| The
Mourning Tree: an autobiography and a memoir of prison, by Mohamed
Barud Ali
Book Launch: The Mourning Tree- the autobiography of Mohamed Barud
Ali
Saturday, 20 Feb. 2010 at 4pm
Oxford House, Derby Shire Street, E2 6GH
The Mourning Tree: an autobiography and a memoir of prison, by
Mohamed Barud Ali
Kayd Somali Arts and Culture in collaboration with redsea-online.com
is proudly inviting you to the presentation of new book: 'Weerane'
(The Mourning Tree), autobiography by Mohamed Barud Ali. Join us to
discuss this new autobiography with the author and also mark and
commemorate with us, the students protest ( 20 Feb 1982, erupted 28
years ago in Hargeysa) demanding justice and the release of UFFO
members. We expect you on Saturday, 20 Feb. 2010 at 4pm at Oxford
House, Derby Shire Street, E2 6GH .
This prison memoir will not only give first-hand information of the
experience of t he brutalities of Siyad Barre’s Somalia but
also of the life of a nomad child who is brought to the city to live
with his aunt because there was no work for him due to the fact that
his father did not own any camels to be looked after. In the city
while growing up, hunger was never far away. That motivated Mahamed
to perfo rm well at school which gave him the opportunity to
go to the United Kingdom. After he earned his university degree, he
went back to his home town Hargeysa where he met young
professionals’ like him. They decided to volunteer for th
eir community, what became to be known by the international
community as Har geysa Self-help group and locally as UFFO.
For their noble acts, Mahamed and his colleagues were imprisoned and
what followed were eight long lonely years, whe re the studying of
insects was the main entertainment of the day.
The reasons why they were freed,
while at the same time the rest of their comm unity had been
destroyed, were as strange and surprising as the reasons why
th ey were jailed in the first place were bizarre. There was no time
in Mohamed’s life to get depressed or discouraged when he and his
group were freed as the reconstruction of the country had to start
immediately.
The other speakers are Jama Musse Jama; director of Red Sea online
(publisher of ‘The Mourning Tree’), Rashiid Sheikh Abdullahi;
Author and expert on Somali culture, Martin Hill; the former
director of Amnesty International Somalia desk and researcher who
was involved in this case, Judith Gardner; author Som
alia--the Untold Story: The War through the Eyes of Somali Women,
Adan Wars ame Said; the author's friend and fellow prisoner, Fawzia
Yousuf H Adam; The Di rector of Raad, I.M Lewis; Emeritus professor
at The London School of Economics and Political Science (TBC) and
others
The Mourning Tree: an autobiography and a memoir of prison, by
Mohamed Barud Ali is the first of "Rag & Dumar" series, which is a
selected list of biography book s, published and distributed by
Ponte Invisibile Ed. (redsea-online.com)
Mahamed Barud Ali is civil right activist, Hero to some, the
prisoner of conscience under the brutal regime of Somalia; he lives
in Hargeysa, with his wife and childr en and works on issues
relating to human rights and civil liberties. '
Join us to discuss this new autobiography with the author and also
mark and com memorate with us on Saturday, 20 Feb. 2010, 4pm
at Oxford House, Derby Shire Street, E2 6GH. For more information
call 07903712949 or
Email:ayan_mahamoud@kayd.org
Website:
www.kayd.org
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