Nuruddin Farah in conversation: good fiction is never far from the truth

Abstract

Nuruddin Farah, accomplished Somali novelist, dramatist, and essayist was in Nigeria as the headliner of the Ake Arts and Book Festival held in Lagos from 25–28 October 2018. As part of the events, he sat down with Kunle Ajibade, veteran journalist, author, and Executive Editor/Director of TheNews and PM News, for a wide-ranging interview before a packed live audience. Farah was born in 1945 in Baidoa, Somalia. His father was a merchant and a translator for colonial officials while his mother was an oral poet. He had his primary and secondary education in Somalia and Ethiopia. He then went to Panjab University in India, where he studied Philosophy and Literature and later to the University of Sussex in the UK, where he studied playwriting. He published his first novel, From a Crooked Rib, in 1970. He is uniquely popular as the author of three novelistic trilogies: “Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship,” which comprises of Sweet and Sour Milk (1979), Sardine (1981), and Close Sesame (1983); “Blood in the Sun,” which includes Maps (1986), Gifts (1993), and Secrets (1998); and “Past Imperfect,” which ties together Links (2004), Knots (2007), and Crossbones (2011). His most recent novels are Hiding in Plain Sight (2014), and North of Dawn (2018). A universally acclaimed master prose stylist, Farah’s works have been translated into many languages and he has won numerous awards and prizes, including the African Literature Association (ALA) Fonlon-Nichols Award, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.