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Rift Valley Institute

Making local knowledge work

Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Ellah Allfrey

On 21 June 2013, RVI and Kwani Trust hosted Nadifa Mohamed, the Somali-British author, who spoke with Ellah Allfrey, Deputy Editor of Granta, about her writing and her Somali homeland. Born in Hargeisa and raised in South London, Nadifa has been listed by Granta as one of the Best of Young British Novelists. Her first novel, Black Mamba Boy (HarperCollins, 2010), was inspired by the life of her father, who was forced to leave Somalia and ambark on an odyssey that took him to the UK. The book was described by one reviewer as a book of ‘elegance and beauty’; it won the 2010 Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for numerous other prizes. Nadifa’s new novel, The Orchard of Lost Souls, describes the fall of the Somali state through the lives of three women, and will be published in August 2013. A meeting report is available here.

 

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