Matria in Contemporary Somali Literature in Italian: Mapping Articulations of Female Solidarity and Resistance

Abstract

This article discusses Matria as a concept for mapping and interpreting the forms of solidarity between women in texts by contemporary postcolonial Somali writers in Italian. The article analyses the recurrent presence of pairs of female characters, whose reciprocal support creates a gendered and intersectional long-lasting form of solidarity, and the dynamic intersection of female gender with various forms of political, national, cultural, social identity in Kaha Mohamed Aden’s anthology Fra-intendimenti, Ubah Cristina Ali Farah’s novels Madre piccola and Il comandante del fiume, and Igiaba Scego’s novels Rhoda and Oltre Babilonia. In these texts, empowering sisterhood is played out through the exclusion of the male concept of homeland/fatherland, allowing new forms of resistance. I elaborate and distance myself from previous uses of Matria and redefine it as the umbrella term under which this dynamic relational network and its imagery can be understood.