ROGE - The third story of Cirsankayeed Series is just published

[Jacaylbaro]

 

The story of ROGE starts with two people, neighbours of sorts, Nuura and Keenadiid. One fateful encounter between them left Nuura pregnant. Abandoned by Keenadiid, who decided to join the rebels, she was left alone and isolated, with only Asli, her aging grandmother as support. Nine months later, Nuura gave birth to a baby girl on a moonless night and in the middle of the dry river that runs through the city. At that exact minute Keenadiid was killed in action leaving a letter for his cousin Xaad begging him to look after his unborn child. With the civil war spreading death and bringing destruction, Xaad somehow managed to find Nuura and her daughter Ayaan. They married and Xaad encouraged the young girl to think and express herself freely. This upbringing gave Ayaan the confidence to challenge many of the stereotyping that she encountered, a privilege that her mother never had.

 

When she was a young woman, Ayaan decided to travel to the capital Hargeisa to find work. At the same time, Kaahin, Xaad’s younger brother, was summoned by elders of their clan to become the Minister for Health in Somaliland. He arrived in Hargeisa from London not on his own but with an unwanted passenger, Roge, an AIDS virus that had travelled all the way from the States via Manchester in Britain, through Addis Ababa.

 

The history that haunted her mother repeated itself one night in a Hargeisa hotel with Kaahin. Ayaan was left devastated and infected by the virus. She went back to her home town where she was cared for by her uncles Xaad and Dr. Qaalib. They convinced her that she is like any other person.

 

 

Reinvigorated and full of self-belief, Ayaan decided to organise a campaign to educate people about AIDS. Three months after her infamous campaign trip Ayaan gave birth to a boy. He was named Keenadiid Ayaan Keenadiid by her uncle Xaad. At the same hour that she gave birth, her tormentor Kaahin died of AIDS in Hargeisa.

 

 

About the author

 

Cabdillaahi Cawed Cige is the author of “LADH” (Anguish), his first novel, that is considered a new literary generation for somali speaking readers, and that attracted exceptional positive reactions. Cabdillaahi is known also to the Somali community in the UK and Europe as a poet whose works has been widely published on the Somali internet-based media but he also wrote a number of short stories including “Hog Baas”(The Cursed Cave). All his stories share the theme of exploring suffering and the different means people learn to cope with it, and this his second novel, “ROGE”, is not an exception.

 

 

About the series

 

‘ROGE’ is the third of ‘Cirsankayeedh’ series of Somali novels. The series is directed by Jama Musse Jama and published by Ponte Invisibile Ed. In popular Somali beliefs people can be addressed by invisible voices, but there is some uncertainty as to whether they are mystical birds or spirits. Cirsankayeedh is the name of one of these and is associated with good news. The idea behind ‘Cirsankayeedh’ series is to develop creative writings and culture of reading in Somali language.

 

 

About the Publisher

 

Ponte Invisbile Ed (Invisible Bridge) is based Pisa, Italy and has its main branches in Hargeisa (Somaliland) and in London (UK). It started publishing books in 2000 in different languages (Italian, English, Chinese and Somali) and from different cultural context. The main target of the publisher and its sister website (www.redsea-online.com) is to build a bridge, and invisible bridge, to connect the north and the south hemisphere in this era of Information Technology.

 

 

How to order

 

write to: orders@redsea-online.com

 

 

"ROGE", 2008, 420 bog

Cabdillaahi Cawed Cige

ISBN 88-88934-07-3 / EAN: 9788888934075

Cirsankayeedh Series No. 3. Price 15 Euro