The Exiled Soldier (Daljiraha Maqan) Nuruddin Farah
He is done it again
Special Report for WardheerNews
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf
07 Feb, 2007
“I always have Somalia in my mind.â€
On Sunday afternoon, February 4, 2007, in a numbingly, frigid cold afternoon (minus thirteen) in Minneapolis, a few of us, former students of his, professors, present students of University of Minnesota and three lonesome Somalis gathered in a hall at the English department of the same university, to see an around the world respected, Somali writer Nuruddin Farah, who is here to promote a second book “Knots†of a trilogy as well as the republications of others by Graywolf Press. As we waited for the guest of honor to arrive, we were treated to a documentary about him that was developed by the BBC in 1986, when the esteemed writer was teaching in Sudan, which did not only touch upon the trouble that followed the young writer then, hut also shut light on how devoted, dedicated he was to his craft. He was exiled after earning the wrath of the regime in Somalia by writing a novel (the Naked Needle). As we all huddled in the room, you could only hear the humming and hissing sounds of the heater, on duty to keep the building as well as the humans in it warm, made.
Nuruddin Farah
About a half-hour later, the guest of honor arrived. His friend, Charles Sugnet, a professor of English at University of Minnesota, where Nuruddin Farah also taught in 1988, introduced the renowned, Neustadt winner, Nobel Prize several times over nominee, writer.
The gathering was very informal and private, with only one ground rule: that before the minutia of tiresome Somali politics is toss into the air, literary discourse should precede it. There and then, the evening started with the musical words of a wise writer. He began to regal us with mysteries of matured, major stories from writing and even told us a lot that has not been known about him. Nuruddin Farah told us that he wrote his first novel at age of nineteen, that there were two other novels before his first known published “From a Crooked Rip†of which no one knows whereabouts them; that he failed his second year college classes, for he was writing “ From the Crooked Rip,†and was almost expel from the college because of it, though he had to take all the exams again, thus graduated in time.
“I don’t recommend that to anyone, particularly students among us this afternoon, and my nieces who just joined us,†followed Nuruddin with a soft susurration but in a serious note. We, by now, Somalis grew a bit larger as three young, beautiful nieces of his with their modest, Muslim attire, came in.
When asked, Nuruddin also related to an incident that he had thought for a minute that he might be killed for two dollars in Somalia as late as October of 2006. He was trying to broker a peace treaty between the Islamic Court and TFG when on his way back from Baidoa to Mogadishu the taxi he rented was stopped by pundits and was asked to cough up so dough. In the middle of exchanged, heated words, a gun was pulled on him! The pundits had no idea who he was and possibly would not care but simply conjectured that he was a man of means to milk. Luckily he was let go unharmed along with the others!
Nuruddin, though have been living in exile almost all of his writing life first because Siad Barre’s regime that forced him out, but now by choice, is in every since of the word an Exile Soldier (Dal Jiraha Maqan), a termed that I used to describe him by reviewing his book “Links.†Which means, present or not, this dedicated, devoted son of Somalia owns up to his loyalty to his motherland by watching over a country that all abandoned or abused, with his precocious pen. “I always have Somalia in my mind,†he answered to a question from one of the Somalis within the group, who had asked how can one write or create characters about a country one does not live? Nuruddin went on to say, “ a marks-man, that is about to shoot a moving target, should know where that target is going to be at the point of releasing the trigger.†Thus making it clear that Somalia does not leave his mind and that he tries to be alert and informed about her issues, showing a bit of irritation with the question!
It’s known, among Somalis who follow him, that Nuruddin Farah is not only famous for his good deeds but also is the only Somali that has had countless opportunity to slough off his Somaliness however, refused to sale his self identity and his Somali nationality. And though faced many an embarrassment of an undue hassle with his Somalia passport, he still travels with it, toting it like a precious jewel!
Nuruddin is here promoting his latest book “Knots,†besides the republication of others by the Graywolf Press, here in twin cities of Minnesota.
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf
yusuf006@umn.edu
