Sulaiman Addonia
(Eritrea, 1975) is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. His first novel, The Consequences of Love (2008), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and translated into more than 20 languages, is a love story set in Jeddah. Silence is My Mother Tongue (2018) was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. This second novel is about Saba, a girl in an East African refugee camp. Devoid of school and books, she struggles to give meaning to her own existence and to protect her brother. Both resist the roles imposed by their gender and environment. Addonia currently lives in Brussels, where he established the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (in Exile), a creative-writing academy for refugees and asylum seekers. Together with Specimen Press, he co-founded a new literary competition and prize for hybrid and collective writing: To Speak Europe in Different Languages.
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Archive available for: Sulaiman Addonia
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Sulaiman Addonia in Tout-monde - #BackToEarth
With: Sulaiman Addonia
"Oh! The early mornings, the fragments of dawn falling over Flagey, the heaving breaths of joggers lapping around me, as the poet with a red scarf over his shoulders sits by my side, writing in his notebook."
As we listen to the Ixelles Ponds speaking about their relationship to people, the author of this monologue, Sulaiman Addonia is filmed by Shalan Alhamwy as he walks alongside the well-known Brussels landmark.
On request of the online Winternachten international literature festival The Hague 2021, the Eritrean-Ethiopian author gave a voice to a beloved non-human who, in his view, should have one. The video reading premiered at the Winternachten festival in the program #BackToEarth: Tout-monde that was live streamed on Saturday 16 January 2021.
The image that we have of our world is purely human: a human-centred picture. It's up to us to give non-humans a voice and a stage. That is why in #BackToEarth: Tout-monde, the programme created by Nisrine Mbarki for the online Winternachten festival 2021, we gave the floor to the non-human elements of our world. It was an existentially poetic evening in which the world was experienced from a different, more complete, perspective by writers and poets.
Sulaiman Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British novelist. His first novel, The Consequences of Love (2008), shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and translated into more than 20 languages, is a love story set in Jeddah. Silence is My Mother Tongue (2018), his second novel, has been longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. This second novel tells of Saba, a girl in an East African refugee camp. Devoid of school and books, she struggles to give meaning to her own existence and to protect her brother. Both resist the roles imposed by their gender and environment.
Addonia currently lives in Brussels, where he has launched the Asmara-Addis Literary Festival (in Exile), a creative-writing academy for refugees and asylum seekers. Together with Specimen Press, he co-founded a new literary competition and prize for hybrid and collective writing: To Speak Europe in Different Languages.
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Tout-monde - #BackToEarth
With: Amahl Raphael Khouri, Annemarie Estor, Chris Keulemans, Nisrine Mbarki, Shishani, Sulaiman Addonia, Vamba Sherif
The image that we have of our world is purely human: a human-centred picture. It's up to us to give non-humans a voice and a stage. In this program created by Nisrine Mbarki, we give the floor to the non-human elements of our world. It was an existentially poetic evening in which the world was experienced from a different, more complete, perspective.
4:36 - Shishani (Netherlands), song performance I.
10:24 - Vamba Sherif (Netherlands), interview.
24:44 - Shishani, song performance II.
28:40 - Sulaiman Addonia (Belgium), video reading.
35:57 - Annemarie Estor (Belgium), video reading.
43:43 - Amahl Raphael Khouri (Egypt), video reading.
49:58 - Amahl Raphael Khouri / Sulaiman Addonia, interview.
1:12:53 - Vamba Sherif, interview.
1:18:12 - Shishani, song performance II.The term Tout-monde (whole-world), coined by the Caribbean poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant (1928-2011) advocates the use of language and poetry as a tool of resistance. We can look at the world from the point of view of other people, animals, plants and even objects by identifying with them. In the Netherlands, writer Eva Meijer calls on philosophers, writers and artists to get to work on this.
We discussed this theme with writer and journalist Vamba Sherif who always explores the history of his family in North and West Africa, irrevocably linked to the African earth. In his novel Het land van de vaders (The land of the Fathers) he tells about his native country Liberia, where the religion of nature was adhered to by praying to trees, rocks and rivers.
We asked three guests to give a voice to beloved non-humans who, in their view, should have one. These include the Eritrean-Ethiopian author Sulaiman Addonia; the Belgian writer and poet Annemarie Estor and the transgender Jordanian playwright living and working in Berlin and Cairo, Amahl Raphael Khouri.
In their works the search for an individual, free voice plays an important role. They are especially adept at taking on alternative voices that lack the usual perspectives on the world and are therefore of great added value.
The authors' readings of their stories were filmed on location, in their own habitat by respectively Ahmed El Saaty (Khouri), Shalan Alhamwy (Addonia) en Nils van der Linden (Estor). Afterwards, writer and journalist Chris Keulemans lead a live conversation with Addonia and Khouri to reflect on what issues the assignment raised.
Shishani brings worlds together with an earthly and powerful voice and was therefore the singer-songwriter par excellence to engage us with the non-human.
Read here the contributions written for this programme on request of the Winternachten international literature festival The Hague:
(Find the Dutch-language versions here/Lees hier de Nederlandstalige versies)
Learn more here:
Read and watch on here:Sulaiman Addonia
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'Murder, migration and mother love, the making of the novelist Sulaiman Addonia, interview, The Guardian, 2019Annemarie Estor
websiteChris Keulemans
Facebook
Video: Chris Keulemans hosts an interview with authors Rosabelle Illes (Aruba) and Antoine de Kom, Winternachten festival 2020Amahl Raphael Khouri
Video: conversation with Amahl Raphael Khouri; host: Alice Guthrie, Arts Canteen, July 2020Nisrine Mbarki
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Video, from 58'40'': recitation by Nisrine Mbarki in Fatena's Poëziësalon, December 2020Vamba Sherif
websiteShishani
website
YouTube-channel Shishani -
#BacktoEarth: Tout-monde (Whole World)
With: Amahl Raphael Khouri, Annemarie Estor, Chris Keulemans, Nisrine Mbarki, Shishani, Sulaiman Addonia, Vamba Sherif
The image we have of our world is purely human, making it human-centric. It's up to us to offer non-humans a voice and a stage. This program created by Nisrine Mbarki gave the floor to the non-human elements of our world. It was an existentially poetic evening to experience the world from a different, more holistic, perspective.
The term Tout-monde (whole world), coined by the Caribbean poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant (1928-2011), advocates the use of language and poetry as a tool of resistance. We can see the world from the point of view of other people, animals, plants and even objects by identifying with them. In the Netherlands, writer Eva Meijer calls on philosophers, writers and artists to get to work on this.
We discussed this theme with writer and journalist Vamba Sherif, who is continually seeking the history of his family in North and West Africa, irrevocably linked to the African earth. In his novel Het land van de vaders (The Land of the Fathers) he tells about his native country of Liberia, where since time immemorial a religion of nature gave worship to trees, rocks and rivers.
We asked three authors to give a voice to beloved non-humans. These were the Eritrean-Ethiopian author Sulaiman Addonia; the Belgian essayist and poet Annemarie Estor; and the Jordanian transgender playwright living and working in Berlin and Cairo, Amahl Raphael Khouri. In their works, the search for an individual, free voice plays an important role. All three are especially adept at taking on alternative voices lacking in the usual perspectives on the world, and therefore of great value.
The authors read their resulting stories on locaion, in their own habitat, and were filmed by Ahmed El Saaty (Khouri), Shalan Alhamwy (Addonia) en Nils van der Linden (Estor). Afterwards, writer and journalist Chris Keulemans led a live conversation with Addonia and Khouri to reflect on what thoughts the assignment raised.
With an earthy and powerful voice, Shishani brought disparate worlds together and was thereby the ideal singer-songwriter to engage us with the non-human.
Read the pieces commissioned for this program by the Winternachten International Literature Festival The Hague here:
(Find the Dutch-language versions here/Lees hier de Nederlandstalige versies)
More background:Sulaiman Addonia
Facebook
'Murder, Migration and Mother Love, the Making of the Novelist Sulaiman Addonia, interview, The Guardian, 2019Annemarie Estor
websiteChris Keulemans
Facebook
Video: Chris Keulemans interviews authors Rosabelle Illes (Aruba) and Antoine de Kom (Surinam), Winternachten Festival 2020Amahl Raphael Khouri
Video: conversation with Amahl Raphael Khouri; host: Alice Guthrie, Arts Canteen, July 2020Nisrine Mbarki
Facebook
Video, as of 58'40'': performance by Nisrine Mbarki in Fatena's Poëziësalon, December 2020Vamba Sherif
websiteShishani
website
YouTube-channel Shishani