This is The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed.
It was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. Set in 1952 in Cardiff’s multicultural Tiger Bay. It follows the story of Mahmood Mattan, a settled Somali Sailor with a Welsh wife and two young children. He is accused of a brutal murder that occurs in the town. As the plot develops, his chance of freedom and proving his innocence dwindles as the ingrained racism and speculation in the small community builds against him.
As the story is based on a true miscarriage of justice of a Cardiff-Somali Man, it is difficult to avoid ‘spoiling’ the end of this book for you. It is a part of Cardiff’s history, his families history and the history of the British Justice system. Mahmood Mattan’s case became the first miscarriage of justice ever rectified by the British court system.
But to say that the point of Nadifa Mohamed’s book was to bring this fact to light would be wrong. Her narrative gives a voice to the wrongly accused and targeted black man in a white justice system, where none of the odds are ever in his favour. Rather that this story being told by the white lawyers defending him in court, or the police officer profiling him, this is Mahmood’s voice, narrative, and unfortunately his death. Whilst the real Mahmood’s family have now sadly passed, I think Nadifa Mohamed’s fictionalisation of his plight gives a more personal and emotive edge to what is already obviously a very sad story.
Culture and Religion
Nadifa Mohamed is a British-Somali author. I think her cultural background is important in her telling of the tale because of course, Mahmood Mattan is Somali. The nature of Mahmood’s story makes his consciousness integral to the plot and the emotion in it. So having the narrative full of the Somali language and, more beautifully I think, Muslim prayers gives Mahmood’s point of view and his affirmation of his innocence realism to the plot, and definitely more poignancy. His musings in his own language, the muttering of the odd-prayers, injects the humanity back into this story that is so coldly told in the Wikipedia article and probably on Law websites.
I did not check the true history much as I read, but I could tell that Nadifa Mohamed certainly did her research. Despite the nature of the tale, I can imagine it would have been so interesting diving into different archives around the country especially in Cardiff’s archives where the ports, like where I live in Liverpool, have bred such a unique history into the city.
Story structure
I knew, going into reading this, it was based on a true miscarriage of justice. Therefore, I felt it would be easy for any author to make the retelling of such a story a kind of campaign for the injustice to be righted, but I think rightly Nadifa Mohammed doesn’t' do this.
Rather the book (especially the beginning to middle of the book) is divided. Firstly, there is Mahmood Mattan's wrongful arrest and then there is the victim's family experience of the horrific Murder. Whilst the author shows the callousness and senselessness of Mattan's wrongful arrest, all those years ago, she does not shy away from displaying the suddenness and senselessness of the crime which was at the centre of the trial, the murder of Violet Copek. The separation of both families, particularly at the beginning of the novel, demonstrates Mahmood’s later musings when he is in the prison cell. How, despite being born in different countries at different times, his fate and Violet Copek’s fate would one day be tied today due to one occurrence or one action of another. Each narrative becomes a ‘thread’ through the novel where their fates and account become more and more intwined.
Loss
I think the despite Mahmood not being the murderer (spoiler not spoiler), it was still important for Nadifa to have the murder victim’s family present and given equal humanity in the story. Their story fades out slightly, especially around the trial, but you never forget the loss they have incurred from this crime too. You are allowed to have sympathy for both families, without your sympathy for one detracting from another, even though in the court they are on opposite sides. The loss on each side is shared- nobody wins when a senseless, uncontrolled death occurs.
This book is about literal injustice, the type you see in courts and as a result of institutional racism. It is also about the injustice of life that it can be snatched away, cruelly, leaving loved ones behind trying to understand the senselessness of it all behind those feeling a sense of injustice from having lost.
Justice and the Truth
As the guards in the prison say to Mahmood, most men in his position would have confessed by now to the crime whether or not they had done it to try for leniency with the judges verdict. Mahmood remains true to himself, leaning more and more as the novel moves on into the faith of his youth back in Somalia. He reflects on leaving his country and getting involved in drinking, gambling and women as feeling distance from Allah. This musing reminds him however that his god is merciful, and it is the faith from his childhood that he retreats into as the wall of the law literally close in on him.
There is a lot of this book that I can’t stop thinking about despite having finished it. The main thing for me was finding out how long Mahmood’s Welsh wife Laura who campaigned for his innocence after his death. From the moment it happened, which she is not told about until afterwards, she begins what is literally a lifelong campaign to clear Mahmood’s name - 46 years. I think that faith in innocence and that the Love that Laura so clearly had for Mahmood is something that Nadifa Mohamed captures, and it is what remains with you after you close the cover.
I didn’t Spoil it for you – I promise !
Knowing what happens to Mahmood Mattan is not the point of this book (So, I haven’t spoiled it for you!!). This book gives the emotion and humanity back into these lives that have, for far too long, been locked up in court documents and old newspapers. Mahmood was a Sailor, a Muslim, a husband and a father.
Finally, Do I think this should have won the Booker Prize?
Well, It was obvious when reading it why it was nominated. But, I don't know because I haven't read the others !!! HAHA
Add comment
Comments