Dragonfly Sea

A young woman from the island of "Bayt" in Kenya received a scholarship to study in China in 2005, the same year the sixth centenary of the first voyage around the Western (Indian) Ocean was celebrated, undertaken by the great admiral of the Ming family (Ming Dynasty) (Haj Mahmoud Shams al-Din), Zheng He (1371-1435). The young woman obtained the scholarship based on family claims and DNA tests that indicated she was actually descended from a Ming Dynasty sailor who survived a shipwreck destroyed by a storm, and found, with others, refuge and a sense of belonging on the island of Bayt. The novel "Dragonfly Sea" is inspired by this historical event.