Memory of Departure

Set in an unnamed East African coastal town in the years surrounding independence, the novel follows Hassan Omar, a young man struggling to escape the poverty, violence, and shame that define his family's life. The story traces his coming of age, his failed attempt to secure help from a wealthy uncle in Nairobi, and his eventual departure aboard a cargo ship.

The novel opens on the morning of Hassan's fifteenth birthday, a milestone that, according to his Koran school, marks the moment a boy becomes accountable to God. His mother, a woman in her early thirties who already looks much older, gives him coins for bread from a knotted handkerchief. Hassan lives in Kenge, an impoverished neighborhood near the sea where laborers, prostitutes, and drunks live among the remnants of the slave trade. Hassan often thinks of his ancestors, "chained to rings in a stone wall" (17).

Hassan's family is held together by misery and pretense. His father, once a fierce young troublemaker, is now a drinker whose rages terrify the household. His grandmother, Bi Mkubwa, is sharp-tongued and cruel. His mother endures beatings and infidelities in silence. Nobody speaks of the nights Hassan's father stumbles home drunk; by day he is treated as the wrathful master whose authority carries the weight of God.

The defining trauma of Hassan's childhood is the death of his elder brother, Said. When Hassan was five, their father beat Said with savage brutality over a misunderstanding about money Hassan had found. That same evening, Hassan found Said in bed with his shirt on fire. Hassan tried to beat the flames out but only burned his hands. Said died while Hassan watched, helpless. Their mother arrived screaming and pointed at Hassan. The family blamed him for standing by, and the accusation haunted him for years. His father beat him more often, called him a murderer, and many nights did not come home.

Hassan recalls a night during a childhood illness when his drunken father arrived, struck his mother, and raped her while Hassan lay nearby with his eyes shut. His grandmother opened her door but retreated, bolting it behind her.

As Hassan enters adolescence, he rebels. Shortly before turning fifteen, he refuses to attend the mosque and declares there is no God. His father beats him until he cries out to God, and his father screams with joy. At school, Hassan endures years of sexual harassment from older boys who target him for being quiet and frail. The torment ends only after he savagely beats a boy named Sud who has been publicly propositioning him.

Three years after independence, it becomes clear the new government's promises of opportunity are hollow. Racial quotas and identity passes are imposed, and the authorities discourage young people from leaving. Hassan's teacher urges him to go abroad. On the verge of finishing school, Hassan asks his father about going to England. His father takes the idea seriously, tracing a fanciful route on an old map, and promises to help obtain a passport. Weeks later, however, he confesses that a prison record bars him from applying. He tells Hassan he was accused of assaulting a boy and insists he was innocent.

Meanwhile, Hassan's sister Zakiya, pulled out of school at twelve, has become sexually reckless after a secretly terminated pregnancy. She moves from affair to affair, and their parents are powerless to stop her. Hassan's mother proposes that he visit her brother, Uncle Ahmed bin Khalifa, in Nairobi. When their father died, Ahmed sold the family shop and kept everything, promising the money would be available if needed. Despite years of silence, she is convinced Ahmed will help.

After months of daily visits to the Immigration Office, Hassan obtains his passport only after barging into the office of Omar Shingo, the Immigration Officer, during Ramadhan and demanding his papers. Shingo signs the documents and makes a cutting remark about Hassan's sisters, confirming Hassan's suspicion that Shingo is involved with Zakiya.

Hassan's father accompanies him to the train station, advising him not to return empty-handed. On the train, Hassan meets Moses Mwinyi, a charismatic young man who claims to be a literature student. Moses advocates for a strongman leader who would exploit minorities to build African self-sufficiency. Hassan pushes back, calling it "high-sounding hate" (87).

Hassan arrives at Ahmed's elegant Nairobi home. His cousin Salma opens the door, dismissive at first. Ahmed greets him with an amused, slightly irritated smile. Hassan quickly senses his uncle never intended to help; both Ahmed and Salma had expected an amusing visitor to laugh at, and the household's hospitality is laced with condescension. Ahmed offers Hassan a job at one of his businesses, but Hassan understands this as a face-saving gesture rather than genuine generosity.

Despite the tension, Hassan and Salma grow closer. She introduces him to her friend Mariam, a graduate student writing a dissertation on art history. At the University, no one recognizes the name Moses Mwinyi. Hassan encounters Moses again at a tourist hotel, where the supposed student is working as a money-changer and pimp.

One Saturday, Salma teaches Hassan to waltz while Ahmed is out. Ali, the household servant, interrupts with a hard, suspicious look, and Ahmed grows increasingly watchful. During Hassan's third week, Salma takes him to town. On a park bench, she takes his hand and kisses it. She asks why he will not stay, and he explains that he does not want to be dependent on her father. She reveals that her mother poisoned herself when Salma was a child and that Ahmed never speaks of it. She confesses that Ahmed's finances are strained and that before Hassan's arrival, she and her father had made fun of him.

That evening, Ahmed yanks the door open in a fury. He strikes Salma, drawing blood, and orders Hassan to leave. Hassan tells Ahmed he has dishonored himself and declares he will be back for Salma. On his bed he finds a note from Salma asking him not to forget to write, with Mariam's University address underneath.

Hassan walks through the rain to the University. The next morning, Mariam reveals the full story of Salma's mother: Ahmed accused his wife and a female friend of having an affair, attacked the friend, and confined his wife. The woman eventually poisoned herself. Mariam believes Ahmed may one day take his own life when Salma learns the truth. She accompanies Hassan to the station and kisses him goodbye.

Back home, Hassan tells his mother everything. His father laughs, saying it served "the fucking miser right" (173). Bi Mkubwa, gravely ill, is taken to a decrepit hospital ward and dies the following day. There is no doctor to sign the death certificate; Hassan's father bribes a nurse. The funeral procession is sparse.

Zakiya, despite the family's pleas, moves into a room supported by a boyfriend. The government releases examination results, and Hassan has done well enough for university, but there is no money for fees. His mother insists he must leave rather than settle for teachers' college. Zakiya calls him afraid, and he admits she is right. He falls into hopelessness, wandering the docks, until he asks his mother to have his father use old contacts to find him work on a ship.

The final chapter is a letter dated 29 October 1968, written aboard the SS Alice, where Hassan works as a medical orderly between Bombay and Madras. He describes a dirty vessel carrying poor passengers in a converted hold with rows of metal bunks. He writes about his homesickness, his fear of forgetting the streets and names of home, and the years he spent gathering resentments in silence. He tells Salma he dreams and thinks about her endlessly, signing the letter "Much love, Hassan" (187).