While reading Maps, we can see that it is a story mainly about occupied and mutilated Somalia. To explore and illustrate that idea, Nuruddin Farah uses the character of Askar, a little boy who does not know who he is or where he belongs to. When his mother died, that was Misra, whose national identity is questioned, who kept him. She actually becomes almost his mother. The passage we are going to focus on is quite interesting because it illustrates a major event in Askar’s evolution as a grown-up and also as a Somali citizen. Indeed, Askar is finally separated from Misra and he enters now the world of Hilaal and Salaado. We shall then wonder in what way does this passage embody a relevant step in Askar’s construction of an identity. Dealing first the unique set-up and the shifty gender roles of Hilaal and Salaado, then we will focus on Askar’s relationship with Salaado as a substituted mother, finally we will analyze the notion of Askar’s personal and national evolution.

When Askar arrives in Mogadiscio, Salaado and Hillal take care of him and contribute to his intellectual and physical formation. They form a modern and unconventional couple, with a “reversal of male and female role” as Askar underlines it. They are both intellectual and teachers, but while Salaado is teaching things to Askar, Hilaal focuses more on the house chores: cooking, washing up and drying the dishes, he isn’t dependant on his wife for pressing his clothes for example. Askar says that Hilaal is more “on the periphery of life”: he teaches him little, practical things, while Salaado teaches him the essential. The fact of seeing a male doing the washing up was striking at that time. In a way, it shows Salaado and Hilaal’s open-mindedness. Askar considers their couple as a “unique set-up”: he has the impression of being part of something special and he considers himself as “fortunate”. In fact, Askar is deeply admiring his Uncle and Aunt. He senses in them a kind of superiority above