My Father's Legacy

In 1991, seven-year-old Halima walked out of school one day into a civil war that had erupted on the streets of her home of Mogadishu, Somalia. From that day forward, Halima's life was constantly changing, and she was finding out how strong she really was. Her father, who worked for the United Nations, had to flee the country immediately without his family. Soon Halima and her family followed when Mogadishu was covered in blood. As they worked their way away from the war torn city, the little girl watched as men and women were gunned down in the streets she once played in.

Halima's family made it to a refugee camp in Kenya, after surviving their ship sinking off the Kenyan coast, but hard times were far from over. In her memoir, My Father's Legacy: A Somali Woman's Journey from Somalia to US, author Halima Abdirazak tells her extraordinary life story in which she survives war, refugee camps, her father's death, and her own cancer diagnosis. Halima's autobiography is the story of a strong-willed, Muslim woman who was raised to believe that she had no limits in life, and she grew up to prove that.