A Postcolonial Perspective: Law and the Literary World

This commentary shows the advantages of a postcolonial approach to law and literature, using Nuruddin Farah’s novel Maps as a suggestive case study to examine Somalia’s laws and literature and the colonial context embedded in both. Whereas Western and European juridical systems are often silent referents in law and literature scholarship, my reading of Maps also places it in dialogue with Somali customary laws and culture. I conclude my commentary by bringing together the history of Somali customary law and my reading of Maps to offer methodological suggestions for law and literature given this particular postcolonial perspective