame too, because this would have made a fine novel had it been complete.
February 25, 2019
https://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/20...
http://www.complete-review.com/review...
https://arablit.org/2019/01/08/the-de...
A few reviews which provide food for thought. I feel the Arablit article emphasising the ethnographic quality over the novel’s literary merits is somewhat unfair- I felt it was quite nicely translated, and captures the narrator’s tone and rage quite realistically. It has also been unfavourably compared to Miral al-Tahawy’s Bedouin perspective, which is unfair. Such an approach essentialises literature as having to be an authoritative representation of its culture/region, which is highly problematic. Instead, we can agitate for more translations from Mauritania, so a plurality of voices can exist.
http://www.complete-review.com/review...
https://arablit.org/2019/01/08/the-de...
A few reviews which provide food for thought. I feel the Arablit article emphasising the ethnographic quality over the novel’s literary merits is somewhat unfair- I felt it was quite nicely translated, and captures the narrator’s tone and rage quite realistically. It has also been unfavourably compared to Miral al-Tahawy’s Bedouin perspective, which is unfair. Such an approach essentialises literature as having to be an authoritative representation of its culture/region, which is highly problematic. Instead, we can agitate for more translations from Mauritania, so a plurality of voices can exist.
November 29, 2021
There was no moon, no stars. The light had been drained away, the sky left mute. I could distinguish neither colours nor shapes. Dunes and trees had been engulfed by the universe, sucked into its sidereal blackness. I scanned the shadows to left and right, chanting suras to ward off djinns...
This book is filled with lush writing and its such a heartbreaking story
This book is filled with lush writing and its such a heartbreaking story
February 22, 2019
I'm reading books from around the world this year-this author is from Mauritania! In fact, this is the first book from this West African country that has been translated into English.
September 15, 2022
Perfect peephole into Mauritania. Customs and culture, the push and pull between tradition and history and modern lifestyles. Following a young woman trying to escape the tribe that raised her but whose conventions wronged her deeply. I was a bit surprised by how much I enjoyed the writing of this: lovely flow and a prose that is just poetic enough without ever nearing flowery territory. I also think the choice of alternating chapters between now and then created not just a solidly engaging pace but even a mild level of suspense. This read like a modern classic even though it is only a few years old, maybe due to its setting and my unfamiliarity with it but it felt rather timeless.
Rayhana's journey equally seemed like widely relatable one: raised in certain circumstances you accept the only lifestyle you know as good and true but when fate throws some curveballs at you, it helps you to see beyond the curtain. But I liked that once she attempts to leave her roots behind and makes it to the city she doesn't simply shed her upbringing, she is torn between the worlds and the represented values.
An indeed devastating thing happened to her and I found it interesting how it took this level of desolation to open her eyes wider, before that she clearly was not capable of seeing other people's plights within the confines of her traditional tribe (for example the reason for one of their slaves wanting to escape, to her this girl was a close friend and she thought she was treated well, so why would she ever wanted to flee did not make sense to Rayhana). Generally, I liked that she had selfish streaks, that she her innocence did not make her a flawless human being.
The ending comes surprisingly bleak, then again to me anything else would have felt like a melodramatic copout. This novel has a lot to say about sexual violence and suppression, the fatal power of traditional values. I personally wish though that in the second half of the novel Rayhana wouldn't have been as consumed by a very specific element of her escape. She is searching for someone and while it makes total sense for her to be consumed by it, I would have liked to see more of her personality outside of that now that she is escaped from the restrictions of her tribe but at this point she seems to be existing only for this. Again, understandably so but a bit one-dimensional to read about.
3.5*
Rayhana's journey equally seemed like widely relatable one: raised in certain circumstances you accept the only lifestyle you know as good and true but when fate throws some curveballs at you, it helps you to see beyond the curtain. But I liked that once she attempts to leave her roots behind and makes it to the city she doesn't simply shed her upbringing, she is torn between the worlds and the represented values.
An indeed devastating thing happened to her and I found it interesting how it took this level of desolation to open her eyes wider, before that she clearly was not capable of seeing other people's plights within the confines of her traditional tribe (for example the reason for one of their slaves wanting to escape, to her this girl was a close friend and she thought she was treated well, so why would she ever wanted to flee did not make sense to Rayhana). Generally, I liked that she had selfish streaks, that she her innocence did not make her a flawless human being.
The ending comes surprisingly bleak, then again to me anything else would have felt like a melodramatic copout. This novel has a lot to say about sexual violence and suppression, the fatal power of traditional values. I personally wish though that in the second half of the novel Rayhana wouldn't have been as consumed by a very specific element of her escape. She is searching for someone and while it makes total sense for her to be consumed by it, I would have liked to see more of her personality outside of that now that she is escaped from the restrictions of her tribe but at this point she seems to be existing only for this. Again, understandably so but a bit one-dimensional to read about.
3.5*
July 31, 2020
Mooi, verdrietig en invoelbaar verhaal, interessant ook, omdat het zo goed laat zien waar mensen uit verschillende lagen van de bevolking van het hedendaagse Mauritanië tegenaanlopen en een breed stuk cultuur laat zien. Van het leven in de Oulad Mahmoud , de Bedoeïenenstam waar Rayhana in opgroeit, slaven die nog steeds hun vrijheid niet allemaal hebben, mensen aan de rand van de samenleving in de kleine woestijnstad Atar en de hoofdstad Nouakchott.
Moderniteit versus traditie. Vrijheid versus gevangenschap. Het individu versus de groep. Er worden vragen gesteld, meningen gedeeld, maar er is geen eenduidige waarheid, niet altijd is meer individuele vrijheid een verrijking net zomin als vastzitten aan een traditie altijd een beperking is.
Het mooist vond ik het respect waarmee de schrijver elk personage ruimte geeft in zijn boek. Nergens velt hij een oordeel, hij laat ieder in zijn waarde.
Moderniteit versus traditie. Vrijheid versus gevangenschap. Het individu versus de groep. Er worden vragen gesteld, meningen gedeeld, maar er is geen eenduidige waarheid, niet altijd is meer individuele vrijheid een verrijking net zomin als vastzitten aan een traditie altijd een beperking is.
Het mooist vond ik het respect waarmee de schrijver elk personage ruimte geeft in zijn boek. Nergens velt hij een oordeel, hij laat ieder in zijn waarde.
'How did people manage to live in the midst of such a crush? How could you be yourself amongst so many other people? I began to understand why they used to say at the camp that city people had no spirit: no malice, but also no heart. It was because they never had any time alone with themselves. The crowd penetrated right inside of them. It stole their spirit and tainted their thoughts. This mass of humanity, the faces and the shouting, stayed with you even after youʹd been away from them a few hours, eaten a meal, met friends. You still heard the murmur of the crowd in your ears, and even without realising it, you began to behave as the crowd did.'
April 14, 2024
I would never have found this book without my ongoing challenge to read a book from every country. It really made me want to know more about Mauretania. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, I loved the writing and the descriptions of nature, and the main character's feelings. The ending fell a bit flat for me as I felt like I didn't understand it fully but it's still a book I recommend if you want to broaden your reading and learn about a different culture. I also appreciated the juxtaposition Rayhana encountered when she left her Beduin camp and made it to the larger city.
November 9, 2024
Tribal poetry of Mauritania. This book is hard to swallow and it leaves you with a sense of loss. Good glimpse into a stubborn tribal world and an unfortunate journey of a young a young woman.
“How could I ever really escape? The immense desert is actually a tiny place: every step bears the name of its owner, every presence tells its story.”
“How could I ever really escape? The immense desert is actually a tiny place: every step bears the name of its owner, every presence tells its story.”
July 29, 2023
A pretty short read but the author does an excellent job of telling the story of a young girl who is taken advantage of by a stranger and gets pregnant. The books tells this story of Rayhana a brillant young girl who had a life full of dreams until it was taken away from her by a stranger and spends her life looking for her child who was taken away from her. The descriptions in the book about the deserts and life in Mauritania are on point. The book covers many topics on women’s challenges in society as well as slavery.
March 3, 2022
A masterpiece 😭
June 4, 2023
Absolutely stunning writing style. The main character is such a brave woman, I loved to hear about her life and fate, and the setting was just beautiful.
March 11, 2020
I became aware of ‘The Desert and the Drum’ as the first novel to be translated into English from Mauritania, a West African country dominated by the Sahara Desert. Exploring international fiction is essential, and it’s so important to support emerging authors from countries not traditionally offered as many opportunities within the publishing industry. It was very refreshing to read something so fresh and deeply grounded within the traditions of a country and a people rarely shed light on. The novel neatly explores the interplay between modern and traditional values in a country that clings to it’s old ways while attempting to establish a place in the modern world. It also explores important questions about gender, family and honour.
The story follows a young Bedouin woman, Rayhana, who finds her youth and naivety taken advantage of by an older, more worldly man who visits Rayhana’s tribe from a neighbouring, international mining base recently set up next to their land. He woos Rayhana and begins to secretly visit her at night. When Rayhana falls pregnant, her shamed and disappointed mother takes her away under the guise of an illness, letting her give birth in private before leaving the baby with an allied tribe and rushing Rayhana back home and into a marriage she doesn’t want. When she finally reveals all to her new husband who offers to adopt her previous child, they discover that her mother has already further hidden the child far out of their reach. In response, Rayhana steals the tribe’s drum, it’s most important symbol and flees across the desert in search of her lost baby, carrying the weight of her old life and traditions with her wherever she goes.
I really loved the subtlety of this novel. The prose was understated, but insightful and beautiful. I found myself very quickly invested in the narrative and it was an easy, fluid read. The characters were all very well established, and were each given the right amount of time, focus and backstory based on their place within the story and their relationship to Rayhana. The thing I loved the most about this novel was that it really allowed you into an unfamiliar world and put a focus on specificities of the Bedouin culture within Mauritania - a lot of the elements of this story explored so richly could only happen within that world, yet this was counterbalanced so well with how familiar and relatable some of the things Rayhana goes through can be. The weight of expectations from your gender, or from older generations and the desire to abandon all of this to forge your own path are universal concepts that anyone can sympathise with.
Perhaps the only way in which I felt even slightly let down by ‘The Desert and the Drum’ was that I just wanted more! I had no issue with the slight ambiguity of the ending, and I actually thought it was nice to leave it slightly open ended, so that it was up to the reader to decide if they felt Rayhana had the strength to go on or not. However, I felt the final 30-40 pages could have been expanded on, as they felt to me like a last minute rush to get to the finish line, when there was no need to suddenly up the pace and rush to wrap up the story. The narrative was flowing nicely until that point and I would’ve loved more time to dwell in Rayhana’s conflicted emotions and really draw out the nuanced observations that the book was so full of until this point. However, if this is the only negative thing I can say about the book, that speaks volumes of just how thoroughly great a read it ultimately was. A great introduction to Mauritanian literature, I hope how successful ‘The Desert and the Drum’ is encourages publishers to invest further in literature from these crucially underrepresented countries.
The story follows a young Bedouin woman, Rayhana, who finds her youth and naivety taken advantage of by an older, more worldly man who visits Rayhana’s tribe from a neighbouring, international mining base recently set up next to their land. He woos Rayhana and begins to secretly visit her at night. When Rayhana falls pregnant, her shamed and disappointed mother takes her away under the guise of an illness, letting her give birth in private before leaving the baby with an allied tribe and rushing Rayhana back home and into a marriage she doesn’t want. When she finally reveals all to her new husband who offers to adopt her previous child, they discover that her mother has already further hidden the child far out of their reach. In response, Rayhana steals the tribe’s drum, it’s most important symbol and flees across the desert in search of her lost baby, carrying the weight of her old life and traditions with her wherever she goes.
I really loved the subtlety of this novel. The prose was understated, but insightful and beautiful. I found myself very quickly invested in the narrative and it was an easy, fluid read. The characters were all very well established, and were each given the right amount of time, focus and backstory based on their place within the story and their relationship to Rayhana. The thing I loved the most about this novel was that it really allowed you into an unfamiliar world and put a focus on specificities of the Bedouin culture within Mauritania - a lot of the elements of this story explored so richly could only happen within that world, yet this was counterbalanced so well with how familiar and relatable some of the things Rayhana goes through can be. The weight of expectations from your gender, or from older generations and the desire to abandon all of this to forge your own path are universal concepts that anyone can sympathise with.
Perhaps the only way in which I felt even slightly let down by ‘The Desert and the Drum’ was that I just wanted more! I had no issue with the slight ambiguity of the ending, and I actually thought it was nice to leave it slightly open ended, so that it was up to the reader to decide if they felt Rayhana had the strength to go on or not. However, I felt the final 30-40 pages could have been expanded on, as they felt to me like a last minute rush to get to the finish line, when there was no need to suddenly up the pace and rush to wrap up the story. The narrative was flowing nicely until that point and I would’ve loved more time to dwell in Rayhana’s conflicted emotions and really draw out the nuanced observations that the book was so full of until this point. However, if this is the only negative thing I can say about the book, that speaks volumes of just how thoroughly great a read it ultimately was. A great introduction to Mauritanian literature, I hope how successful ‘The Desert and the Drum’ is encourages publishers to invest further in literature from these crucially underrepresented countries.
August 11, 2023
I learned a huge amount from this, and found myself unexpectedly quite absorbed. Very much worth a read for an insight into a culture where there is not so much written information available and for a sympathetic, well-written and engaging piece.
Really glad to see this won a PEN translates award and that it is part of the Deadalus Africa series, both of which (in my experience) do really great work in this space.
Snapshot of some of the helpful cultural references (skilfully left in the original French, and I understand there are also Arabic or Bedouin tribal influences but with extremely helpful footnotes):
-Rayhana's tribe is the Smacides, and she was born in Terwen
-griotte is the feminine form of a West African wandering poet and musician who passes on oral storytelling traditions
-Chella tribe, an offshoot of the Ghassem -and practice of introducing yourself to show 'good blood'
-med'h song and bendje song - the latter an expression of joy, for dancing to
-Imraguen fisherman and their strategies protecting themselves against sea djinns and for tming them
-Sheikh Tijane
-the marabout they go to visit has Cherifean lineage
Also some of my favourite quotes, first tying in with theme of traditional tribal life vs urbanisation:
"'No, my sister,' I told her, 'tribes are not in charge here. No one's in charge. These people have no brands for their beasts, no names in their heads, no past in their veins. No, there are so many different people, from all the regions of the country, adn none of them know the language of the heart. There are so many houses, so many tall buildings, but no real roofs, no tents that provide support and shelter. There are crowds in every street, but never anyone around you, people don't see you. I can't wait to find my child and get out of here .. no don't be afraid, my tribe doesn't exist here."
Another example where there is societal outcasting of sex workers/homosexuals together, and those groups were very endearing to me as a reader (like also in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World):
"Hama, I soon discovered, was a treasure. He knew the whole city, the whole country in fact. He could recite numerous poems. He told me stories of true loves and dubious relations. He was very funny. He guided me gently towards some understandings of the failings and the falsehoods of people. He had a beautiful voice and was a virtuoso on the tom-tom, which he could beat with one hand, two hands, one foot, two feet, all while dancing. He gave me a demonstration that left me flabbergasted."
Finally on the titular desert:
"The immense desert is actually a tiny place: every step bears the name of its owner, every presence tells its story."
Really glad to see this won a PEN translates award and that it is part of the Deadalus Africa series, both of which (in my experience) do really great work in this space.
Snapshot of some of the helpful cultural references (skilfully left in the original French, and I understand there are also Arabic or Bedouin tribal influences but with extremely helpful footnotes):
-Rayhana's tribe is the Smacides, and she was born in Terwen
-griotte is the feminine form of a West African wandering poet and musician who passes on oral storytelling traditions
-Chella tribe, an offshoot of the Ghassem -and practice of introducing yourself to show 'good blood'
-med'h song and bendje song - the latter an expression of joy, for dancing to
-Imraguen fisherman and their strategies protecting themselves against sea djinns and for tming them
-Sheikh Tijane
-the marabout they go to visit has Cherifean lineage
Also some of my favourite quotes, first tying in with theme of traditional tribal life vs urbanisation:
"'No, my sister,' I told her, 'tribes are not in charge here. No one's in charge. These people have no brands for their beasts, no names in their heads, no past in their veins. No, there are so many different people, from all the regions of the country, adn none of them know the language of the heart. There are so many houses, so many tall buildings, but no real roofs, no tents that provide support and shelter. There are crowds in every street, but never anyone around you, people don't see you. I can't wait to find my child and get out of here .. no don't be afraid, my tribe doesn't exist here."
Another example where there is societal outcasting of sex workers/homosexuals together, and those groups were very endearing to me as a reader (like also in 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World):
"Hama, I soon discovered, was a treasure. He knew the whole city, the whole country in fact. He could recite numerous poems. He told me stories of true loves and dubious relations. He was very funny. He guided me gently towards some understandings of the failings and the falsehoods of people. He had a beautiful voice and was a virtuoso on the tom-tom, which he could beat with one hand, two hands, one foot, two feet, all while dancing. He gave me a demonstration that left me flabbergasted."
Finally on the titular desert:
"The immense desert is actually a tiny place: every step bears the name of its owner, every presence tells its story."
February 5, 2022
A book from everywhere - Mauritania
A fascinating look into some of the Bedouin traditions of the western Sahara region. The novel is concise and maximalist, including footnotes for untranslatable words.
I found the writing in this piece surprisingly honest, because as I understand the author is a political figure in Mauritania, and I'm surprised how much good trouble is in this book.
All that being said, this book will easily fulfill all the requirements for one's readings around the world, it features round characters influenced by their extremely local surroundings, genuine clashes of ancient and modern culture, and fascinating settings unlike many other works I've read.
I don't want to spoil any plot elements, but I will spoil that the book is quite intense, but hugely informative and page turning in nature.
A fascinating look into some of the Bedouin traditions of the western Sahara region. The novel is concise and maximalist, including footnotes for untranslatable words.
I found the writing in this piece surprisingly honest, because as I understand the author is a political figure in Mauritania, and I'm surprised how much good trouble is in this book.
All that being said, this book will easily fulfill all the requirements for one's readings around the world, it features round characters influenced by their extremely local surroundings, genuine clashes of ancient and modern culture, and fascinating settings unlike many other works I've read.
I don't want to spoil any plot elements, but I will spoil that the book is quite intense, but hugely informative and page turning in nature.
February 17, 2019
I appreciated the lack of resolution to this harrowing tale of a young girl fleeing her Bedouin tribes people having stolen their sacred drum as retribution for the theft and disappearance of her child. The reader was left to decide for herself what would become of the strong lead character. Will she be captured and forced to submit to the will of those wielding far greater official authority or will her strength and intelligence allow her to evade capture and reunite with her young son? Interesting window into the lives of these desert nomads.
March 6, 2023
I felt deeply for the story being told while also opening up the nth window to learn more about a term or location mentioned. Fantastic read, and I’m looking forward to reading more books that aren’t western centric.
April 7, 2024
“I refused to be intimidated by the chapters of the past or the indecipherable pages of the future. (…) It was time to detach myself from the old ways: I was no longer from here. I was from nowhere, and I was going faraway”.
“I am nothing. I am the emptiness that wanders the streets in search of peace, rest, existence, life. (…) Have you ever walked among strangers, been present without anyone ever looking at you?”
Let’s start with a few words about the Mauritanian author of The Desert and The Drum. Mbarek Ould Beyrouk was born in 1957 and was a founder of the first Mauritanian independent newspaper, Mauritanie Demain in 1988. He wrote four books and The Desert and The Drum is his first book translated into English, as well as the first Mauritanian novel ever translated into English. The Desert and The Drum was awarded the 2016 Amadou – Kourouma Prize, a Swiss literary prize awarded annually by the Geneva International Book and Press Fair [the prize was named after the Ivorian writer Ahmadou Kourouma]. The English translation was published by Dedalus.
SUMMARY
The Desert and The Drum tells a story of a young Bedouin woman from the Oulad Mahmoud tribe, Rayhana who lives in the Sahara Desert with her tribe. Upon the arrival of the international mining company that sets up its camp nearby, she meets a young man called Yahya, an engineer from an allied tribe who takes advantage of Rayhana’s innocence. When Rayhana falls pregnant with this man, her mother wanting to hide a feeling of shame, under the excuse of illness, takes her daughter away so that she can give birth far away from the glances of her tribal community to ensure that no one will find out about the pregnancy. The so-called good name and the honor of the family is at stake. Rayhana’s mother decides to leave the baby in care of an older woman, Massouda. Once they are back in their camp, the mother rushes Rayhana into an arranged marriage. When her new husband, Memed learns about the baby, he sets out on a journey to find it and adopt it as his own. Nevertheless, he finds out that Rayhana’s mother had already moved the child further away from the older woman who was initially entrusted with care of the child, and no one knows where the child was taken to. Rayhana decides to steal the tribal sacred drum, a symbol of the religious beliefs, as a form of retribution for the disappearance of her child. She flees across the desert to the city where she looks for her “little soul”. During her journey she meets a variety of unconventional characters which creates a fascinating portrait of the contemporary Mauritanian society.
VARIOUS THEMES EXPLORED IN THE BOOK
Throughout the book, we learn about the family ties and tribal dynamics, the meaning of honour, gender roles within the Bedouin community, a rapid expansion of modernity, juxtaposed with the traditional lives of the nomadic tribes. The issue of slavery is a recurring theme. We also learn about the state of the orphanages in the larger cities, the religious belief system and its impact on social norms within the tribal community, the importance of hospitality within the Bedouin community and oral poetry as one of the most important cultural expressions of their heritage. The importance of education is also explored throughout the book.
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY
The Desert and The Drum is a multifaceted novel, written in a beautiful, lyrical and subtle prose with vivid descriptions of the city and desert life and an array of multi-dimensional characters with profoundly rich inner life. One of the themes explored in the book tackles the encounter between tradition and modernity, portraying the nuances and merits of traditional norms as well as of modern norms and negative traits and pitfalls of what’s been and what’s now. This book is not about the clash between the new and the old, but rather it shows the co-existence of both, full of ambiguity, of fluid layers, and complexity, where the adherence to simplistic explanations should be elided.
Tribal life is shown as something that can provide the individual with a sense of belonging, but it is also a source of brutal and outdated social norms which are often violently enforced. The city, on the other hand, is inhabited with mostly indifferent people who often lack compassion towards the less privileged members of the society.
This short novel provides an interesting insight into the Bedouin culture within Mauretania as well as into the life of the contemporary inhabitants of larger cities in this Western African country. The Desert and the Drum constitutes a wonderful introduction to the Mauritanian literature.
When it comes to the encounter between the modernity and tradition, the arrival of the strangers – an international mining company who sets the camp near the tribe and tries to find “metal, or gold, or oil perhaps” – disturbs the habits and emotions of the nomadic tribe. They feel that new arrivals would “cause disruption of a lasting nature“.
“We’d quickly realised that they were avoiding us too. (…) We lived in two separate universes. That seemed to suit everyone. (…) The voices and the motors of the strangers filled up all the space. Our evenings were taken from us too, because that was when they came back to their camp; their car engines continued to roar into the night (…). Their powerful lights sometimes illuminated the tops of our tents. From the moment they arrived, the strangers stole something essential from us, without us feeling we had the right to protest. A malaise invaded our spirits. Anger began to brew inside the tents”.
The feeling of being powerless, inferior in some sense is profoundly noticeable and their right to object is denied. The feeling of shame is also strongly felt by the members of tribe because they do not understand the new situation well enough in order to accept it or reject it.
“We closed our eyes to them because, deep down, we were ashamed we had allowed their presence to be imposed on us, ashamed of our failure, to understand it, to confidently accept or reject it”.
The difference between the life in the city and in the desert is poignantly felt by our main protagonist, Rayhana, when she has to obtain her ID document, which she refers to as “a passport to civilisation”.
“Why was a document required to know who someone was? Why not just use tribe, clan, family? Where I came from everyone was part of a tribe, and all the tribes spoke to and understood each other”.
In the city “no one listens to the voices of others. Everyone [is] deaf because they [do] not want to hear about anyone else”. There is loneliness, people are anonymous and do not want to see those who struggle. Life in the desert seems to be more in accordance with the nature and ancient traditions where “the men take the camels out to graze all day, the old people gossip in their tents, the boys study the sacred texts and fetch water from the wells, the women look after the homes and the domestic animals, the blacksmiths work at their fires, the slaves and the freed slaves help with the odd jobs around the camp”, where young women concentrate on “fattening” in order to be “beautiful and get good husbands.”
The idea of hospitality is strongly ingrained in the traditional norms where it is believed that “all guests should receive a courteous welcome”. We see this in the encounter between the strangers and tribe as well as when Rayhana meets a family on her way to the city and they allow her to stay in their home as long as she needs to without any questions asked.
There is one important difference indicated in the book between charity and hospitality. Charity is not appreciated, but hospitality and being a guest is always considered as “a gesture from the heart, that couldn’t be bought or sold“. Rayhana could never accept a coin from the stranger but if someone invited into their home and offered her a place to stay and rest, and treated her to a meal, she would always accept it because she was then a guest.
Tribe is perceived as “one body, one entity” and not many separate individuals which stands in the direct opposition to the life in the city where everyone wants to be ‘an individual’ and not a part of some collective entity.
THE POSITION OF WOMEN AND MEN IN THE MAURITANIAN SOCIETY, INCLUDING THE BEDOUIN TRIBAL COMMUNITY
Another major theme tackled by the author concerns the position of women and men in the intricate and constantly evolving Mauritanian society. We witness the oppression of women as well as some willingness of some of the women to participate in this oppressive system even at the cost of separation from their children or grandchildren. Men are also portrayed as nuanced and inhabiting multiple spheres of empathy: there are some who abuse the vulnerable woman, take advantage of them, but also there are men who do not fit into the certain model of masculinity which is perpetuated either by the tradition or modern progressive values. Among men there are those who are sensitive, caring, ready to reject traditions for the sake of love. We see the world of many nuances: both deeply traditional community and modern society can produce attitudes and behaviours in both men and women which can be abusive as well as sensitivity and empathy with people being reflective, thoughtful and considerate. Neither the ancient norms nor the newest ideas should be automatically accepted or rejected – they should be scrutinized first. The product of both communities, traditional and modern, are often people with the least power regardless of where they live, they are the victims of both systems.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE ARRANGED MARRIAGE
The institution of the arranged marriage where the union is decided without a woman’s consent is widely practiced in the tribal community. Within this tribal community women between 25 and 30 years old are considered too old to get married. In addition, the father is still the one who has to give the consent to his daughter’s marriage. Men control this part of women’s life, regardless of who is a father or if he is absent from her life or not. The marriage is arranged mainly by the elderly men with some decision-making delegated to the older women within the tribe. A young woman has to submit passively, no one pays attention to women’s feelings, emotions, suffering. The bride is supposed to represent the innocence and ignorance. She is a puppet with no will of her own. The arranged marriage often seems to be the beginning of new chapter with “new lies, endless new false nods and smiles”; a woman is ‘an object with no soul or volition’. This kind of union might be also terribly damaging to a young man. When it comes to parenthood, a role of a woman as a mother is strong within the framework of tradition they live in – and at times it seems far more understanding and liberal than the one of the male teachers who acquired their knowledge in a more Westernised system.
THE THEME OF SLAVERY
Slavery is also a recurring theme throughout the book. Mauretania was the last country in the world that officially banned slavery in 1981. But it was only in 2007 when Mauritania passed the law criminalizing the slavery. In the novel, Atar, the city where Mbarka lives after fleeing the camp and where Rayhana goes to is depicted as “full of slaves who have run away from the oases and the camps”.
Rayhana is very reflective, but she also falls into a trap of thinking according to the frames she was taught when it comes to slavery and her friend, Mbarka. She loves Mbarka dearly but her understanding of Mbarka’s plight is flawed and conditioned by her upbringing. Even though she felt disturbed and inferior in some way when the strangers arrived at her camp and mistreated her, she is unable to extend the same feeling of empathy to Mbarka. In conversation with Mbarka she admits that her mother does not beat or physically abuse Mbarka and that Mbarka’s position within her family is better than that of other slaves. Mbarka tries to explain to Rayhana that it’s not just about hitting and beating; she does not want to be a slave; she wants to be free. Freedom for Mbarka means hope and the possibility of better future, even if she might end up being hungry or living in the abject poverty but initially this is not clear to Rayhana.
“I couldn’t understand Mbarka. What happiness could she find in the city? (…) She knew no other family. Why did she need to run away?“
Mbarka agrees that compared to other slaves in the camp she had privileges, but she just wants to be free, “to belong to herself”. After fleeing the camp Mbarka lives in the city in the abject poverty for months. With time people start accepting her, the fact she is a Bedouin does not mater, but she is always “excluded from the pleasures [she] saw other people enjoying every day”. She is alone, has no real friends; there is an emptiness around her. In order to support herself, Mbarka becomes a woman of “ill-repute”. As someone who has never had anything, she plays at life in order to forget herself and the world around her. She is aware that she is lost, but she is also free. In her own words she “tastes forbidden things because once [she] was forbidden from living at all”. She is very protective of Rayhana and prevents her from entering her world. Rayhana becomes a passive observer of Mbarka’s new life.
As the story unfolds, Rayhana questions herself how far she is conditioned by the oppressive values that were instilled in her at the young age. Despite what the tribe put her through, Rayhana still has the tribe in her heart. She is often contradicting herself when it comes to her feelings about the tribe. She is not able “to belong to herself” like Mbarka is.
THE MEANING OF THE DRUM
The drum in the story is “a tired symbol of the tribal idolatry” and “ mouthpiece of all idiocies” that led to Rayhana’s baby being taken away from her. Stealing the drum was seen by Rayhana as a retribution for losing her child. She does not only blame her mother; she puts the blame on the entire tribe and their belief system.
“The whole tribe stole my son. It was their vanity, their arrogance, their false truths”.
MAURITANIA – THE LAND OF A MILLION POETS
Mauretania is often referred to as the Land of A Million Poets. The tradition of oral poetry is important within the Bedouin tribes. In The Desert and The Drum the gatherings and get-togethers of young people are often filled with music, reciting poetry, singing the ancient tunes and Saharan poems.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION
The Desert and The Drum emphasises the role of education in relation to how the individuals perceive the surrounding world and their understanding of how their own decisions impact the other members of the society. The tribal community expresses a lack of interest in the outside world as they say “what do we care what happens in those places? It’s another universe. The quarrels and wars of distant places have nothing to do with us.” This attitude does show the disconnection and the gap between the city and the rural community.
The novel insinuates that the teachers sent to the Sahara Desert are there as a punishment in some way. No teachers want to do this job in the Sahara desert with the tribal community and for that reason the likes of the teacher, Salem are sent there, not necessarily because they are the best teachers, but rather because they are the worst ones with questionable views. Therefore, the disconnection between the city and the rural society is more profoundly felt.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS
Rayhana is a fearless, reflective, resilient young woman, with a kind heart and curiosity for the world.
“I was fascinated by the traces left by these ancient hands, long – gone, but their signs still there for me, greetings from the depth of time”.
She is on a quest to find her own place in world, rejecting some aspects of the tradition she grew up in but at the same time appreciating certain values of her tribal community, especially a sense of belonging that her tribe has provided her with. She was abandoned by her father when she was just six years old and was brought up by her mother. Rayhana, however, is not a flawless character, she is full of contradictions and ambiguous observations.
Rayhana understands that the tribe oppressed her, but she is still influenced by her upbringing and looks at the outside world or different ways of living with suspicion.
“I began to feel more and more disdain for the town and everyone in it. People seemed to have forgotten what they’d been only yesterday, what their fathers and fathers’ fathers had been. They were content to no longer be nomadic, to no longer feel the sun on their heads. (…) They were proud of all that; they thought it meant they could look down on those of us who had stayed as we were, we hadn’t succumbed to the temptations of the new”.
Rayhana is rather torn between two different worlds. Sometimes she is unable to see other people’s plights within her own tribe, especially the predicament of slaves in her camp. She shows a lack of understanding for her best friend, Mbarka, a young woman who was one of the slaves in her camp and who had fled the camp some time before Rayhana’s leaving the desert life. She finds it difficult to understand why Mbarka wanted to flee if compared to other slaves she was treated well. Rayhana is a complex, nuanced character, with rich inner life and many observations. As the story progresses, she finds herself alone in the world and forced to find her own path in the world.
Rayhana’s mother is resilient, but an extremely ambiguous character within the frames of strict tradition she was born into. As a younger woman she always sought the approval of her older brother, she never made her own decisions. She was taught to follow the lead of the older man, her brother. But then she is also the one who warned Rayhana to be on guard when it comes to Yahya, the stranger who betrayed Rayhana’s trust. When it comes to parenting of children and younger adults, mothers in the camp seem to have more control than fathers or other men in the family. Aware of the strict norms within her community, Rayhana’s mother wants to protect their family name from shame because of her daughter’s unplanned pregnancy. She is the one who arranged for her grandson to be taken away. She is a victim of the system she was born into and in some way a participant in this oppressive system. “Family honour meant more to her than her daughter’s happiness”.
Massouda, the Imraguen village healer, is an older woman who is looking after Rayhana during her pregnancy. Massouda is a traditional woman but in comparison with Rayh
“I am nothing. I am the emptiness that wanders the streets in search of peace, rest, existence, life. (…) Have you ever walked among strangers, been present without anyone ever looking at you?”
Let’s start with a few words about the Mauritanian author of The Desert and The Drum. Mbarek Ould Beyrouk was born in 1957 and was a founder of the first Mauritanian independent newspaper, Mauritanie Demain in 1988. He wrote four books and The Desert and The Drum is his first book translated into English, as well as the first Mauritanian novel ever translated into English. The Desert and The Drum was awarded the 2016 Amadou – Kourouma Prize, a Swiss literary prize awarded annually by the Geneva International Book and Press Fair [the prize was named after the Ivorian writer Ahmadou Kourouma]. The English translation was published by Dedalus.
SUMMARY
The Desert and The Drum tells a story of a young Bedouin woman from the Oulad Mahmoud tribe, Rayhana who lives in the Sahara Desert with her tribe. Upon the arrival of the international mining company that sets up its camp nearby, she meets a young man called Yahya, an engineer from an allied tribe who takes advantage of Rayhana’s innocence. When Rayhana falls pregnant with this man, her mother wanting to hide a feeling of shame, under the excuse of illness, takes her daughter away so that she can give birth far away from the glances of her tribal community to ensure that no one will find out about the pregnancy. The so-called good name and the honor of the family is at stake. Rayhana’s mother decides to leave the baby in care of an older woman, Massouda. Once they are back in their camp, the mother rushes Rayhana into an arranged marriage. When her new husband, Memed learns about the baby, he sets out on a journey to find it and adopt it as his own. Nevertheless, he finds out that Rayhana’s mother had already moved the child further away from the older woman who was initially entrusted with care of the child, and no one knows where the child was taken to. Rayhana decides to steal the tribal sacred drum, a symbol of the religious beliefs, as a form of retribution for the disappearance of her child. She flees across the desert to the city where she looks for her “little soul”. During her journey she meets a variety of unconventional characters which creates a fascinating portrait of the contemporary Mauritanian society.
VARIOUS THEMES EXPLORED IN THE BOOK
Throughout the book, we learn about the family ties and tribal dynamics, the meaning of honour, gender roles within the Bedouin community, a rapid expansion of modernity, juxtaposed with the traditional lives of the nomadic tribes. The issue of slavery is a recurring theme. We also learn about the state of the orphanages in the larger cities, the religious belief system and its impact on social norms within the tribal community, the importance of hospitality within the Bedouin community and oral poetry as one of the most important cultural expressions of their heritage. The importance of education is also explored throughout the book.
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY
The Desert and The Drum is a multifaceted novel, written in a beautiful, lyrical and subtle prose with vivid descriptions of the city and desert life and an array of multi-dimensional characters with profoundly rich inner life. One of the themes explored in the book tackles the encounter between tradition and modernity, portraying the nuances and merits of traditional norms as well as of modern norms and negative traits and pitfalls of what’s been and what’s now. This book is not about the clash between the new and the old, but rather it shows the co-existence of both, full of ambiguity, of fluid layers, and complexity, where the adherence to simplistic explanations should be elided.
Tribal life is shown as something that can provide the individual with a sense of belonging, but it is also a source of brutal and outdated social norms which are often violently enforced. The city, on the other hand, is inhabited with mostly indifferent people who often lack compassion towards the less privileged members of the society.
This short novel provides an interesting insight into the Bedouin culture within Mauretania as well as into the life of the contemporary inhabitants of larger cities in this Western African country. The Desert and the Drum constitutes a wonderful introduction to the Mauritanian literature.
When it comes to the encounter between the modernity and tradition, the arrival of the strangers – an international mining company who sets the camp near the tribe and tries to find “metal, or gold, or oil perhaps” – disturbs the habits and emotions of the nomadic tribe. They feel that new arrivals would “cause disruption of a lasting nature“.
“We’d quickly realised that they were avoiding us too. (…) We lived in two separate universes. That seemed to suit everyone. (…) The voices and the motors of the strangers filled up all the space. Our evenings were taken from us too, because that was when they came back to their camp; their car engines continued to roar into the night (…). Their powerful lights sometimes illuminated the tops of our tents. From the moment they arrived, the strangers stole something essential from us, without us feeling we had the right to protest. A malaise invaded our spirits. Anger began to brew inside the tents”.
The feeling of being powerless, inferior in some sense is profoundly noticeable and their right to object is denied. The feeling of shame is also strongly felt by the members of tribe because they do not understand the new situation well enough in order to accept it or reject it.
“We closed our eyes to them because, deep down, we were ashamed we had allowed their presence to be imposed on us, ashamed of our failure, to understand it, to confidently accept or reject it”.
The difference between the life in the city and in the desert is poignantly felt by our main protagonist, Rayhana, when she has to obtain her ID document, which she refers to as “a passport to civilisation”.
“Why was a document required to know who someone was? Why not just use tribe, clan, family? Where I came from everyone was part of a tribe, and all the tribes spoke to and understood each other”.
In the city “no one listens to the voices of others. Everyone [is] deaf because they [do] not want to hear about anyone else”. There is loneliness, people are anonymous and do not want to see those who struggle. Life in the desert seems to be more in accordance with the nature and ancient traditions where “the men take the camels out to graze all day, the old people gossip in their tents, the boys study the sacred texts and fetch water from the wells, the women look after the homes and the domestic animals, the blacksmiths work at their fires, the slaves and the freed slaves help with the odd jobs around the camp”, where young women concentrate on “fattening” in order to be “beautiful and get good husbands.”
The idea of hospitality is strongly ingrained in the traditional norms where it is believed that “all guests should receive a courteous welcome”. We see this in the encounter between the strangers and tribe as well as when Rayhana meets a family on her way to the city and they allow her to stay in their home as long as she needs to without any questions asked.
There is one important difference indicated in the book between charity and hospitality. Charity is not appreciated, but hospitality and being a guest is always considered as “a gesture from the heart, that couldn’t be bought or sold“. Rayhana could never accept a coin from the stranger but if someone invited into their home and offered her a place to stay and rest, and treated her to a meal, she would always accept it because she was then a guest.
Tribe is perceived as “one body, one entity” and not many separate individuals which stands in the direct opposition to the life in the city where everyone wants to be ‘an individual’ and not a part of some collective entity.
THE POSITION OF WOMEN AND MEN IN THE MAURITANIAN SOCIETY, INCLUDING THE BEDOUIN TRIBAL COMMUNITY
Another major theme tackled by the author concerns the position of women and men in the intricate and constantly evolving Mauritanian society. We witness the oppression of women as well as some willingness of some of the women to participate in this oppressive system even at the cost of separation from their children or grandchildren. Men are also portrayed as nuanced and inhabiting multiple spheres of empathy: there are some who abuse the vulnerable woman, take advantage of them, but also there are men who do not fit into the certain model of masculinity which is perpetuated either by the tradition or modern progressive values. Among men there are those who are sensitive, caring, ready to reject traditions for the sake of love. We see the world of many nuances: both deeply traditional community and modern society can produce attitudes and behaviours in both men and women which can be abusive as well as sensitivity and empathy with people being reflective, thoughtful and considerate. Neither the ancient norms nor the newest ideas should be automatically accepted or rejected – they should be scrutinized first. The product of both communities, traditional and modern, are often people with the least power regardless of where they live, they are the victims of both systems.
THE INSTITUTION OF THE ARRANGED MARRIAGE
The institution of the arranged marriage where the union is decided without a woman’s consent is widely practiced in the tribal community. Within this tribal community women between 25 and 30 years old are considered too old to get married. In addition, the father is still the one who has to give the consent to his daughter’s marriage. Men control this part of women’s life, regardless of who is a father or if he is absent from her life or not. The marriage is arranged mainly by the elderly men with some decision-making delegated to the older women within the tribe. A young woman has to submit passively, no one pays attention to women’s feelings, emotions, suffering. The bride is supposed to represent the innocence and ignorance. She is a puppet with no will of her own. The arranged marriage often seems to be the beginning of new chapter with “new lies, endless new false nods and smiles”; a woman is ‘an object with no soul or volition’. This kind of union might be also terribly damaging to a young man. When it comes to parenthood, a role of a woman as a mother is strong within the framework of tradition they live in – and at times it seems far more understanding and liberal than the one of the male teachers who acquired their knowledge in a more Westernised system.
THE THEME OF SLAVERY
Slavery is also a recurring theme throughout the book. Mauretania was the last country in the world that officially banned slavery in 1981. But it was only in 2007 when Mauritania passed the law criminalizing the slavery. In the novel, Atar, the city where Mbarka lives after fleeing the camp and where Rayhana goes to is depicted as “full of slaves who have run away from the oases and the camps”.
Rayhana is very reflective, but she also falls into a trap of thinking according to the frames she was taught when it comes to slavery and her friend, Mbarka. She loves Mbarka dearly but her understanding of Mbarka’s plight is flawed and conditioned by her upbringing. Even though she felt disturbed and inferior in some way when the strangers arrived at her camp and mistreated her, she is unable to extend the same feeling of empathy to Mbarka. In conversation with Mbarka she admits that her mother does not beat or physically abuse Mbarka and that Mbarka’s position within her family is better than that of other slaves. Mbarka tries to explain to Rayhana that it’s not just about hitting and beating; she does not want to be a slave; she wants to be free. Freedom for Mbarka means hope and the possibility of better future, even if she might end up being hungry or living in the abject poverty but initially this is not clear to Rayhana.
“I couldn’t understand Mbarka. What happiness could she find in the city? (…) She knew no other family. Why did she need to run away?“
Mbarka agrees that compared to other slaves in the camp she had privileges, but she just wants to be free, “to belong to herself”. After fleeing the camp Mbarka lives in the city in the abject poverty for months. With time people start accepting her, the fact she is a Bedouin does not mater, but she is always “excluded from the pleasures [she] saw other people enjoying every day”. She is alone, has no real friends; there is an emptiness around her. In order to support herself, Mbarka becomes a woman of “ill-repute”. As someone who has never had anything, she plays at life in order to forget herself and the world around her. She is aware that she is lost, but she is also free. In her own words she “tastes forbidden things because once [she] was forbidden from living at all”. She is very protective of Rayhana and prevents her from entering her world. Rayhana becomes a passive observer of Mbarka’s new life.
As the story unfolds, Rayhana questions herself how far she is conditioned by the oppressive values that were instilled in her at the young age. Despite what the tribe put her through, Rayhana still has the tribe in her heart. She is often contradicting herself when it comes to her feelings about the tribe. She is not able “to belong to herself” like Mbarka is.
THE MEANING OF THE DRUM
The drum in the story is “a tired symbol of the tribal idolatry” and “ mouthpiece of all idiocies” that led to Rayhana’s baby being taken away from her. Stealing the drum was seen by Rayhana as a retribution for losing her child. She does not only blame her mother; she puts the blame on the entire tribe and their belief system.
“The whole tribe stole my son. It was their vanity, their arrogance, their false truths”.
MAURITANIA – THE LAND OF A MILLION POETS
Mauretania is often referred to as the Land of A Million Poets. The tradition of oral poetry is important within the Bedouin tribes. In The Desert and The Drum the gatherings and get-togethers of young people are often filled with music, reciting poetry, singing the ancient tunes and Saharan poems.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION
The Desert and The Drum emphasises the role of education in relation to how the individuals perceive the surrounding world and their understanding of how their own decisions impact the other members of the society. The tribal community expresses a lack of interest in the outside world as they say “what do we care what happens in those places? It’s another universe. The quarrels and wars of distant places have nothing to do with us.” This attitude does show the disconnection and the gap between the city and the rural community.
The novel insinuates that the teachers sent to the Sahara Desert are there as a punishment in some way. No teachers want to do this job in the Sahara desert with the tribal community and for that reason the likes of the teacher, Salem are sent there, not necessarily because they are the best teachers, but rather because they are the worst ones with questionable views. Therefore, the disconnection between the city and the rural society is more profoundly felt.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS
Rayhana is a fearless, reflective, resilient young woman, with a kind heart and curiosity for the world.
“I was fascinated by the traces left by these ancient hands, long – gone, but their signs still there for me, greetings from the depth of time”.
She is on a quest to find her own place in world, rejecting some aspects of the tradition she grew up in but at the same time appreciating certain values of her tribal community, especially a sense of belonging that her tribe has provided her with. She was abandoned by her father when she was just six years old and was brought up by her mother. Rayhana, however, is not a flawless character, she is full of contradictions and ambiguous observations.
Rayhana understands that the tribe oppressed her, but she is still influenced by her upbringing and looks at the outside world or different ways of living with suspicion.
“I began to feel more and more disdain for the town and everyone in it. People seemed to have forgotten what they’d been only yesterday, what their fathers and fathers’ fathers had been. They were content to no longer be nomadic, to no longer feel the sun on their heads. (…) They were proud of all that; they thought it meant they could look down on those of us who had stayed as we were, we hadn’t succumbed to the temptations of the new”.
Rayhana is rather torn between two different worlds. Sometimes she is unable to see other people’s plights within her own tribe, especially the predicament of slaves in her camp. She shows a lack of understanding for her best friend, Mbarka, a young woman who was one of the slaves in her camp and who had fled the camp some time before Rayhana’s leaving the desert life. She finds it difficult to understand why Mbarka wanted to flee if compared to other slaves she was treated well. Rayhana is a complex, nuanced character, with rich inner life and many observations. As the story progresses, she finds herself alone in the world and forced to find her own path in the world.
Rayhana’s mother is resilient, but an extremely ambiguous character within the frames of strict tradition she was born into. As a younger woman she always sought the approval of her older brother, she never made her own decisions. She was taught to follow the lead of the older man, her brother. But then she is also the one who warned Rayhana to be on guard when it comes to Yahya, the stranger who betrayed Rayhana’s trust. When it comes to parenting of children and younger adults, mothers in the camp seem to have more control than fathers or other men in the family. Aware of the strict norms within her community, Rayhana’s mother wants to protect their family name from shame because of her daughter’s unplanned pregnancy. She is the one who arranged for her grandson to be taken away. She is a victim of the system she was born into and in some way a participant in this oppressive system. “Family honour meant more to her than her daughter’s happiness”.
Massouda, the Imraguen village healer, is an older woman who is looking after Rayhana during her pregnancy. Massouda is a traditional woman but in comparison with Rayh
November 26, 2023
“I am nothing. I am the emptiness that wanders the streets in search of peace, rest, existence, life.”
“The Desert and the Drum” by Mauritanian author Mbarek Ould Beyrouk is a short read. Yet it holds profound thoughts within its pages. A young Bedouin woman named Rayhana lives with her tribe in the Sahara desert. She meets Yahya, a man who comes as part of an international mining team to the desert and pitches camp for a brief period. Rayhana gets pregnant. She gives birth. But her mother forces her to leave the baby and get married to another man. Rayhana does but she is consumed by the desire to find her child, and by the injustice of it all. And so she steals the most sacred possession of the tribe - an ancient drum - and runs away.
The story sounds ordinary when I describe it like this. Yet it goes beyond the mundane due to its lyrical prose and quirky characters Rayhana meets along the way, which include kind strangers and men with unsavoury intentions. She asks around for a girl who lived at their settlement as a slave and eventually ran away. They had been friends, and Rayhana knows Mbarka would help her.
Through her quest to find her son and Mbarka, Beyrouk cleverly takes on different voices. One is the voice of a cultural insider, of someone who is speaking as a member of the tribe, someone who has undergone a gross injustice, and someone who is a young girl. For a male author, Beyrouk is pitch perfect in this. And then there’s the voice of an observer who needs to explain to the reader, a foreigner. We understand the depth of Rayhana’s situation, the cultural pressure she is under in many moments, with Beyrouk’s unobtrusive explanations.
I felt Rayhana’s pain. And I also understood the whys, and they went beyond the reason of losing a child. I also got a great picture of Mauritanian society through the numerous characters and the kind of traditions Beyrouk deftly interweaves. The clash between the ways of the Bedouins and city-dwellers was most prominent and poignantly depicted with Rayhana trying to bridge the two. There’s a point, which shows this starkly, when it becomes necessary for Rayhana to have an ID or her “passport to civilisation” to get things done. In her world, things can be simpler.
“Why was a document required to know who someone was? Why not just use tribe, clan, family? Where I came from everyone was part of a tribe, and all the tribes spoke to and understood each other.”
There’s so much in this book. It’s a sharp observation of cultures within cultures. Of men and women. Traditions. The old and new. Tribe and city. Read it and you will be richer for it.
“The Desert and the Drum” by Mauritanian author Mbarek Ould Beyrouk is a short read. Yet it holds profound thoughts within its pages. A young Bedouin woman named Rayhana lives with her tribe in the Sahara desert. She meets Yahya, a man who comes as part of an international mining team to the desert and pitches camp for a brief period. Rayhana gets pregnant. She gives birth. But her mother forces her to leave the baby and get married to another man. Rayhana does but she is consumed by the desire to find her child, and by the injustice of it all. And so she steals the most sacred possession of the tribe - an ancient drum - and runs away.
The story sounds ordinary when I describe it like this. Yet it goes beyond the mundane due to its lyrical prose and quirky characters Rayhana meets along the way, which include kind strangers and men with unsavoury intentions. She asks around for a girl who lived at their settlement as a slave and eventually ran away. They had been friends, and Rayhana knows Mbarka would help her.
Through her quest to find her son and Mbarka, Beyrouk cleverly takes on different voices. One is the voice of a cultural insider, of someone who is speaking as a member of the tribe, someone who has undergone a gross injustice, and someone who is a young girl. For a male author, Beyrouk is pitch perfect in this. And then there’s the voice of an observer who needs to explain to the reader, a foreigner. We understand the depth of Rayhana’s situation, the cultural pressure she is under in many moments, with Beyrouk’s unobtrusive explanations.
I felt Rayhana’s pain. And I also understood the whys, and they went beyond the reason of losing a child. I also got a great picture of Mauritanian society through the numerous characters and the kind of traditions Beyrouk deftly interweaves. The clash between the ways of the Bedouins and city-dwellers was most prominent and poignantly depicted with Rayhana trying to bridge the two. There’s a point, which shows this starkly, when it becomes necessary for Rayhana to have an ID or her “passport to civilisation” to get things done. In her world, things can be simpler.
“Why was a document required to know who someone was? Why not just use tribe, clan, family? Where I came from everyone was part of a tribe, and all the tribes spoke to and understood each other.”
There’s so much in this book. It’s a sharp observation of cultures within cultures. Of men and women. Traditions. The old and new. Tribe and city. Read it and you will be richer for it.
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