Sweetness in the Belly

Barb Bloemhof is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport
Management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Sweetness in the Belly follows the experiences of a white Sufi Muslim as
she travels from Morocco to the Ethiopian city of Harar to continue her
Qu’ranic education at the house of the Sheik. Being foreign and
associated with the wrong person, she is not welcome, and settles with a
widow in Harar for five years until being forced to leave because of a
distant association with people perceived as enemies to the Mengistu
dictatorship. Her assimilation within the Harari culture, and eventual
resettlement in London, test her faith in Islam. The novel provides one
view of what life might be for people who flee a country in upheaval
only to wait and wonder about those they left behind.

The work succeeds both as a novel and as anthropological history. Gibb,
a social anthropologist, weaves this compelling story around East
African, Harari, and Muslim cultural traditions within an essentially
accurate historical perspective. The reader gets an insight into the
experiences of members of the Ethiopian diaspora in Thatcher’s England
during the 1980s. The story draws readers in almost immediately and
holds their attention until the very end. The pace is fresh and rich,
the narrative nuanced and substantive without seeming contrived.
Sweetness in the Belly is a gem.