Valerie Browning
By Alison Preston
Maalika is a gripping memoir by
Australian Valerie Browning about her
remarkable life in the Horn of Africa.
After a confronting introduction to Ethiopia
as a naïve graduate nurse during a famine in
1973, Valerie worked in a Sudanese refugee
camp and conflict-torn Eritrea and Djibouti
before settling in Ethiopia with her husband
Ismael.
This dynamic partnership between a Muslim Afar elder and a Christian from central NSW is a wonderful love story. It’s also a frank account of two vastly different people struggling to hold together a family despite their own desperate poverty and their costly commitment to improve the lives of Afar people.
Naturally outspoken, Valerie is also honest
about the challenge of living out her faith
amidst tragedy. “We saved a lot of patients,
but there were some whom we did not save,”
Val writes.
“On one awful day a mother lost three children.
In the morning she brought a sick girl child to
me; while I was examining her, she died on my
lap. At midday another of this woman’s children
died, and, at the end of the day another. Three
children in one day. I found it hard to believe
that existence could be like that.”
“I was such an innocent. I had just finished
training in a (Sydney) hospital with an
intensive care ward boasting all the equipment
to save children’s lives you could want. For
the first time in my life, I realised that there
were glaring inequalities in the world. This
revelation filled me with anger. I wished that I
could change things, but the injustice was so
great and so widespread that I wondered what
difference once person could make.”
Valerie’s memoir is a powerful story of how one woman can make a profound difference. These days Valerie owns just a handful of clothes, a wedding ring, and a tattered bible. Now completely at home in Afar culture, Valerie is known as Maalika, which can mean ‘Queen’ or ‘angel’ in the Afar language.
The harsh sun and dry wind have weathered
her complexion, and she spends her time in
remote communities, rising with the sun and
sleeping out under the stars.
Although Valerie believes she is called to
dedicate her life to the Afar, she is honest
about the costs of taking on her husband’s way
of life, and the dilemmas of being a Christian
married to a Muslim.
“I’ve had some big downs, and I’ve begged God to get me out of this,” Valerie writes. “Each time the answer is definite: ‘No, I am giving you all that you need.’ And I get strength to go on again. You can’t underestimate God in anything. I know exactly what poverty is, and that’s an extraordinarily large privilege.”
Despite her tiny frame, Valerie is a woman
bursting with passionately-held ideas and
boundless energy – a real force to be reckoned
with.
Over the past 14 years the Afar Pastoralists
Development Association has grown into a
dynamic organisation that saves lives and
addresses the urgent lack of basic health care
and literacy in remote communities. APDA
faces an enormous challenge - one in three
Afar children die before they turn five.
With traditional and Islamic leaders, Valerie is
also thoughtfully prompting radical community
discussion about harmful practices such
as female genital mutilation (FGM), child
marriage, and the threat of HIV/AIDS. Valerie
says that in some Afar communities FGM is no
longer practiced, and she believes that in the
next 10 years it will be eradicated completely!
Modern life poses many threats to nomadic Afar culture, and Ismael and Valerie are
walking a careful line to promote the well being of one of the oldest and poorest people
groups in the world while also respecting the traditional way of life.
Valerie has been awarded the Medal of the
Order of Australia for her efforts.
The Afar Pastoralist Development Association
receives financial support from AngliCORD.
Maalika: my life among the Afar nomads of Africa, is written in collaboration with John Little, and published by Pan McMillan. Copies of Maalika are $35, including GST and postage. Order your copy of Maalika by contacting the AngliCORD office: (03) 9495 6100 or by email: apreston@anglicord.org.au