A Moonless, Starless Sky by Alexis Okeowo

Author:Alexis Okeowo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2017-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

Mogadishu was barely like what I expected. I imagined a bombed-out landscape of terror attacks and gun battles, which was true, and I thought people would be confined inside, longing for indulgences they once enjoyed. But before I even landed in April 2016, Ifrah, my twenty-three-year-old interpreter, asked if I could bring her something from Nairobi, Kenya, where I was taking a flight to the Somali capital. Would I mind packing a bottle of tequila? As I bought one in a duty-free store in the airport, the shop employees advised me on the best way to stow it in my luggage to avoid it being detected by the Mogadishu airport staff who searched your suitcases for contraband when you landed. I would have to keep it in my tote bag because, as it dawned on me, alcohol is banned in Somalia. As I landed in Mogadishu and arrived at the inspectors, I wondered why I had ever agreed to bring tequila to a conservative Muslim country, but I made it through undetected.

I had arranged to stay at a place called Peace Hotel, where aid workers, foreign correspondents, and other Western visitors liked to put themselves up. A concierge of sorts from the hotel met me at arrivals and ushered me outside into a dense heat that slathered my skin. He walked me to the parking lot, past a checkpoint where a security guard was only letting in people with passports and tickets, to another man who guided me into an armored black sport utility vehicle and then climbed into the driver’s seat. The door was so heavy it took several tries for me to close it. We drove out of the airport, through more checkpoints manned by Ugandan soldiers who looked bored and wary, and then by the Green Zone, where the United Nations, foreign embassies, and African Union peacekeepers all shared a fortified base. After a few moments, we reached the hotel. When I asked the receptionist why I needed an armored car for the short ride from the airport, she told me with delight that it would withstand bomb blasts: “You will just bounce!”

I had come to Mogadishu to meet the girls playing basketball despite the threats to their lives. I had seen a photo essay of some of the players a few years earlier, and thought they were some of the bravest people I had ever heard of. It was both an ordinary and rare kind of bravery, the kind that they didn’t think about every day because they were just trying to live their lives, but that was incredible considering the danger they faced.

Aisha was now seventeen. When we first met at a game, I was talking to a group of giggly players in the bleachers, and she came and sat next to us. Without much prompting, Aisha immediately began telling me about some of her perilous encounters. Beautiful and outspoken, her face was endearingly expressive. She had a tiny gold nose ring that it took a few long looks at her to notice.

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