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The Messiah of Darfur
July 15, 20216:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe’s YouTube channel.
6:00 p.m.
In Spanish and Arabic, with subtitles.
On Thursday, July 14, with the cooperation of Casa África, Casa Árabe
is presenting this novel of adventure, war, love and revenge in
modern-day Sudan, by award-winning author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin. It has
been published in Spanish by Armaenia Editorial and translated by
Salvador Peña.
She is the only woman in Nyala, and probably in all of Sudan, with the name of Abderrahman. Bearing a man’s name and a scar on her cheek, a mark of awesome beauty, Abderrahman was adopted by Aunt Kharifiyya, a childless woman with a big heart who took her in on the condition that she never talk about the war. However, Abderrahman knows everything about the war... perhaps too much.
One day, the girl meets Shikiri, an idealistic young man forcibly conscripted by the army, while he is on leave visiting the city. Abderrahman takes him as a husband and asks him to help her exact revenge on the dreaded Janjaweed militias by killing at least ten of them. It is a novel that speaks of recruits, militiamen, slaves’ descendants, infiltrators and warlords. And a messiah, around whom all the characters end up revolving, as the authorities prepare to crucify him and his followers.
The Messiah of Darfur is a moving story of conflict and adventure, love and revenge. It is a tale filled with humor and magic about the ongoing war in this western region of Sudan. The author will hold an online dialogue with Karim Hauser of Casa Árabe, which you can watch on Wednesday, July 14, on our YouTube channel.
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (Sudan, 1963), author of seven novels and seven collections of short stories, won the Al Tayeb Salih Award for International Creative Writing in 2009. The Messiah of Darfur was first published in Arabic in Sudan in 2012. It was immediately acclaimed, and censored. All stocks of the book were destroyed and Sakin was forced into exile. He lives in Austria, where he was granted political asylum. The novel continues to circulate in Sudan clandestinely. His previous novel, The Jungo, won the Arabic Literature Prize for 2020 in France.
One day, the girl meets Shikiri, an idealistic young man forcibly conscripted by the army, while he is on leave visiting the city. Abderrahman takes him as a husband and asks him to help her exact revenge on the dreaded Janjaweed militias by killing at least ten of them. It is a novel that speaks of recruits, militiamen, slaves’ descendants, infiltrators and warlords. And a messiah, around whom all the characters end up revolving, as the authorities prepare to crucify him and his followers.
The Messiah of Darfur is a moving story of conflict and adventure, love and revenge. It is a tale filled with humor and magic about the ongoing war in this western region of Sudan. The author will hold an online dialogue with Karim Hauser of Casa Árabe, which you can watch on Wednesday, July 14, on our YouTube channel.
Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (Sudan, 1963), author of seven novels and seven collections of short stories, won the Al Tayeb Salih Award for International Creative Writing in 2009. The Messiah of Darfur was first published in Arabic in Sudan in 2012. It was immediately acclaimed, and censored. All stocks of the book were destroyed and Sakin was forced into exile. He lives in Austria, where he was granted political asylum. The novel continues to circulate in Sudan clandestinely. His previous novel, The Jungo, won the Arabic Literature Prize for 2020 in France.