About this Event
Join us for engaging conversations about identity, migration and the transformative power of creativity. In collaboration with SOAS, we will be launching two books written by incredible Somali writers: Ubah Cristina will present her first book translated into English, Little Mother and Commander of the River. Journalist and writer Aamna will present her book Scattered: The Making and Unmaking of a Refugee, a Guardian book to look out for in 2024.
Followed by a wider conversation about identity, migration, displacement and the transformative power of creativity with Sagal Ali, Ubah Cristina, and Aamna Mohdin.
Ubah Cristina Ali Farah is a Somali-Italian poet, novelist, playwright and librettist. She holds a PhD from the University of Naples, L'Orientale. She is the author of three novels, Madre piccola (2007) Il comandante del fiume (2014) and La stazioni della luna (2021). Her first two novels were published in English translation as Little Mother (2011) and Commander of the River (2023) by Indiana University Press as part of the Global African Voices Series. She is also the author of the poetry collection La danza dell'orice (Juxta Press, 2020) and the collection of short stories Le ceneri della fenice (Hopefulmonster, 2022). Ubah will be launching her translated book “Little Mother and Commander of the River”.
Aamna Mohdin is a community affairs correspondent for The Guardian, covering issues of race and inequality. Scattered is her first non-fiction book, published by Bloomsbury. The book has been praised as '[a] compelling story from a gifted storyteller … In a moment where refugees are often talked about but rarely heard from, her voice breaks through' (Gary Younge). Scattered reflets on Aamna’s own experiences as a refugee arriving in the UK aged seven, after her parents fled Somalia. Piecing together her families’ scattered history, Aamna’s journey takes her to Somalia, and then to the refugee camp in Kenya that was her home in early childhood. Aamna will be discussing identity, reunions, trauma and above all – the defiance and joyful celebration of family and the third culture kid experience.
Sagal Ali is a Somali-Danish who returned to Somalia to participate in Somalia's peace-building process through art. Sagal has been working for many years to revive the cultural sector in Somalia, first as the Expert consultant on the EU-funded project ‘Reviving Culture, Building Peace’, and then as the Senior Advisor for Art & Heritage, as well as the Deputy Secretary General for the National Commission for UNESCO for the Federal Republic of Somalia. Ali founded the Somali Arts Foundation (SAF) in 2020. SAF is a contemporary art institution that aims to promote and create conducive environments for modern art to flourish in Somalia and seeks to leverage the arts to ignite critical discourses around ideas on identity, migration, memory, loss, healing, and self-expression.
Language: English
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Senate House alumni lecture theatre SOAS, 10 Thornhaugh Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 6.13