Hadraawi, 'Shakespeare of Somaliland', dies aged 79
byAhmed mahamed ciidle-
0
hadraawi
Hadraawi died in a hospital in Hargeisa, the capital of the Republic of
Somaliland, after battling ill health for the past seven years. The poet, who
composed dozens of songs and epics in verse, spent five years in prison during
the military dictatorship of Siad Barre for criticising the regime.
Following his release, he moved to Ethiopia, where
he joined the opposition Somali National Movement before travelling to Britain
and finally relocating to Somaliland, home.
I want to inform the Somali speaking people anywhere and the world about the
death of poet Hadraawi, and that we ought to pray for him now," Somaliland
president Muse Bihi told a press conference in Hargeisa. "I send my condolences
to the Somaliland people and to all other Somali-speaking people anywhere in the
world, we will prepare his burial," he added.
"This is shocking and a great loss"
President of neighbor country Somalia Hassan Sheikh
Mohamud also expressed his condolences too. "May God have mercy on poet Mohamed
Warsame Hadraawi, he was one of the Somali intellectuals who spent efforts in
contributing to the awareness of Somali people and their literature," he said in
a statement. Hadraawi had no surviving children and his wife died earlier this
year.