[Trigger Warning: mention of sexual violence, femicide and abuse. Please take care while reading.]
What happens to kidnapped girls after they return home? Many of us remember the news story of the Chibok elementary school girls in Nigeria being kidnapped by terrorist organization Boko Haram in 2014. For months the world rallied to amplify the atrocity of the kidnappings. But eventually, the story faded from the news. While some of the girls were eventually rescued, as of 2024, some still remain in captivity.
What we didn’t get to see or hear in the media was the voices of many of these girls after they were rescued. But through a new book is enabling readers to get a glimpse into the layered and complex journey that many of these survivors experience.
Set in the Lower Shabeele region of Somalia, ‘Winter of My Spring‘ (March 31, SparkPress) by Somalian author Fartumo Kusow tells the unforgettable story of Rada, Mika, and Sara—three young girls kidnapped and forced into child marriage. Poignant and empowering, this narrative of survival, resilience, and sisterhood celebrates the radical act of reclaiming one’s worth after society labels you broken.
For months after being kidnapped, Rada and her friends Mika and Sara live in fear and endure the harshest of conditions among their extremist kidnappers—but after Rada and Mika see Sara die as a suicide bomber, they know they must escape. After running away from their captors, Rada and Mika manage to return home, only to find themselves rejected by their community because they’ve “known a man’s bed” and are therefore, according to their customs, considered ruined and broken women.
Rada and Mika are forced to navigate a world that denies them autonomy, yet they find resilience and hope in the process of healing and self-discovery. While the novel is fiction, Fartumo draws from real life events and her own heartbreaking experience, using books and storytelling to give these girls a voice.
Born in Somalia but immigrated to Canada in 1991 at the start of Somalia’s civil war, Fartumo has written two novels that have received critical acclaim. Outside of her writing she is a mother, a caregiver, an educator, an advocate, and a podcaster. She is the creator and host of two podcasts: ‘Break the Silence, Build a Future‘, dedicated to advocacy and empowering survivors of intimate partner violence, and ‘My Mother: The Person and the Patient’.
Below is an interview where Fartumo shared with us more details about the inspiration behind ‘Winter of My Spring’ and why the theme of girls and women reclaiming their body is universal.
@fartumokusow #CapCut ♬ original sound – fartumokusow
When did you begin writing ‘Winter of My Spring’ and what events inspired the book?
I began writing ‘Winter of My Spring’ in the summer of 2014. Like the rest of the world, I watched the news of the kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram with horror, From Michelle Obama to Angelina Jolie, Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and everyone in between, people around the globe joined forces under the #BringBackOurGirls banner to demand their return.
As viral as it was, one thing was missing: the voices of the girls, their thoughts, their futures. I wondered, if those girls could speak, what would they say? So, I decided to write a story that gives the real victims a voice.
Issues such as forced and child marriage, extremism/terrorism, violence, and kidnapping are experienced by your main characters. What do you want readers to know about the things young women in Somalia face by reading about Mika, Rada, and Sara’s experiences?
This is a human story. Through Rada, Mika, and Sara, we witness how women often carry the weight of social disintegration. In the collapse of Somalia’s social, economic, and political infrastructure following the 1991 civil war, Somali women were left to shoulder the burden, often without protection. Their experience reflects a global pattern: where there is war, natural disaster, or economic collapse, women are disproportionately affected.
How do you hope your book can encourage readers in other countries, including the U.S., to think about different human rights abuses and denial of gender equality happening right here? How can we use it as a mirror to our own lived political realities right now?
Literature often serves as a reflection of our lived realities. All fictional texts take their truth from the realities of our lives. For example, Rada and Mika are denied the right to education because they “have known a man’s bed.” There is a Somali proverb that says, “When trouble is not in your house, it is in your brother’s house.” Therefore, geography that grants us safety is the same geography that separates us from the suffering of other women.
Why was it important for you to write about the denial of women’s bodily autonomy and freedom today?
I have been writing about issues that impact women since I was 14-years-old. I wrote my first work of fiction, ‘Amran’, the story of a 15-year-old girl sold by her stepfather to a man older than him. I am a firm believer that staying silent in the face of injustice gives permission for the violence to continue. Just like Nora, the woman who brutalized the girls on behalf of Shaban, and Nadia, who uplifts women despite men’s desire to subjugate them, I see that the power to destroy or uplift one woman often lies in the hands of another woman.
The theme of rediscovering your self-worth on your own terms is powerful. How have you discovered this in your own life?
Rediscovery has been a lifelong journey for me. Soon after coming to Canada at the age of 22 with two children and one on the way, my marriage began to fall apart. In that time, I had to ask myself, if I were solely responsible for raising my children, would I remain in this marriage or would I end it. It took me ten years to answer by leaving the marriage. In the twenty years that followed, I’ve discovered parts of myself I didn’t know existed, and strength I never knew I possessed.
Given the popularity of your previous books as well as your podcasts, why is it important for you to share your story and use your voice on the platforms you have today?
In my opinion, those of us with a platform to speak, no matter how small or large, bear the responsibility to use it for those with no voice. Like Nadia in ‘Winter of My Spring’, I see it as my personal responsibility to speak out, speak up, and speak loud. After losing my daughter to femicide at the hands of the man who was supposed to love her, and my mother to Alzheimer that silenced her one word at a time, I am committed to turning overwhelming pain into purpose, so that other women might see a glimmer of light in a world that is otherwise cold and uncaring.
What do you want readers to learn about or think about the most when it comes to the aftermath of captivity and survival for girls like those in your book?
It’s easy to focus on the pain the girls endure while in captivity, but just as important is examining the role the community plays afterward. These girls fight so hard to escape, only to return to a community that often deepens their pain—pushing them out, shaming them, and accusing them of being a corrupting influence on ‘innocent’ girls. In doing so, the community holds the survivors responsible for the very trauma inflicted upon them by their captors.
You can pre-order a copy of ‘Winter of My Spring’, and follow Fartumo Kusow on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and subscribe to her Youtube Channel.
