Books by Kola Boof  

Nile River Woman (Poems, Feb. 10, 2004)  / Long Train to the Redeeming Sin-Stories About African Women (April 6, 2004)

 Flesh and the Devil: A Novel (May 11, 2004)  /   Diary of a Lost Girl (2007)

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A Chronology of the Life of Author Kola Boof
Compiled by Hans Vollokerk. Verified by Kola Boof

Please note that in the interest of police-advised safety measures . . . some of the information contained in this chronology, such as the use of certain people's real names, is edited. Notice the true birth name of Kola Boof and the real names of her birth parents are listed here for the very first time ever (at the permission of Ms. Boof)...but in other instances, false names are given to protect the identity of Uncles, Aunts or former boyfriends who don't want their names given.


1969
Probably born on March 3 (exact date unknown)...definitely born as Naima Bint Harith, on the Nile River in a little house in Omdurman, Sudan to Arab-Egyptian Muslim Archeologist Harith Bin Farouk (he later chose Kolbookek to signify ancient Egyptian Coptic ties) and a blue black Gisi-Waaq Oromo nomad Somali mother, Jiddi (who was purchased by Harith Bin Farouk at 14 for marriage. He was probably in his thirties). Naima was the 7th child born to Harith and Jiddi...the first girl and the only child not stillborn. Naima is given the customary "female genital circumcision" at some point between birth and the next 3 years.

1970
Lived with parents in Omdurman not far from the Cobra Movie house and the infamous prisoner for political prisoners...

1971
1972
1973

1974
Traveled with Pappuh Mahdi on excavations to Meroe, Napata, the area now called Lake Nuba...which Harith Bin Farouk fought mightily against the plans for...and also traveled to excavations in Kenya and Yemen with Pappuh Mahdi. Boof called her father, as many Nubian children in Arab communities would call their father...Mahdi Pappuh or Pappuh Mahdi. Strange, however, as Boof is not Nubian.

1975
1976
1977

1978
Naima went with her Pappuh Mahdi to the home of Dr. John Garang, who was then a member of the ruling goverNment. She played at his house on the floor while her father and Garang discussed "unusual atrocities" unfolding in the country. Boof remembers Garang as a "very sweet, gentle big man. He pinched my cheeks and said that I was pretty". One day, while on the way to an escavation with father--Naima and her father saw a slave raid in a Southern Nuer village. Western tribal people were rounding up the villagers and Naima's father discovered that Arab political groups were financing such raids.

As well, Naima noticed her father continually agitated by the planning of Lake Nuba (probably the richest archeological site in Sudan...a valley comprised of the ancient Nubian pyramids containing the history of Nilotic Blacks...Harith was against Egypt putting a lake and creating a damn, which effectively covered and destroyed the pyramids).

The growing intimidation against citizens, Arab and African Black alike, by the government's coming regime--Bashir and his ilk--also worried Naima's father. Naima witnessed her Arab Muslim uncle complain bitterly after a Muslim woman was rolled up in a carpet and set on fire for not baring any sons, only daughters.

Nubians, Dinka and Nuer tell Naima's father stories about racially motivated violent attacks on Southern Africans by Arab police, soldiers and other officials. The stories seem unlikely at first...but begin to be undeniable. Naima's father then speaks out against these injustices to his fellow Arab Muslims . . . sometimes on the street in public in Omdurman.

Harith Bin Farouk was warned several times, in front of Naima, that "the evil eye" might be turned on him. One night....murahleen arrived and executed Harith Bin Farouk and his wife Jiddi in the back yard of their home. In the next 3 days, Naima was sent to her grandmother and uncles in Egypt by her Aunt Kar..her mother's best friend. At the funeral for Harith and Jiddi...Naima met her two younger brothers (the sons of her father by an Ethiopian mistress that Naima and her mother had known nothing about). The sons shunned Naima, jealous that she had the luxury of the father's constant attention. Once in Egypt, Naima's grandmother, Najet, decided that the girl was too "darkskinned" to live a healthy assimilated life in the father's Egyptian family. They had worked for a long time to rid the family of "blood abeed". Naima was one day called into the house from playing...placed in the arms of a White British man...and taken away to London.

1979
Naima was placed with an Ethiopian family in London. Unfortunately, the White man did not understand African cultures. He told the family about the girl's misfortunes. Instead of feeling sorry for the child--they worried that Naima might be a "witch" (jinn, etc.). First of all, the child's mother had bore 6 stillborn boy-children in a row. Naima came out and survived. Next, the child's own parents were killed in a very unusual and mysterious circumstance. The Ethiopian family then added to that...their annoyance at the girl's high intelligence (they felt she had grown-up eyes) and her "non-feminine" habit of talking all the time, asking questions and asserting her opinion. They made arrangements to get rid of the child. Naima was then placed, after about 10 months with the Ethiopians...with an African-American military family in Washington, D.C. She left for America in November of 1979.

In the presence of Black American adoptive mother, Naima realizes that she has been genitally circumcised. The American woman, in horror, points this out to the child. Before then, Naima had not noticed it.

1980
1981
1982
1983

1984
Naima reads her first novel, Jaqueline Sussann's "Valley of the Dolls". The novel is such an escapist page turner that Naima reads it four times (Kola Boof continues to credit this pop-escapism novel as the book that got her "addicted" to reading). Finally one day, she is in a book store and comes across a book that has a little black girl on the cover who, to Naima, looks Sudani. She buys the book...it's "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison. To Naima, who is having terrible troubles adjusting to an American culture that hates African people (their looks, their hair, etc.)...she feels that "Bluest Eye" is the first time since she's been in America that someone has told her the truth. She seeks out any and everything written by Toni Morrison...which leads her to Alice Walker and Gayl Jones. She is also moved by Richard Wright's "Black Boy" and reads that book 3 times. Then she discovers African cinema at the art houses and becomes a huge fan of Senegal's Ousmane Sembene (the man to whom Long Train to the Redeeming Sin is dedicated to).

1985
Reads Jean Toomer's CANE. Can't get through "Gone With the Wind". Falls in love with the 1930 film "Freaks". Begins actively tracking down old movies from the 1930s...which leads to a passion for silent films. Notably 1920's films..."Flesh and the Devil" with Greta Garbo is a favorite along with a silent film called "Last Train to the Redeeming Sin" (the title of which Kola uses for a poem).

1986
Kola becomes inspired by the 1920's French silent filmmaker Abel Gance. Becomes a big fan of Louise Brooks, Clara Bow and Betty Boop. Reads Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man".

1987
At 17 Naima loses her virginity to her first love--a Black American Howard University student named "Truce" (he is 21 but has been buttering up Naima since she was 14). Naima feels that she is in love with Truce and believes everything he says. Unfortunately, he gets another teen pregnant and dumps Naima.

Naima wins Miss Fire and Safety Pageant in Fairfax, Virginia. However, when the pageant officials discover she is only 17 (she had to be 18)...the crown is taken away. Naima becomes the mistress of one of the Judges...a 43 year old White businessman. He rents her an apartment and gets her a car, which she begins driving illegally.

1988
Naima continues as a mistress. Writes a novel called "Come and Get These Memories" (escapist trash-unsubmitted/lost). Submitts poetry to magazines--gets rejected. Loses all confidence as a writer and dreams of acting. Wants to be the new "Bette Davis" and has a guilty pleasure for "Joan Crawford". Admires Meryl Streep greatly. Has secret romantic crush on rapper Tupak Shakur, which goes on for years. Is in love with Black teen actor Lorenz Tate (another fantasy for years).

1989
Continues as mistress. Naima has an abortion (fearing her child with a White man won't have "African hair"--which Naima calls "the proof"). Writes a good novel, "The Beauty That Hides Their Faces" (unsubmitted/now lost). Writes a sci-fi movie script, "Nucleus" (unsubmitted/now lost).

1990
Continues as mistress.
Writes first versions of the stories that will later become "The Lioness" and "Black America Diva Girl". Writes a lot of poems (unsubmitted).

1991
Continues as mistress.
Naima is deeply affected by Alice Walker's "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens" and declares herself a "womanist".
Fails attempt to write a novel version of the short story "Black America Diva Girl".

1992
White lover dumps both Naima and his White wife to marry his fantasy woman--a Naomi Campbell lookalike (he has always had fetish for Naomi Campbell). Naima is now in big trouble. Establishes platonic friendship with another White man--a homosexual Jewish friend of her lover's who is a filmmaker. He admires Naima's "tragic qualities" and thinks that she can be a model and actress if she comes with him to Tel Aviv. She declines the invitation at that time and goes instead to Long Island New York to stay with a girlfriend. While in Long Island, she meets a Black American ("Simon Brown") studying marine biology. They begin dating and soon Naima moves into his apartment.

1993
Naima follows "Simon Brown" to Martha's Vineyard. Woods Hole. Naima suffers with infibulations problems, requiring hospitalization, as sexual intercourse is painful for her with Simon . She writes a novel, "Touch Me In the Morning" (pure trash).

1994
Begins writing her now best friend, radio talk show host and columnist Alicia Banks. Gets dumped by "Simon Brown", because of his troubles penetrating her, which has caused him to cheat consistently throughout the relationship.

1995
Naima contacts the homosexual Jewish filmmaker friend to borrow money. He has a better idea--she should come to Tel Aviv with him. She goes. Unfortunately, once there, he falls on hard times he hadn't expected, including gaybashing towards himself and racist reactions to Naima. Naima runs away and gets to Egypt. Then to Sudan. Then to Kenya. Then back to Egypt. Then to Libya and finally settles in Morocco. She has been appearing in low budget Arabic B-movies, usually dancing nude in the films with only two or three lines...she has also been a party girl at Arabic government functions. These parties have allowed her to mingle with most of the men who run North Africa--including Mubarak, Khadafi, Bashir and especially, Hassan Turabi. She is writing poems about the war in Sudan at this time and about the "racial colorism" that has marked her life as a Black woman who looks black in Arab countries--she feels her blackness prevents her from rising above "party girl".

In Morocco, Naima is arrested for prostitution after knocking on the hotel room door of a visiting French film producer. Naima wants him to grant her an audition for his next French film--which would be a huge step up from the Arabic B-pictures she has appeared in. The Producer is not in the room. Unfortunately, the hotel workers think that Naima must be a prostitute. They tell Police, in front of her, that all young and pretty Black women in Morocco are "prostitutes--because no decent man would have them for wives". The Police arrest Naima, putting her on record as a prostitute, but letting her go the same afternoon.

1996
Begins reading her poetry in tents and women's meetings around Morrocco. Becomes very impassioned about the rights of homosexual Morroccan women who are being violently abused. Is writing short stories "Own Me Night", "Nile River Bride" and "Arrogance". These are first versions that will not be published.

Lonely for "real authentic love"....Naima writes "Black Beauty's Totem"...her most favorite of all the poems she's ever written. She envisions a beautiful African king who will rise out of her misery and steal her away to a heaven (in death) where they will love one another and be joined together forever...as a God and Goddess. She envisions the European, Arabic and Muslim cultures as the "locusts" depicted in the poem. Her "purple folds" represents Africa and the continuous re-birth of African people.

At a restaurant she meets Osama Bin Laden. He decides that he wants to have her as one of his "pets". He has his men bring her over to his table at the restaurant--he does not care that Naima is with a date already. He can make her life hell in Marrakech if she does not comply. He goes to visit her at her hotel. He takes her against her will. He continues to visit her. He goes back and forth to Sudan but he moves Naima to a suite at the La Maison Arabe and comes whenever he likes for four months. Naima is not allowed to go anywhere but to shop. Sometimes, he beats her, because she is not easily penetrated by him and doesn't want to have sex because of pain. When the police arrive they only tell him to beat her "more quietly". After four months of sexual experience with Bin Laden....Naima doesn't see him for two months straight. He informs her by phone that their fling is over. She is to move out of the suite--he wants to install another girl.

Finally free, Naima sells some of the gifts he gave her and uses the money to go to London. Before leaving for London, She meets Ethiopian businessman Russom Damba. He becomes like a wise grandfather to her. Naima tries to interest him in raising money to finance her screenplay, but he cannot attain that kind of money. Instead, he thinks that her writing is her real "talent". He tries to encourage her to think about writing a book.

Kola meets the love of her life on a weekend in London...a Black man and immigrant to America who is already in America's Navy. Naima become pregnant by him, but doesn't tell him. He leaves her after a six month affair and returns to America . . . thinking that they are broken up.

1997
Before leaving Morocco for Spain, Naima gives poetry recitals and angers Moroccan religious officials with a public speech in which she denounces bigotry and oppression against homosexuals, specifically lesbians in Morocco. She is ordered by Police to leave the country. Her passport will not be honored any longer.

Russom Damba sets up a tiny printing press in Rabat, Morocco. He publishes the book "Every Little Bit Hurts" (crediting Naima as "KOLA BOOF"--the new name she wants). The book is in Arabic initially and is quietly sold amongst Muslim women and feminists in Morocco, Sudan, Egypt and Libya. Eventually, word spreads to the Imams and other Islamic officials. There is an outcry. A French woman who is interested in the book gets permission from Russom to produce 150 copies of a French version of the book which then establishes Kola Boof in France.

Russom prints the book in English and establishes a cult following for Kola Boof in London.

Kola Boof gives birth to a son and goes to California to introduce the Black immigrant father to the baby. He wants Kola and the baby to stay in his house for a longer visit. He and Kola renew their romance and he asks her to move in with the baby permanently. Kola remains with him in California but returns a few times throughout 1997 to North Africa and London. She also gets to finally meet (in person) her best friend, talk show host and columnist Alicia Banks.

1998
Kola is back in Spain trying to secure financing for a remake of "RAIN" to star herself as Niggy Farrow (her re-envisioned Sadie Thompson), receives the phone call from Osama Bin Laden, inwhich he complains bitterly about her portrayal of Islam, Arabs and her flagrant betrayal of Sudan in the poetry collection "Every Little Bit Hurts". Tells Boof by telephone: "If I had the time to waste, I would come and slit your throat myself."

As the year ends, her book of short stories..The Goddess Flowers...is released in Morrocco, Sudan, Egypt, France, England and South Africa. Russom Damba is further convinced that Kola Boof has a special gift for writing...not acting. He tries to get money to launch the book in America, but initially fails.

Kola Boof gives birth to a second son by her true love...the Belizian-American. He has now started his own business and Kola is to asked to return to California--permanently.

1999
Kola very happily joins her Black immigrant lover and their two sons in his house in California. Kola writes a script called "Stoned Love" about a woman in Sudan stoned to death by Muslims for having a love affair with the ghost of a dead man who lives inside a tree. Her baby boys, however, now stop her from jumping up and running to seek film financing. The people around her insist that "writing" is her true calling--not filmmaking.

2000

Kola Boof attempts to sell a novel "Love Is the Drug" to Viking Publishing in New York. They tell her that she definitely has talent, but reject the manuscript citing Boof as a very "unconventional and bizzare writer". They call her work "disturbing".

Boof, who loves cooking, then tries to convince both the E Channel and The Food Network that she should have her own cooking show. Both networks reject the idea. BET refuses to even meet with her, but do watch a video that she submitts.

2001
Kola Boof's short story collection, The Goddess Flower, is published in the United States by Russom Damba's North African Book Exchange--but he retitles the book "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin: Stories About African Women". He feels that the American Blacks will love Kola and begins enundating them with letters and free preview copies. Kola's feelings are hurt when Eso Won Books in Los Angeles reacts with laughter--taunting and making fun of her nude image on the back of the book and calling the title of the book "bizzare". Similar snotty attitudes from the people at HueMan Experience in Denver greet her...as well as rebukeful letters from several key academics at Harvard University. However...Troy Johnson at the African American Literary Book Club agrees to promote Kola's book...because he feels that the public should be given the chance to decide (for themselves) if they like Kola Boof or not.

Yi Nee Ling is hired by Russom Damba to create a publicity campaign. Ling immediately insists that the internet is the fastest, cheapest way to market Kola Boof. When the details of Kola's life are told to Yi Nee Ling...the woman finds Kola's life so overwhelming and larger than life...that she decides the only way to market Boof is as "a mysterious figure". "The African Garbo", as Ling told the N.Y. Times.

Kola debuts first...at www.aalbc.com....and on University campuses. 5,000 free copies of her book are shipped to colleges, newspapers and the Black media. There is hardly a response from the media or the college academics.

BUT the Black book buying public chuckles at Kola's boldness...they like her nerve and start to buy the book and say nice things about her.

Students at UCLA and Harvard University begin a word of mouth campaign for Kola Boof....and it seems that the author, not necessarily her books, are now the main focus of whatever public attention she receives. Whenever Boof tries to discuss her books...the questions always stray from her writing...the people want to know about KOLA. They sense a greater purpose than merely the books, because ofcourse, the public is smart...and Black people can sense she's trouble...but she's the kind of trouble they can appreciate and respect.

2002
Kola Boof becomes an internet phenomenon. Her books sell briskly, but not very strong at first. She completes her memoirs, "Diary of a Lost Girl". The book is scheduled, initially, to be launched in the summer of 2002..then it's pushed back to September of 2002...and finally pushed to January of 2003. Then...it's cancelled altogether, as death threats, growing publicity and the success of "Long Train" take center stage.

Death threats plague the author starting in February of 2002 and culminate in a shootout in August of 2002...followed by a scathing article on Sept. 15th in London's largest daily Arabic newspaper, Al-Sharq Al-aswat, inwhich Sudanese diplomat Gamal Ibrahaim denounces Kola Boof. This, ofcourse, is unheard of--a "female" having an entire article devoted to her in an Arab Muslim newspaper. Not only that. But a female who lives in America. That in itself was a very ominous sign.

Then on October 26h of 2002...Boof is informed by SPLA people in London that the NIF is issuing "fatwa" on her. Boof laughs it off--citing the fact that they are not qualified to issue a fatwa. She says that a fatwa is a legal decision that only a cleric can assign. But then Kola Boof speaks with Gamal Ibrahaim and NIF leader Hussan Turabi (whom Kola knew briefly, and intimately, in Sudan and Kenya). Both men tell Kola that a "fatwa" has been issued on her life...they vow to see it carried out and promise that she will die.

White Women With Voices, a group in California, begins to picket against Kola Boof's work and causes a huge 6 month long controversy in "Sister-2-Sister" magazine after UCLA students (black girls) go crazy over the book that starts in January of 2002.

"Long Train to the Redeeming Sin" then hits #2 at aalbc.com in March of 2002. By December of 2002...the book is declared the #1 bestseller for the entire YEAR at the African American Literary Book Club. It has also seen big gains at Amazon.com and has been a top seller at key bookstores like SisterSpace in Washington, D.C.

A December feature article on Kola Boof in the New York Times is the cause of the greatly increased sales. Unfortunately, the article is also a vicious attack on Boof's credibility as according to the Times Staff...Gerald Boyd of the New York Times has expressed his feeling that Boof is unfairly prejudiced against Arabs and Muslims and needed to be "confronted". Boof acknowledges that she herself has never spoken to Gerald Boyd, but has only been told of his disparaging comments from Times staff.

Before that, Boof's appearances on major radio programs in Washington, D.C. (both Joe Madison and Nkenge Toure) and in Los Angeles (Carl Nelson at singer Stevie Wonder's KJLH) and in Atlanta (Wannique Shabazz) and on USA Radio News Network (Charlie Butts)...these appearances helped to give Kola Boof name recognition nationwide.

A taped television appearance on The Fox Channel, however, is shelved for mysterious reasons. Kola Boof gives them a one hour interview in Los Angeles, but the New York bosses at the network pull the plug. Rumor has it that the interview is being saved until "the war with Iraq" gets going. Another rumor is that Boof's winning defense of Amiri Baraka's poetry and the anti-slavery group CSI had something to do with it. Another rumor is that Kola Boof is just too wild for the ultra-conservative bent of The Fox Channel.

Russom Damba (now 78) has decided to let Kola Boof go from her contract at North African Book Exchange (the imprint that he started, originally, just to publish her books). Damba cites the August 2002 vandalizing of his printing press in Morocco and the death threats that he and his family have been receiving as the reasons that he dropped Kola Boof....in a larger reality....he is releasing her to make it possible for much bigger, American publishing companies to sign her and distribute her work to a larger audience. He continues to be a close friend of hers and he continues to provide her with PR services (such as this chronology report). Unfortunately, however, Kola Boof's book "Long Train to the Redeeming Sin" went out of print while garnering the largest orders in its print run. The book ended the year 2002 as the African American Literary Book Club's #1 Bestseller for the...Entire Year!

Kola Boof continues to live in California with her two boys and continues to utilize special security measures (such as not mentioning that she has kids or giving their ages as incorrect--or refusing to give the names of her African American adoptive parents, or appearing on radio with the host announcing her as being in "New York", when in reality, she may be in the Studio right there Dallas) ...this is because she lives under a myriad of death threats from many different political and religious groups.

As a person from a terrorist Arabic nation....Kola Boof says that she does not trust the American people or their methods of revealing information. She says that by trying to protect the lives of her children and herself...it only makes her appear to be mysterious to Americans...who have never had to live under such realities.

A recent photo of author Kola Boof (Credit: Arnofo)