The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert ’s ongoing racial reckoning has

’s ongoing racial reckoning has left readers searching for voices they can trust

but also fables and mythologies that could help explain both the world and her place in it

Nor can they see what Alejandra sees

and their estate is catalogued for potential disbursement

for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared

The Last Nomad: Coming of Age in the Somali Desert ’s ongoing racial reckoning hasPaperback, like new Born in Somalia, a spare daughter in a large family, Shugri Said Salh was sent at age six to live with her nomadic grandmother in the desert. The last of her family to learn this once common way of life, Salh found herself chasing warthogs, climbing termite hills, herding goats, and moving constantly in search of water and grazing lands with her nomadic family. For Salh, though the desert was a harsh place threatened by drought,