Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin

Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin (Arabic:عبد العزيز بركة ساكن, born in Kassala, Sudan, in 1963) is a Sudanese fiction writer with roots in Darfur in western Sudan, whose literary work was banned in Sudan in 2011.^[1] Since 2012, he has lived in exile in Austria. He is mostly known for his novels The Messiah of Darfur and The Jungo, translated from the original Arabic into French, English, Spanish and German.

According to Sudanese literary critic Lemya Shammat, "Sakin has repeatedly reflected on the complexity of human experience during conflict, reflecting the horrible mass of contradictions that war brings.”

Life and literary career[]

Baraka Sakin was born in the Sudanese town of Kassala near the border with Eritrea, but the roots of his family go back to Darfur in western Sudan. He graduated in business administration from the University of Assiut in Egypt, and has exercised different professional activities during his life: as manual worker, secondary school teacher, consultant for UNICEF in Darfur, or as employee of an international NGO for children’s rights.

His literary work, which speaks of marginalised people and war, with references to the Darfur genocide and the dictatorship in Sudan under Omar al-Bashir, is published in Arabic in Egypt. It is popular with Sudanese readers, who had been smuggling his books into their country after their interdiction in 2009.^[2]

In 2011, Baraka Sakin received the Al-Tayeb Salih Prize for Creative Writing at the Khartoum book fair for his novel The Jungo – Stakes of the Earth, which deals with the conditions in a women's prison in El-Gadarif in eastern Sudan. Shortly after its release, the Sudanese authorities confiscated and banned his books.^[3] In 2012, Baraka Sakin left Sudan, seeking exile in Austria, where he has lived since 2012.^[4]

Translations and international appreciation[]

Following the original edition, his novel The Jungo – Stakes of the Earth was published in English and French translations.^[5] His short story A Woman from Kampo Kadees was included in the anthology Nouvelles du Soudan in 2010. The French translation of The Messiah of Darfur won the Prix Les Afriques in 2017.^[6] In France, he also published a children's book as a multilingual edition in Arabic, English and French.^[7]

Several of his short stories have appeared also in German and were translated by Sudanese-Austrian writer Ishraga Mustafa.^[8] In September 2016, he was invited to Berlin as participant of its International Festival for Literature,^[9] and in 2019 to the festival of African literature Crossing Borders in Cologne, Germany.^[10]

Baraka Sakin was awarded the BBC Short Story Prize for the Arab World for A Woman from Kampo Kadees in 1993,^[11] and in 2020, the Arab Literature Prize by the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) in Paris for the French translation of his novel The Jungo – Stakes of the Earth. Commenting on this award, he said in an interview: "...this prize came at just the right time because my novel talks about religious tolerance, love and humanity, where we now live in a world torn apart by identity struggles, going through what looks like a clash of civilizations.”^[12]

Baraka Sakin has written for several Arabic-language magazines: Al Arabi magazine (Kuweit), Al Naqid (London), Nazwa magazine (Oman), Journal of Palestinian Studies (Paris, in French), Doha Magazine (UAE), Banipal (London),^[13] or Dastoor newspaper (London).^[11]

Select bibliography[]

(All Arabic titles given in English translation)

Novels

• The Mills, Vision Publishing, Cairo, 2000
• The Water Ashes, Vision Publishing, Cairo, 2001
• The Husband of the Bullet Woman and My Beautiful Daughter, Vision Publishing, Cairo, 2003
• The Bedouin Lover, Vision Publishing, Cairo, 2010
• The Jungo – Stakes of the Earth, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2009
• The Messiah of Darfur, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2012
• The Kandarees, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2012
• Excuse me, Cairo, 2018
• Slavers’ Banquets, 2020
• Prayer of the Flesh, 2020
• Cloning of the Traitor, 2020

Short stories

• At the Peripheries of Sidewalks, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2005
• A Woman from Kampo Kadees, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2005
  French translation: Une femme du camp de Kadis, in Nouvelles du Soudan, Magellan & Cie, 2010
• The Daily remains of the Night, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2010
• The Music of the Bones, Awraq Publishing House, Cairo, 2011

In English translation

• The Jungo: Stakes of the Earth. (2015). Africa World Press/The Red Sea Press, Inc., Trenton, NJ, USA. ISBN 9781569024249
• The Butcher's Daughter, in The Book of Khartoum, anthology of short stories, Comma Press, UK 2016
• Birth (selected stories), independently published, 2020 ISBN 979-8576706129

In French translation

• Les Jango, Éditions Zulma, Paris, France, 2020, ISBN 978-2-84304-846-3
• Le Messie du Darfour, Éditions Zulma, Paris, France, 2016, ISBN 9782843047794

In German translation

• Alkchandris: Wer hat Angst vor Osman Bushra? (short story) 2012
• Der Messias von Darfur, Edition Orient, Berlin, 2021

In Spanish translation

• El Mesías de Darfur, Armænia^[14]

Further reading[]

• Al-Malik, A., Gaetano, S., Adam, H., Baraka, S. A., Karamallah, A., Mamoun, R., & Luffin, X. (2009). Nouvelles du Soudan. Paris: Magellan & Cie. ISBN 9782350741604
• Cormack, Ralph and Shmookler, Max (eds.) (2016). The Book of Khartoum. A City in Short Fiction. ISBN 9781905583720
• Banipal Magazine. Sudanese literature today. 2016
• Review of The Messiah of Darfur on Around the World in 180 Books, 2017

See also[]

• Sudanese literature
• List of Sudanese writers
• Modern Arabic literature

References[]

External links[]

• Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin at Commapress publishers
• Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin at goodreads