Nuruddin Farah North american tour

[The Observer.]

Salaam my peoples

i just watched Nuruddin's interview online, and in days time, my people from toronto informed me of his talk in the city. So for students in the Toronto city take advantage of the opportunity, it is very rare that we witness african writer's discussion and get their signatures.

I met Nuruddin Farah in South Africa a while back and it was an Honour. For those interested, here is the information i recieved on his visit to Toronto.

 

"...for a little under twenty five years I have dwelt in the dubious details of

a territory I often refer to as the country of my imagination" -Nuruddin Farah,

YESTERDAY, TOMORROW: VOICES FROM THE SOMALI DIASPORA

 

 

Dear brothers and sisters,

 

I want to inform you about a visit at York University by Nuruddin Farah, Somali author of 9

books (including the latest, KNOTS). He's the winner of the 1998 Neustadt

International Prize for Literature. Rumour has it that he'll be nominated for

the Nobel Prize for Literature this year. Here's the info on the event:

 

Thursday March 8 (free!):

 

1. Luncheon, McLaughlin College, 12-1 pm (Nuruddin will give a brief talk and

Q&A)2.

Meet & Greet with Somali Students' Association, 1:30-4pm

3. Reception, Senior Common Room, McLaughlin College, 5-6:30 pm

4. Talk/Reading at the course 'Canadian Writers in Person,' ACW 206, 7-8 pm

 

 

For those who can't make it on Thursday, and still want to see him, well, see

him a day earlier on:

 

Wednesday, March 7 (Downtown Toronto):

 

1. Harbourfront Reading Series, Nuruddin will be reading with Barbara Gowdy, 235

Queen's Quay W, 7:30 pm

 

This is a ticketed event. Tickets are $8 (less for students) and are available

at www.readings.org

[Taliban]

Lately, Nuruddin's reputation suffered terribly, the result of insulting Islam. I doubt enough Somalis would want to meet him. About the reading, I hope he doesn't read the part where one could be forced to vomit, like it happened to the fellow sitting beside the author of this article:

 

Another cause for alarm is the growing cancer of bestiality in Farah's recent fiction. In 1990 (1991?) in St. Louis at the ASA's annual convention, a party of Somalis (including me) went to cheer him on. We were all rooting for him pridefully, as a native son made good. To the discomfiture of the Somalis in the audience--maybe to others, too--Farah, reading an extract from one of the books--Maps?--embarked on an extended graphic description of a stud of a man banging away at a cow. The reading went on ad nauseam, replete with gruntings, groanings, mooings, and mumblings--in short, all manner of man-cow love noises . . . until the fellow beside me lurched forward and whimpered in a shaky voice, "Where is the men's room? I fear I want to vomit."

http://www.aayaha.com/viewpage.php?articleid=4130

[Haneefah]

I've had the pleasure of attending the York event with a friend. I was glad to have finally met the old man and discuss some issues I had in mind. He's definitely a peace-loving-qabil-denying-pragmatist whose tremendous love and passion for his home country shines through.

 

I've picked up his latest release (knots) on my way. I'm hoping it'll be a good read.

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Haneefah:

He's definitely a peace-loving-qabil-denying-pragmatist whose tremendous love and passion for his home country shines through.

That's noble of him. However, is he for Sharia' application in Somalia?

[Haneefah]

^Quite frankly, his opinion on that subject matter was not of interest to me. Therefore, I wouldn't know!

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Xaniifa, walaashiis, salaan sare marka koowaad.

 

Noo sheeg, odeyga muxuu sheegay oo ka wareesatay. He is a die-hard Soomaali daljecel, a nationalist, waana intaa kaliya ula jiro.

[Tahliil]

yrs ago I attended a book signin for one of his books "Secrets." At the time I did not read and had idea what the content of secrets was about thus never asked him to explain to me what he was aimin for with that filthy. But when I read of his sadistic, sexually panoriod, cheap and opportunistic tales of Somalis and how they mount each other and yes their domestic animals, Icould not help but feel disgusted for the whole idea of opportunistic writers. From that moment on, I felt no difference between him and the warlords who are murdering our ppple by the dozens...One uses the gun to kill and rape, the other the pen to assisin, rape and abuse what's left of our dignity as a race.

 

I listened to an interview he gave a radio broadcast in Canada on hiiran online, and i could not help but feel, about his replies to the questions, and his intellegince overall, to be that of another S.O.L fadhi ku dirir with a fame and fortune...and a louder microphone in his hands...I know tens of SOL members who could have done better than he did with that microphone but It is him who is ridin on the Somali horse now.

 

His materials are in the public libraries, if you ever get that strong urge of curiosity, please don't buy his filthy with your hard earned dollars and pounds but go and check them out from your public libraries...free of charge.

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Tahliil:

His materials are in the public libraries, if you ever get that strong urge of curiosity, please don't buy his filthy with your hard earned dollars and pounds but go and check them out from your public libraries...free of charge.

Thanks for the tip.

[Katrina]

How sad you can't see beyond face value. Nuruddin is an amazing writer. Unfortunately, somalis don't listen, really listen to what he's saying. I heard horrible things about him until I saw him speak recently twice. His passion and love for somali is unquestionable. His few comments on islam has been taken out of content by many somalis (funny how we accuse Fox News) yet we do the same.

[Caano Geel]

^Fox news is by far the best comedy of the last 2 generations, i'm not sure i can ignore it when their name is used in vain like that!

[Tahliil]

Katrina...is it not my right to despise his writings if so I choose? is it not also my prerogative to b a critic about his filthy writing, fairly or unfairly so? do we all have to like his writings equally?

 

All am sayin is that, by readin what he wrote about Somalis and their culture; by standing in that room with him where he was on tour selling his book, collectin his dimes at our expense, he is doing what the warlords did to the Somalis with a pen and a paper instead of the gun...no more...no less...

 

U see i don't care what he says or doesn't say about Islam...Islam its my religion,very dear to me, but i am not the boss of it...in other words. there is the God who brought it down to us and He is the judge of it..(Period)...my beef with this guy is exactly what Abdi Samatar writes in this article...

 

http://www.aayaha.com/viewpage.php?articleid=4130

 

 

The Professor Writes on:

 

Another cause for alarm is the growing cancer of bestiality in Farah's recent fiction. In 1990 (1991?) in St. Louis at the ASA's annual convention, a party of Somalis (including me) went to cheer him on. We were all rooting for him pridefully, as a native son made good. To the discomfiture of the Somalis in the audience--maybe to others, too--Farah, reading an extract from one of the books--Maps?--embarked on an extended graphic description of a stud of a man banging away at a cow. The reading went on ad nauseam, replete with gruntings, groanings, mooings, and mumblings--in short, all manner of man-cow love noises . . . until the fellow beside me lurched forward and whimpered in a shaky voice, "Where is the men's room? I fear I want to vomit." In Secrets Farah has this:

 

""Now his nakedness was prominent with an erection. In a moment he was standing behind a heifer, saying something, his voice even. The nearer I got to him and the young cow, the clearer his voice was, only I couldn't decipher his words, maybe because he was speaking to the cow in a coded tongue, comparable to children's private babble. Was he appeasing the cow's beastly instincts by talking to her in a secret language? (p.16)""

 

One cannot cavil at the employment of bestiality as a thematic technique; after all, a fictionist has his fictional license, but the bestiality here does nothing for the narrative structure. It is merely a paste-on. In any case, if Farah wishes to present the Somalis as a race of recidivist bestialists, it is his authorial prerogative to do so. But then he should not have picked on the poor cow, a minority species in the land, but rather on the proud camel since Somalia is decidedly a camel country.