Camilla Gibb's Sweetness In The Belly

One of the major social issues in the book Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb is racial profiling. This book is set in two different countries from the perspective of a white Muslim named Lilly, and each chapter alternates between countries. One setting is in the city of Harar, Ethiopia, where Lilly lives throughout the very early phases of the Civil War that occurred in Ethiopia during the late 1970s. The other setting is in London, England during the middle and end of the Ethiopian Civil War where Lilly lives in a council flat with other Ethiopian Refugees (Gibb 9). The reader quickly learns that Lilly’s unusual religious and racial situation was the result of the death of her overly adventurous parents while living in Ethiopia. As a result Lilly was raised by two Islamic religious figures, The Great Abdal and Muhammed Bruce Mahmoud who introduced her to the Qur’an and the Islamic religion (11-12). Lilly’s story …show more content…
Lilly and Hussein expect to be staying in a shrine community, built in honor of an Islamic Saint, looking to receive his blessing and protection while staying and worshiping there (41-44). However, because of her race, she is dismissed from the palace immediately by the Sheikh of the shrine and forced to pay her way to live with Sheikh Jami’s youngest wives cousin, Nouria (48-50, 53). At first Lilly is judged and discriminated against for being a white Muslim, but as she ages, slowly begins connecting and building a friendship with single mother Nouria and her children. Although the Racial Profiling of Lilly does not cease within the city, eventually she becomes respected and further connected with her religion when she begins teaching the Qur’an to young children from all over the city (93). By teaching and further understanding the Qur’an