Mohammad Abdul-Wali, (1940–1973) was a

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

i diplomat and a prominent

i writer of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

n descent, and one of the earliest authors in Yemen to adopt writing for artistic purposes rather than for nationalist agendas.

Life

Abdul-Wali was born in

. His mother was Ethiopian and his father had emigrated from northern Yemen. In 1955, Abdul-Wali began his studies at the university of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, where he got interested in

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

. He was expelled from Egypt, and after a brief period in Yemen he moved to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, where he learnt

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and studied literature at the Gorky Institute. After finishing his studies in 1962, he returned to

North Yemen North Yemen may refer to: * Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen (1918–1962) * Yemen Arab Republic The Yemen Arab Republic (YAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية اليمنية '), also known simply as North Yemen or Yemen (Sanaʽa), was a ...

, which just had won its independence. He was enrolled in the young country's

diplomatic corps The diplomatic corps (french: corps diplomatique) is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body. The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission ( ...

and became chargé d'affaires first in Moscow and later in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He also had a brief spell as head of Yemen Airlines, but fell out of favour with the government and was imprisoned. He died in a never thoroughly investigated airplane crash on his way from Aden to

Hadramaut Hadhramaut ( ar, حَضْرَمَوْتُ \ حَضْرَمُوتُ, Ḥaḍramawt / Ḥaḍramūt; Hadramautic: 𐩢𐩳𐩧𐩣𐩩, ''Ḥḍrmt'') is a region in South Arabia, comprising eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saud ...

in South Yemen along with a group of other ambassadors.

Works

Abdul-Wali is considered one of the forerunners of the modern Yemenite literary movement. He published three collections of short stories: ''al-Ard, ya Salma'' ("Our land, Salma", 1966), ''Shay’ ismuhu al-hanin'' ("Something called love", 1972) and ''’Ammuna Salih'' ("Uncle Salih", 1978), as well as two novellas: ''Yamutun ghuraba’'' ("They Die Strangers") and ''San’a’ ... madina maftuha'' ("San’a – open city"). His collected works were posthumously published in 1987. The English-language collection ''They Die Strangers. A Novella and Stories from Yemen'' was published in 2001. Given his Ethiopian heritage, many of his works dealt with Yemeni immigrants and exiles and the fate of Yemeni-African marriages. His novella ''They Die Strangers'', for example, is about a Yemeni national who opens a small shop in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

but long has a desire to return home.

References

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Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdul-Wali, Mohammad Yemeni writers Yemeni diplomats 1940 births 1973 deaths Ethiopian emigrants to Yemen Yemeni expatriates in Egypt Yemeni expatriates in the Soviet Union Yemeni expatriates in Germany Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni