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National Poet
A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbol, to be distinguished from successive holders of a bureaucratically-appointed poet-laureate office. The idea and honoring of national poets emerged primarily during Romanticism, as a figure that helped consolidation of the nation states, as it provided validation of their ethno-linguistic groups. Most national poets are historic figures, though a few contemporary writers working in relatively new or revived national literatures are also considered "national poets". Though not formally elected, national poets play a role in shaping a country's understanding of itself. Some nations may have more than one national poet; the idea of a single one is always a simplification. It has been argued that a national poet "must write poetry that closely identifies with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grave Of James Clarence Mangan
A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemetery, cemeteries. In some religions, it is believed that the body must be burned or cremated for the soul to survive; in others, the complete decomposition of the body is considered to be important for the rest of the soul (see Grief, bereavement). Description The formal use of a grave involves several steps with associated terminology. ;Grave cut The excavation that forms the grave. Excavations vary from a shallow scraping to removal of topsoil to a depth of or more where a vault or burial chamber is to be constructed. However, most modern graves in the United States are only deep as the Coffin, casket is placed into a concrete box (see Burial vault (enclosure), burial vault) to prevent a sinkhole, to en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moufdi Zakaria
Cheikh Zakaria Ben Slimane Ben Yahia Ben Cheikh Slimane Ben Hadj Aïssa (12 June 1908 – 17 August 1977), commonly known as Moufdi Zakaria and also referred to by some sources as Zekri Cheikh, was an Algerian activist, nationalist, poet and writer. He wrote the lyrics of '' Kassaman'', the national anthem of Algeria, purportedly with his own blood while imprisoned by the French in 1955. Biography Zakaria was born on 12 June 1908. Of Mozabite origin, he spent the early years of his life in the M'zab region of Algeria. The name ''Moufdi'' was given to him by a school friend. He became associated with Algerian nationalism and served time in prison for his beliefs from 1937 to 1938. In 1955, he was imprisoned again in Serkadji prison by the French for his political views. There, he wrote a poem called ''Kassaman'' or ''The Pledge''. It was said that he wrote the poem on the walls of his cell using his own blood because he had neither pencils nor paper to write in the prison. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Mofolo
Thomas Mokopu Mofolo (22 December 1876 – 8 September 1948) is often regarded as the first African novelist. His body of work, which consists of three books composed between 1905 and 1910, were first written in Sesotho, and then widely translated. He is best known for his third book, Chaka, a fictional retelling of the story of the rise and fall of the Zulu emperor-king Shaka. Life While Thomas Mofolo's work has been widely examined, his life story has been largely overlooked and no complete biography has been published. What is known stems from a short autobiographical sketch that appeared in 1930, the work of Daniel Kunene in the 1980s, and more recent archival research by the curator of Morija Museum and Archives. The third child of Abner and Aleta Mofolo, Thomas Mofolo was born in Ha Khojane, a village in the Mafeteng District of the British colony of Basutoland. His family were members of the Protestant church and remained loyal to the Cape Colony for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abdilatif Abdalla
Abdilatif Abdalla (born 1946 in Mombasa) is a Kenyan writer and political activist. He was imprisoned for his support of the Kenya People's Union, and began writing poetry in solitary confinement. A collection of poems from this time were published as a book titled ''Sauti ya Dhiki'' (1973), which was awarded the Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature. Early life Abdilatif Abdalla was born in Mombasa, Kenya, in 1946, where he was brought up by his grandfather Ahmad Basheikh bin Hussein. Abdalla attended school in Faza, before undertaking further studies at the British Tutorial College. He began his political involvement after working for the Mombasa City Council as an assistant accountant, writing the pamphlet ''Kenya Twendapi?'' (Eng: ''Kenya, Where Are We Headed'') in support of the Kenya People's Union in 1968. Political imprisonment and writing When the Kenyan Government of Jomo Kenyatta conducted a crackdown on KPU activists, Abdalla was imprisoned for conspiracy between 1969 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kofi Awoonor
Kofi Awoonor (born George Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor-Williams; 13 March 1935 – 21 September 2013) was a Ghanaian poet, author and diplomat. His work combined the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people with contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization. He started writing under the name George Awoonor-Williams, and was also published as Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor. He taught African literature at the University of Ghana. Professor Awoonor was among those who were killed in the September 2013 attack at Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was a participant at the Storymoja Hay Festival. Early life George Kofi Nyidevu Awoonor-Williams was born in Wheta, in the Volta region of what was then the Gold Coast, present-day Ghana. He was the eldest of 10 children in the family. He was a paternal descendant of the Awoonor-Williams family of Sierra Leone Creole descent. His grandmother was an Ewe dirge singer. Education He attended Achimota Sch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atukwei Okai
Atukwei John Okai (15 March 1941 – 13 July 2018) was a Ghanaian poet, cultural activist and academic. He was Secretary-General of the Pan African Writers' Association, and a president of the Ghana Association of Writers. His early work was published under the name John Okai. With his poems rooted in the oral tradition,Ernest Dela Aglanu"We were rapping before rap came – Prof. Atukwei Okai", Myjoyonline, 20 March 2011 (via Modern Ghana). he is generally acknowledged to have been the first real performance poet to emerge from Africa, and his work has been called "also politically radical and socially conscious, one of his great concerns being Pan-Africanism". His performances on radio and television worldwide include an acclaimed 1975 appearance at Poetry International at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, where he shared the stage with US poets Stanley Kunitz and Robert Lowell, and Nicolás Guillén of Cuba. Early life and education Atukwei Okai was born on 15 March 1941 in Accr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin (; 17 August 1936 – 25 February 2006) was an Ethiopian poet and novelist. His novels and poems evoke retrospective narratives, fanciful epics, and nationalistic connotations. Gabre-Medhin is considered to be one of the most important Ethiopian novelists, along with Baalu Girma and Haddis Alemayehu. His books have been successful in commercial sales and in even academic theses. His works are solely based in Amharic and English. Biography Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin was born in Bodaa village, near Ambo, Ethiopia, some 120 km from the capital Addis Ababa. He is an Oromo. As many Ethiopian boys do, he also learned Ge'ez, the ancient language of the church, which is an Ethiopian equivalent of Latin. He also helped the family by caring for cattle. He was still very young when he began to write plays while at the local elementary school. One of those plays, ''King Dionysus and the Two Brothers'', was staged in the presence, among others, of Emperor Haile Selassie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gibreab Teferi
Gibreab Teferi Dasta (; 1923 – 15 January 1988), also spelled Gebreab Teferi, was an Ethiopian activist, poet and playwright known for his extensive knowledge of the Ge’ez and Amharic languages. Gibreab died aged 65 in Addis Ababa. He was one of the early pioneers of Ethiopian music and Theater. He was a poet, lyricist, and playwright who wrote over two-hundred songs, dozen plays, and hundreds of poems in the Amharic language. Gibreab's patriotism as can be seen in many of his songs and plays. He also worked as a journalist, author, musician, composer and theater director. He wrote several unpublished plays, thousands of songs, and was in the process of publishing a book of plays and poems when he died in 1988. He also served in the Imperial Army (), rising to the rank of Shalaqa-Basha and was the primary Amharic lyricist for the Ras Band in the Ras Hotel, eventually becoming management there, where he worked until retirement. Life Gibreab Teferi was born in 1923 in the Bur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
An Autobiography
An autobiography is a book or other work about the life of a person, written by that person. Autobiography may also refer to: * ''Autobiography'' (Morrissey book) * ''Autobiography'' (Nat Adderley album) * ''Autobiography'' (Abdullah Ibrahim album) * ''Autobiography'' (Ashlee Simpson album), or the title track * ''Autobiography'' (film), 2022 internationally co-produced film * ''Auto-Biography'' (Le Car album) * John Cowper Powys's ''Autobiography'' * ''Autobiography'', the autobiography of British philosopher John Stuart Mill * ''The Autobiography'' or '' John Major: The Autobiography'', a 1999 political memoir by the former British prime minister * "Autobiography", a song by British rapper from his 2021 album ''Conflict of Interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahmed Shawqi
Ahmed Shawqi (, , ; 1868–1932), nicknamed the Prince of Poets ( ''Amīr al-Shu‘arā’''), was an Egyptian poet laureate, linguist, and one of the most famous Arabic literary writers of the modern era in the Arab World. Life Shawqi was born in Cairo on October 17, 1868, to a wealthy family of mixed Egyptian, Circassian, Turkish, Kurdish, and Greek roots. His family was prominent and well-connected with the court of the Khedive Ismael of Egypt. At the age of four, he joined a ''kuttab'' in the Sayyida Zeinab neighborhood, memorising there parts of the Holy Qur'an and learning the principles of reading and writing. Upon graduating from high school, he attended law school for two years, before joining the then-recently founded school of translation, which aimed to train civil servants. After obtaining a degree in translation, Shawqi was offered a job in the court of the Khedive Abbas II which he immediately accepted. After a year working in the court of the Khedive, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zaire
Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was the name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 18 May 1997. Located in Central Africa, it was, by area, the third-largest country in Africa after Sudan and Algeria, and the 11th-largest country in the world from 1965 to 1991. With a population of over 23 million, Zaire was the most populous Francophone country in Africa. Zaire was strategically important to the West during the Cold War, particularly the U.S., as a counterbalance to Soviet influence in Africa. The U.S. and its allies supported the Mobutu regime (1965–1997) with military and economic aid to prevent the spread of communism. The country was a one-party totalitarian military dictatorship, run by Mobutu Sese Seko and his Popular Movement of the Revolution. Zaire was established following Mobutu's seizure of power in a military coup in 1965, after five years of political upheaval following independence from Belgium known as the Congo Crisis. Zaire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoine-Roger Bolamba
Antoine-Roger Bolamba, later Bolamba Lokolé J'ongungu (27 July 1913 – 9 July 2002), was a Congolese journalist, writer, and politician. He edited the monthly journal ''La Voix du Congolais'' from 1945 until 1959. He also served as Secretary of State for Information and Cultural Affairs of the Republic of the Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1960 and then as Minister of Information and Tourism from 1963 until 1964. Bolamba was born to a Mongo family in 1913 in the Belgian Congo. During his education he took interest in French literature and soon thereafter began to write, publishing various works and contributing to Congolese periodicals. He gained public attention in 1939 after winning awards for his writing. In 1944 he was hired by the colonial government to manage its press division, and the following year he was made editor-in-chief of a new publication, ''La Voix du Congolais''. Bolamba held much influence in the city of Léopoldville and frequently disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
