Nuruddin Farah, born in 1945, Somali and citizen of the world, is one of the most important contemporary African authors. His work, mainly written in English, includes novels such as A Naked Needle (1976), the trilogies Variations on the Theme of an African Dictatorship (1979–1983) and Blood in the Sun (1986–1998), or Links (2004), but also biographical collections such as Yesterday, Tomorrow (2003), or plays (A Dagger in a Vacuum, 1965). In his writings Farah criticizes the political situation in postcolonial Africa. He also often deals with the role of African women or emigration.

At the end of the 1970s his work was officially condemned in Somalia and he was sentenced to death in absentia. He spent many years in exile in India, England, the U.S.A., Italy, Nigeria, Sudan, and Gambia. During that time he also taught in Bayreuth (1981), and in 1990 he was the recipient of a DAAD stipend in Berlin. He currently makes his home in South Africa. In 1994 he received the Italian Premio Cavour, in 1998 the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and in 2001 the Fonlon-Nicholas-Award 2000 of the African Literature Association for his complete works.

During the current summer semester Nuruddin Farah is teaching as a Samuel-Fischer Visiting Professor at the Peter Szondi Institute of Freie Universität Berlin.

Date and Location

Sunday, June 3, 2007, Freie Universität Berlin, Henry Ford Building, Garystr. 35, Berlin-Dahlem, Thielplatz subway station (U3)