Book lovers and critics throng Mogadishu for literary festival

The second annual Mogadishu Book Fair opened Wednesday in Mogadishu featuring authors of different genres, stage performances, presentations and book critiques.

Book lovers in their hundreds thronged the Mogadishu venue to catch up with their favourite authors and follow proceedings which will run till Friday.

Abdi Latif Ega, the author of Guban, a novel exploring the clash of modernity and the traditional egalitarian pastoralists in Somalia said the book fair was a fete of some kind just few years after Somalia regained its stability following years of destruct and war.

“You can’t believe people in such numbers can gather in Mogadishu to attend such an event. It resembles a performance in the west,” said Ega who teaches at Columbia University, US.

Several other authors will make presentations in the remaining two days of the Fair including the former BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding who will be launching his book, The Mayor of Mogadishu.

The novel follows the life of former Mogadishu Mayor Mohamud Nur popularly known as Tarzan, born a nomad and became an orphan, then a street brawler in the cosmopolitan port city of Mogadishu – a place famous for its cafes and open–air cinemas.

Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of The Anglo-Somali Society Mohamed Haji Ingiriis put up a strong case for his book ‘The Suicidal State in Somalia: The Rise and Fall of the Siad Barre Regime, 1969 – 1991’ highlighting the perils of a dictatorship in Somalia and it’s spiral down effects on the Somali society.

The Book Fair continues today.