Ubah Cristina Ali Farah’s works have also been translated to English, namely Little Mother: A Novel, translated by Victoria Offredi Poletto and Giovanna Bellesia (Indiana University Press, 2011) and Commander of the River, translated by Hope Campbell Gustafson (Indiana University Press, 2023).
- Ubah, your entire oeuvre pivots on the idea of staying in between different languages and cultures. You are a professional translator, like your character Domenica Axad in Little Mother (2007). You publish in both Italian and French. How do you decide which language is more appropriate for a text? Is there any difference when choosing between prose and poetry?
The Somali civil war forced me to exile. Consequently, over the years, I have had to move to different countries and learn the language of the place I was living in. I was raised in Mogadishu so that the language of the everyday life would be Somali whereas my formal education has been mostly in Italian. I would say that it was natural for me to write in Italian, especially because when I started, I was living in the country. I also believe that a language is cultural and political statement. Subverting some structures of the syntax, inventing new words, was a way to suggest that writers have the power to change the hierarchy that exist among languages. Poetry was the first literary form I choose. There is something about violence that is unspeakable and an intimacy and shame inherent in it that I wanted to protect by any form of voyeurism. I think that poetry remains the form I prefer as it allows me to say many things without saying too much. Nevertheless, prose allowed me to tell many stories I was given the chance to listen as an interpreter but also working as oral history collector.
- You are often mentioned as an Italian postcolonial writer, a ‘label’ (imperfect, as all labels are) used by critics to describe writers whose cultural origins lie in former Italian colonies (such as Somalia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea), regardless of where they were born. Their ‘mixed’ identity shapes their work, which they choose to write in Italian. Do you recognise yourself in this category of writers, which has changed a lot in the past thirty years?
As you say labels are always imperfect and we discussed them over the years. There is a book recently published that Livia Apa and I curated (Controverse. Scrivere in diaspora poetiche del divenire, Capovolte Edizioni, 2025) where we interviewed eight Italian women writers of different origins to build a dialogue between my generation and the new one who is more keen to express social dissent on social media. Labels was one of the issues we discussed. Migrant, Afro-Italian, postcolonial, afro- descendant. Postcolonial literature is the label I personally prefer because there will be no other generation in the future that writes in Italian and have a background linked to the ex-Italian colonies (they will write in other languages other than Italian). It is a huge responsibility that we need to assume for the new generation of writers.
- The city of Rome is a distinctive characteristic of your works, especially in Little Mother, Commander of the River (2014) and the short story PuntRap (2004), featuring much more than just as a simple setting. However, you have lived in other cities as well. Why is Rome so present in your texts? Have you ever considered setting the plots of your stories in other Italian cities?
It is interesting because I´ve always thought that Mogadishu was the city of my obsessions, the place where I grew up and had to abandon abruptly at eighteen. But it is true that, in Little Mother, Rome is the place where all the characters meet and reconcile, although I had the feeling at the time that I was not really describing places and that relationships between people scattered in the diaspora mattered more. PuntRap was specifically commissioned for a theatre performance whose focus was the city, I was pregnant of my second child at the time so that perhaps I was feeling that I could be rooted again. Moreover, I had a dear friend of Ethiopian descents but raised in Rome who became a sort of Virgilio in the city for me. Commander of the River was the result of those peregrinations around hidden places in Rome, even though I wrote the novel the first year I moved to Brussels. I believe that´s the reason why the city appears as in a fairy tale, through the eyes of a young man looking for the meaning of his existence, and for the reasons of his father’s absence.
Where to see Ubah Ali Farah
Ubah Ali Farah will be presenting her work on 29 August 2025 at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta. The discussion will be moderated by Virginia Monteforte, while Leanne Ellul will read Ubah’s poems in their Maltese translations. The readings will be accompanied by live music from Franco Tartaglia. Ubah’s books will also be available for purchase and signing by the author.
This event is supported by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Tickets can be purchased at www.showshappening.com/inizjamed.
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Inizjamed, the Festival organiser, is a non-governmental organisation. Learn more at www.inizjamed.org.
