Black Mamba Boy (2010), the debut novel of Nadifa Mohamed, is a semi-autobiographical account of her father's life in Yemen in the 1930s and 40s, during the colonial period through a character called Jama.

[1] It also recounts his trek through Sudan, Egypt, Palestine and the Mediterranean, before eventually settling in the United Kingdom.

[2] Jama's journey starts from Aden, Yemen, in 1935, after the death of Ambaro, his mother, and ends in Port Talbot, Wales, in 1947.

According to the author: "When my grandmother was heavily pregnant with my father, she was following her family’s caravan and she got lost and separated from the others.

She sat down to rest under an acacia tree and a black mamba snake crept upon her belly before slithering away, leaving her unharmed.