Just watched this 14-minute clip from a recent TV profile by Norwegian television of a visit by Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah to the country of his birth. I never imagined book TV could look this good and informative.  Tradition, immigration, colonialism, exile, etcetera, gets an airing. We especially love how Farah steers the Norwegian interviewer’s questions about war, corruption and sadness towards the personal or familial.

The clip also includes an interview with Brit-Somali novelist Nadifa Mohamed.

 Here’s a link to a second part on Youtube (there’s some repetition though).

Further Reading

The people want to breathe

In Tunisia’s coastal city of Gabès, residents live in the shadow of the phosphate industry. As pollution deepens and repression returns, a new generation revives the struggle for life itself.

After Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.