One of Somalia’s most famous poets, Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, known as “Hadraawi” and nicknamed the “Somali Shakespeare,” died on Thursday in the breakaway Somaliland region where he lived.
This 79-year-old author, highly respected in Somali society, where poetry is a centuries-old tradition, had been suffering from health problems for seven years.
five years in prison
Hadraawi, who composed dozens of songs and epic poems in verse, spent five years in prison between 1973 and 1978 under the military dictatorship of Siad Barre, for having criticized the regime through his writings.
After his release, he went into exile in Ethiopia, then in the UK before finally settling in Somaliland, where he was from.
“It is shocking and it is a great loss. I want to inform Somali-speaking people everywhere and around the world about the death of the poet Hadraawi. We must pray for him now,” Somaliland President Muse Bihi said during a press conference in Hargeisa. the capital of Somaliland.
“I send my condolences to the people of Somaliland and to all Somali-speaking people everywhere. We will prepare for his burial,” he added.
The President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, also greeted in a statement “one of the Somali intellectuals who has endeavored to contribute to the awareness of the Somali people and their literature.”
Hadraawi had no children. His wife died in March 2022 in Burao, his birthplace where the couple lived.
Source: BFM TV
