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A book conversation on ‘Modern Sudanese Poetry: An Anthology’ was organized as part of The Africa Institute’s two-day Sudan Cultural Program on December 13, 2019. The discussion invited the translator and editor of the book, Adil Babikir, joined by Sudanese lawyer and Commissioner of Oaths, Kamal Elgizouli and Sudanese university professor, Mustafa Adam.
Spanning more than six decades of Sudan’s post-independence history, this collection features work by some of Sudan’s most renowned modern poets, largely unknown in the United States.
Adil Babikir’s extensive introduction provides a conceptual framework to help the English reader understand the cultural context. Translated from Arabic, the collection addresses a wide range of themes—identity, love, politics, Sufism, patriotism, war, and philosophy—capturing the evolution of Sudan’s modern history and cultural intersections. Modern Sudanese Poetry features voices as diverse as the country’s ethnic, cultural, and natural composition. By bringing these voices together, Babikir provides a glimpse of Sudan’s poetry scene as well as the country’s modern history and post-independence trajectory.
Adil Babikir is a translator and an Arabic content manager at Mubadala Investment Company in Abu Dhabi. He attended the University of Khartoum and graduated in 1976. He then worked for years in Sudan News Agency before joining the American News Agency’s office in Saudi Arabia. He has translated several works including The Jungo: Stakes of the Earth by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, published by Africa World Press. He has also translated a combination of short stories published in a book titled Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan published by Africa World Press. Babikir’s translation of Mansi: A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayib Saleh will be published by Banipal Publishing.
Kamal Elgizouli is a Sudanese lawyer and Commissioner of Oaths. He attended the University of Kiev where he received a Master’s Degree in International Law together with a Diploma in Translation. He has published four collections of poems and numerous books and scholarly articles in various journals, magazines and periodicals in Sudan, Damascus, and Cairo. Elgizouli is also a human rights activist and a former Secretary General of the Sudanese Writers Union.
Mustafa Adam is a Sudanese university professor of English language, now based in the United Arab Emirates. He studied at the University of Khartoum where he has obtained an MA in English Literature. He also obtained an MA in linguistics from Manchester University. He is interested in literary criticism and translation and published a number of translations of Sudanese and Arabic poetry and short stories into English, including the great poem of M. Abdel Hai: “Sinnar: A Homecoming” and Mahmoud Darwish’s: “Exile: a Dense Fog at the Bridge”; together with the translation of a number of poems from English into Arabic, including poems by Edwin Muir Dylan Thomas, and Wole Soyinka among others.
A book conversation on ‘Modern Sudanese Poetry: An Anthology’ was organized as part of The Africa Institute’s two-day Sudan Cultural Program on December 13, 2019. The discussion invited the translator and editor of the book, Adil Babikir, joined by Sudanese lawyer and Commissioner of Oaths, Kamal Elgizouli and Sudanese university professor, Mustafa Adam.
A book conversation on ‘Modern Sudanese Poetry: An Anthology’ was organized as part of The Africa Institute’s two-day Sudan Cultural Program on December 13, 2019. The discussion invited the translator and editor of the book, Adil Babikir, joined by Sudanese lawyer and Commissioner of Oaths, Kamal Elgizouli and Sudanese university professor, Mustafa Adam.
Spanning more than six decades of Sudan’s post-independence history, this collection features work by some of Sudan’s most renowned modern poets, largely unknown in the United States.
Adil Babikir’s extensive introduction provides a conceptual framework to help the English reader understand the cultural context. Translated from Arabic, the collection addresses a wide range of themes—identity, love, politics, Sufism, patriotism, war, and philosophy—capturing the evolution of Sudan’s modern history and cultural intersections. Modern Sudanese Poetry features voices as diverse as the country’s ethnic, cultural, and natural composition. By bringing these voices together, Babikir provides a glimpse of Sudan’s poetry scene as well as the country’s modern history and post-independence trajectory.
Adil Babikir is a translator and an Arabic content manager at Mubadala Investment Company in Abu Dhabi. He attended the University of Khartoum and graduated in 1976. He then worked for years in Sudan News Agency before joining the American News Agency’s office in Saudi Arabia. He has translated several works including The Jungo: Stakes of the Earth by Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, published by Africa World Press. He has also translated a combination of short stories published in a book titled Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan published by Africa World Press. Babikir’s translation of Mansi: A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayib Saleh will be published by Banipal Publishing.
Kamal Elgizouli is a Sudanese lawyer and Commissioner of Oaths. He attended the University of Kiev where he received a Master’s Degree in International Law together with a Diploma in Translation. He has published four collections of poems and numerous books and scholarly articles in various journals, magazines and periodicals in Sudan, Damascus, and Cairo. Elgizouli is also a human rights activist and a former Secretary General of the Sudanese Writers Union.
Mustafa Adam is a Sudanese university professor of English language, now based in the United Arab Emirates. He studied at the University of Khartoum where he has obtained an MA in English Literature. He also obtained an MA in linguistics from Manchester University. He is interested in literary criticism and translation and published a number of translations of Sudanese and Arabic poetry and short stories into English, including the great poem of M. Abdel Hai: “Sinnar: A Homecoming” and Mahmoud Darwish’s: “Exile: a Dense Fog at the Bridge”; together with the translation of a number of poems from English into Arabic, including poems by Edwin Muir Dylan Thomas, and Wole Soyinka among others.
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