Sudanese author awarded by Institut du Monde Arabe

The Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris, in cooperation with the Jean-Luc Lagarde Foundation, has awarded Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin the 2020 Arab Literature Prize.

Baraka Sakin will receive the prize of €10,000 for his novel ‘El Jango, Stakes of the Earth’, that deals with the conditions in a women's prison. It was published in Arabic, and translated into French by Xavier Louvain.

The website of the institute quoted the Sudanese author as saying that he is very happy with this prestigious award.

“I think that this award comes at the right time, because my novel is about religious tolerance, love and humanity, while we are living in a world torn apart by identity struggles, and is going through something like a clash of civilizations,” he commented.

Baraka Sakin, currently living in the French town of Montpellier, was born in eastern Sudan’s Kassala town in 1963, in a family whose roots go back to Darfur. He left Sudan in 2012.

His literary work, including ‘The Messiah of Darfur’, ‘Ashes of Water’ and ‘The Mills’, was published in Arabic in Egypt and Syria. Sudanese have been smuggling his books into their country since his work was prohibited by the Sudanese authorities during the regime of ousted President Omar Al Bashir.

The French jury also awarded ‘Bad Weeds’, written by the Lebanese woman author, Dima Abdallah.

The Institute of the Arab World will host Baraka Sakin and Abdallah in two literary encounters on December 5 and February 27.

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