Igiaba Scego (born 20 March 1974 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

) is an Italian writer, journalist, and activist of Somali origin.

Biography

Igiaba Scego was born in

, Italy, in 1974, after her parents were forced to flee

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

following the 1969 coup d'état of Siad Barre; Scego's father was a prominent Somali politician. She graduated in Foreign Literature at

La Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

and obtained a PhD in pedagogy at Roma Tre University. Presently, she is writing about and researching cultural dialogue and migration.

Works

She writes for various magazines dealing with migrant literature and African literature, such as ''Latinoamerica'', ''Carta'', ''El Ghibli'' and ''Migra''. Her works include autobiographical references, and they depict the delicate balance between her two cultural realities, the Italian and Somali. In 2003, she won the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers with her story "Salsicce", and published her debut novel, ''La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock''. In 2006 she attended th
Literature festival in Mantua
Scego collaborates with newspapers such as ''

La Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnol ...

'' and '' Il manifesto'' and contributes to the magazine ''Nigrizia'' with an opinion column, titled "The colors of Eve". In 2007, along with

Ingy Mubiayi Ingy Mubiayi (born 27 June 1972) is an Egyptian-born Italian writer. She focuses her works on migrants and has become a voice of the Italian-African diaspora. In 2004, she was the recipient of the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers for her work ...

, she edited the short-story collection ''Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano''. It follows the story of seven boys and girls of African origin, who were born in Rome of foreign parents or came to Italy when young. In 2011, she won the Premio Mondello with her book ''La mia casa è dove sono'', which was published the previous year by Rizzoli. In 2017, her novel ''Adua'' was translated into English by Jamie Richards, and in 2019, Aaron Robertson translated her book ''Oltre Babilonia'', again into English, with the title ''Beyond Babylon''. Reviewing it for the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

'', Kelsey McFaul wrote: "Rather than suggesting that 'beyond Babylon' is a destination, the novel expresses the material and relational afterlives of resilience, anti-colonization, and collective racial solidarity in the present. Scego's genius is to scale from the international to the intimate, from memory and materiality to music, mothers, and menstruation, the 'rhythm that transports me into a cosmic chaos that appears to be my own.'" Seago's 2020 novel, ''La linea del colore'', combines the characters of

Edmonia Lewis Mary Edmonia Lewis, also known as "Wildfire" (c. July 4, 1844 – September 17, 1907), was an American sculptor, of mixed African-American and Native American ( Mississauga Ojibwe) heritage. Born free in Upstate New York, she worked for most of ...

and

Sarah Parker Remond Sarah Parker Remond (June 6, 1826 – December 13, 1894) was an American lecturer, activist and abolitionist campaigner. Born a free woman in the state of Massachusetts, she became an international activist for human rights and women's su ...

and is dedicated to Rome and to these two African-American women who lived in the city during the 19th century.

Bibliography

* ''La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock'', Rome: Edizioni Sinnos, 2003. * ''Rhoda'', Rome: Edizioni Sinnos, 2004. * ''Pecore nere. Racconti'' with Gabriela Kuruvilla, Ingy Mubiayi, Laila Wadia, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2005. * (Edited with

) ''Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano'', Edizioni Terre di Mezzo, 2007. * ''Amori Bicolori. Racconti'', Roma, Edizioni Laterza, 2007. * ''Oltre Babilonia'', Donzelli Editore, 2008. English translation (by Aaron Robertson): ''Beyond Babylon'', Two Lines Press, 2019. * ''L'albero in Nessuna Pietà'', Salani editore, 2009. * ''La mia casa è dove sono'', Rizzoli, 2010. Libro autobiografico che descrive una famiglia dispersa tra Somalia, Gran Bretagna e Italia. * ''Roma Negata'', with Rino Bianchi. Ediesse, 2014. * ''Adua'', Giunti, 2015. Translated into English by Jamie Richard, New Vessel Press, 2017, . * ''La linea del colore'', Bompiani, 2020.

English translations

*''Adua''. Translated by Jamie Richards. New Vessel Press, 2017. *''Beyond Babylon''. Translated by Aaron Robertson. Two Lines Press, 2019.

References

External links