Literature and Politics in Somalia: The Case of Nuruddin Farah

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Periodical article

Title:	Literature and Politics in Somalia: The Case of Nuruddin Farah
Author:	Okonkwo, Juliet I.
Year:	1985
Periodical:	Africa Today
Volume:	32
Issue:	3
Period:	3rd Quarter
Pages:	57-65
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Somalia
Subjects:	writers literature Literature, Mass Media and the Press Politics and Government
About person:	Nuruddin Farah (1945-)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/4186306
Abstract:	The political novel, whatever the realities it explores, or the ideological fervour propagated, can be faithful to artistic aesthetics, as in the case of Nuruddin Farah's two political novels, 'Sweet and Sour Milk' (London, 1979), and 'Sardines' (London, 1961). Set without doubt in the Somali Democratic Republic, the novels present the terror and inhumanity which are the hallmarks of a tyrannical and dictatorial fascist state. Farah conceives his political novels as 'an alternative to the propaganda that the state mediocracy in Somalia produces...'. Without adopting an ideological stance, his novels manipulate a deep political consciousness which, in the Somali context, is enough to keep him in exile. Notes.