The White Mosque

Reviewed by: Elma Ruth Harder, Muslim Education Foundation, Canada

Published by: London:, C. Hurst & Co., 2022, 336 pp. ISBN: 9781787388079.

How do we enter the stories of others? Self-described as a secular Mennonite, the daughter of a Muslim Somali father and Mennonite American mother, Sofia Samatar answers her own question as she steps under the lintel of so many openings to “the other”. Through the lens of a two-week trip to Uzbekistan, this memoir chronicles a well-known “implausible story” in Mennonite history, interlaced with her own personal journey and the tales of many others.

In three parts, each with three sections, Samatar leads us through a layered collage with a plethora of characters. The Great Trek forms the Leitmotif, following the wagons and then camels of the Mennonite families who left the Molotschna Colony in 1880 (present-day Ukraine) as they were led by charismatic Claas Epp Jr. to the place in Central Asia where he prophesied they would see Jesus Christ’s return on March 8, 1889. They were fervent followers. They endured physical hardship and unimaginable losses, all the while singing the hymn Unser Zug geht durch die Wüste... (Through the desert goes our journey, to the blessed promised land). They never did find what they were seeking. The trail of their sad tale weaves throughout this mosaic of stories.