Said Salah Ahmed (, ) is a Somali playwright, poet, educator and filmmaker.

Life

Said Salah was previously a biology teacher in

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

. In 1984-1985, Ahmed directed his first feature film, '' The Somali Darwish'' (alt. ''The Somalia Dervishes''), with Amar Sneh serving as producer. With a budget of $1.8 million, the 4-hour-and-40-minute epic was devoted to the polity of Darawiish king Diiriye Guure, i.e. the Dervish Movement. In the film dialogue you can hear seven languages: Somali,

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, and three regional dialects. The movie included an actual descendant of Diiriye Guure's emir,

Mohammed Abdullah Hassan Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, ...

as its star, Sheikh Osman Mohamoud Omar, and featured hundreds of actors and extras. Following the start of the civil war, Ahmed emigrated to

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. He subsequently wrote the children's book ''The Lion's Share'', which served as the basis for a Somali folklore-based play that he both penned and produced for the SteppingStone Theatre. Some of his poems have been translated into English by the

Poetry Translation Centre The Poetry Translation Centre (PTC) is an organization dedicated to translating poetry from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. It was founded by the British poet Sarah Maguire in 2004. I ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Said Salah Living people Ethnic Somali people Somalian film directors Somalian poets Somalian emigrants to the United States Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people)