Nuruddin Farah

John Edward Masterson (University of Sussex)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester), Alex Nelungo Wanjala (University of Nairobi)

Dates

Born 24 Nov 1945
Activity 1970-ongoing

Places

Born in Somalia
Active in Somalia; South Africa

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Currently resident in Cape Town, Nuruddin Farah has been described as one of the most sophisticated writers in contemporary world literature. Farah was born on 24^th November 1945 in the southern Somali city of Baidoa, then under Italian control. The country’s colonial history is peculiarly intense, having been carved up into British, French, Italian and, latterly, Kenyan and Ethiopian spheres of interest. Somalia gained independence from the European powers in 1960. Farah’s own story is necessarily informed by elements of this contested national narrative.

In 1947, his family moved to Kallafo in the Ogaden region soon to be ceded to Ethiopia by the British. Farah’s most critically and commercially acclaimed …

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3626 words

Citation: Masterson, John Edward. "Nuruddin Farah". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2009 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1480, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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