Currently resident in Cape Town, Nuruddin Farah has been described as one of the most sophisticated writers in contemporary world literature. Farah was born on 24th November 1945 in the southern Somali city of Baidoa, then under Italian control. The country’s colonial history is peculiarly intense, having been carved up into British, French, Italian and, latterly, Kenyan and Ethiopian spheres of interest. Somalia gained independence from the European powers in 1960. Farah’s own story is necessarily informed by elements of this contested national narrative.
In 1947, his family moved to Kallafo in the Ogaden region soon to be ceded to Ethiopia by the British. Farah’s most critically and commercially acclaimed novel, Maps (1986), is set against the backdrop of the Ogaden War
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Citation: Masterson, John Edward. "Nuruddin Farah". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 October 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1480, accessed 25 November 2024.]
