| Intro | Novelist and playwright | ||
| Is |
Journalist Writer Novelist Playwright |
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| From |
Somalia |
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| Type |
Film, Television, Stage and Radio Journalism Literature |
||
| Gender | male | ||
| Birth | 1952, Jariban, Somalia | ||
| Age: | 68 years | ||
| Education |
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Maxamed Daahir Afrax (Somali: Maxamed Daahir Afraax, Arabic: محمد طاهر أفرح) Ph. D. is a Somali novelist, playwright, journalist and scholar.
Biography
Afrax was born and raised in Somalia. He began his education early as a child and was an excellent student top of his class.
A polyglot, he writes in Somali, Arabic and English. Afrax has published three novels in Somali, Guur-ku-sheeg (1975), Maana-faay (1979) and Galti-macruuf (1980), in addition to an historical novel in Arabic, Nida Al-Horiyah (1976). He has also published several short stories in both Arabic and Somali.
Also a playwright, Afrax has written two plays, the first being Durbaan Been ah (“A Deceptive Dream”), which was staged in Somalia in 1979. His major contribution in the field of theatre criticism is Somali Drama: Historical and Critical Study (1987).
In his novels and plays, Afrax denounces moral corruption and social injustice. When in 1980 his novel Gulti-macruuf (“Pseudo-civilized”) began to appear in serialized form in Xiddigta Oktoobar (a leading national daily newspaper at the time), Somalia’s government took offence. The publication of the story was subsequently discontinued at its 37th episode. Soon after that, in 1981, Afrax left Somalia and has been living abroad ever since.