Maxamed Dahir Afrax

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maxamed Dahir Afrax (also Mohamed Dahir Yusuf Afrah and Maxamed Daahir Afrax ; Arabic محمد طاهر أفرح; * 1952 in Jariban , Mudug Region , Italian Trust Territory Somalia ) is a Somali writer, journalist and founder of various cultural and literary magazines.

Life

Engagement in the Somali cultural scene

Maxamed Dahir Afrax was born in 1952 in the city of Jariban in the Somali region of Mudug in what was then the Italian trust territory of Somalia . By 1973 he completed his school education in Mogadishu . When the government under Siad Barre introduced the first official spelling of the Somali language in 1972 , Afrax founded the first bilingual, Arabic-Somali monthly magazine Codka Jubba ("The Voice of Jubas", 1972-75).

In 1976 Arax published his first story with the title Guur-ku-shee ("pseudo-marriage" or "pseudo-marriage"), which appeared episodically in the daily newspaper Xiddigta Oktoobar . In doing so, he laid the foundation for his serial storytelling of novels. In a similar form, he also published his first full novel called Maanafaay , which is about the girl Maanafaay, who seeks a balance between modernity and modesty in Mogadishu of the 1970s. The novel was published as a book in 1981 and is considered to be the first “modern” novella in Somali.

From the late 1970s onwards, Afrax was actively involved in the Somali cultural scene: from 1979 to 1981, Afrax wrote a regular theater column in a Somali daily newspaper - a very unusual genre in Somalia at the time, which was initially received very critically by the theater scene . At the same time, Afrax was deputy director of the Somali State Theater Agency and produced a weekly cultural radio show on Radio Mogadishu .

Exile in Ethiopia, Aden and London

He also published several other works, including the novel Galti-Macruuf (about "The Land of the Simple"), in which he harshly criticized the corruption under Siad Barre. The government then arrested Afrax and later fled into exile for fear of the Barre regime. After brief stays in Italy and Romania, Afrax moved to Ethiopia, where other dissidents and regime critics, such as Mohamed Ibrahim Hadrawi , Mohamed Hashi Gaariye and Farah Gamute, were and tried in vain to build up an opposition in exile.

From 1984 to 1990 Afrax lived in Aden ( Democratic People's Republic of Yemen ), where he studied and worked as a researcher for the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic. He was an active member of the Yemeni Writers 'Union and the Arab Writers' Union. During his time in Aden he regularly visited Djibouti , where much research was carried out on oral Somali. Based on his research trips, Afrax published the first book on Somali theater in the Somali language in 1987.

With the unification of South and North Yemen, Afrax left Aden and moved to London , where he did his PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies with the title Between continuity and innovation: transitional nature of post-independence Somali poetry and drama, Published in 1960s to the present . He later founded the first bilingual, Somali-English cultural and literary magazine Halabuur (1992–95). Afrax also founded the first Somali branch of the Club of International PEN in 1997 .

Moved to Djibouti

With the request to promote Somali culture and literature more strongly and to create a basis for peaceful coexistence in his home country, Afrax moved to Djibouti to found the Halabuur Center for Culture and Communication and again the Halabuur magazine he created in London to revive. He also worked there as an advisor to the United Nations and the government of Djibouti. As part of the compromise with the Somali transitional government under President Abdikassim Salat Hassan , Afrax became a member of Somalia's parliament and later Minister for International Cooperation (October 2000 – July 2003).

To this day, Afrax is committed to the promotion and dissemination of Somali art and literature, especially the Somali language.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Lidwien Kapteijns: Afrax, Maxamed Dahir . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 1 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 105-107 .
  2. ↑ Afrax, Maxamed Daahir: Between continuity and innovation: transitional nature of post-independence Somali poetry and drama, 1960s to the present . 2013 ( bl.uk [accessed October 1, 2018]).
  3. ^ Somali PEN in London . ( humanrightshouse.org [accessed February 24, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Afrax, Maxamed Dahir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Afrah, Mohamed Dahir Yusuf; Afrax, Maxamed Daahir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Somali writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Jariban , Mudug Region , Somalia Italian Trust Territory