# Farah Awl

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Somali writer

Farah Awl Native name فارح عول Born Faarax Maxamed Jaamac Cawl 1937 (1937) Las Khorey, British Somaliland (now Puntland) Died 1991 (aged 53–54) Beledweyne, Somalia Occupation writer

**Farah Mohamed Jama Awl** ([Somali](/source/Somali_language): *Faarax Maxamed Jaamac Cawl*, [Arabic](/source/Arabic_language): فارح محمد جامع عول; 1937–1991), usually credited as **Farah Awl**,[1] was a [Somali](/source/Somali_people) writer. His surname *Cawl* (Somali pronunciation: [\[ʕawl\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA)) means "gazelle", was the nickname of his great-grandfather who was the Sultan of the [Warsangali](/source/Warsangali) clan. The Awl family also includes the Warsangali [Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shire](/source/Mohamoud_Ali_Shire).[2]

## Biography

Awl was born in 1937 in the town of [Las Khorey](/source/Las_Khorey) in North eastern [Somalia](/source/Somalia). In his youth, he obtained a scholarship to study [aeronautical](/source/Aerospace_engineering) and [automobile engineering](/source/Automotive_engineering) in [London](/source/London) in the United Kingdom (1959–62). Upon graduation, he moved to Somalia and worked with the [police force](/source/Somali_Police_Force) and the National Transport Agency in [Mogadishu](/source/Mogadishu).

The vivid descriptions of Somalia's scenery and fauna in Awl's literary corpus, as well as the inclusion of traditional Somali poetry, make it stand out in particular. He also has the distinction of being the first Somali novelist to write in the nascent [Latin script](/source/Somali_alphabet) for the [Somali language](/source/Somali_language) after its formalization in 1972.

Awl was a member of the royal family of the Warsangali clan. Reportedly because of his membership in the [Darod](/source/Darod) clan family, Awl, along with three of his children, was killed in 1991, at the height of the civil unrest that gripped the town of [Beledweyne](/source/Beledweyne) in the [Hiiraan](/source/Hiiraan) region.

He is survived by his wife and one son, Dahir Farah.[3]

## Bibliography

- *Aqoondarro waa U nacab jacayl* ("Ignorance is the enemy of love"), 1982

- *Garbaduubkii gumeysiga* ("The Shackles of Colonialism"), 1978

- *Dhibbanaha aan dhalan* ("The Unborn Victim"), 1989

- *Aqoondarro waa u nacab jacayl*, 1974

## See also

- [Nuruddin Farah](/source/Nuruddin_Farah)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Mohamed, Jama. "'The evils of locust bait': Popular nationalism during the 1945 anti-locust control rebellion in colonial Somalia." Past & present 174 (2002): 184-216.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** *Horn of Africa, Volume 15*, Horn of Africa Journal., 1997, p. 72

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Faarax MJ Cawl, *Ignorance is the enemy of love.*, Translated from the Somali with introduction and notes, London, Zed Books, 'New Fiction' Series. (Revised reissue of the 1982 edition), 1984

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