Siyid

This novel tells a story that is often untold, but that story is part of the experience of a growing segment of the world population; a generation of people who have spent their lives wandering the globe, hoping to return home one day to a peaceful country. With hopes of studying medicine, Chuck, a fierce nationalist and young Somali man, comes to England from socialist Somalia in 1988. As his country falls apart, descending into civil war, Chuck is forced to abandon his university course due to his inability to pay the tuition fees. Forced to stay in England without a job, his family, or money, Chuck develops a deep mistrust in the native population of England. He does not understand their culture and he is desperate to go home. Twenty years later, after seeking asylum, getting a job and starting a family in the UK, Chuck goes back to Somalia to find that everything has changed. As he struggles to come to terms with the new Somalia, he finds himself opposed to the culture and situation of the very society he thought he belonged to, and is forced to reassess his nationalism and love for his country. The men and women alike struggle under the oppression of ignorant, brutish and misogynist individuals as they fight to free themselves and take control of their own destiny. A Foreign Native is a story of integration, migration and cultural change in a globalising world. It captures the experiences of a generation of immigrants who left their country to seek meaningful lives elsewhere, telling a story that is often untold.