When I was ten years old, growing up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, one evening, I watched a young boy (about eight years old) with his mother, begging. I wondered why I was in the comfort of a car, enjoying an icecream treat and he was on the sidewalk begging? I couldn’t understand so I went back to find him, but never saw him. For a very long time, I would think of him and try to figure out how he’d have spent his day and survived—not realizing that I was writing The Beggar’s Dance all along. It took me many years to understand that there was nothing special about me; I was just born lucky. This childhood encounter was the seed that led to the unfolding of Juma’s story.
The protagonist, Juma, is my imagination of a beggar I once met. He seeks freedom from the life of a beggar. It’s his inner spirit that leads him on a journey of hope and survival.
Source: farida somjee: What inspired me to write my first Novel – The Beggar’s Dance
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