The Most Famous
WRITERS from Somalia
This page contains a list of the greatest Somali Writers. The pantheon dataset contains 7,302 Writers, 3 of which were born in Somalia. This makes Somalia the birth place of the 97th most number of Writers behind Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan.
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Somali Writers of all time. This list of famous Somali Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Waris Dirie (b. 1965)
With an HPI of 61.76, Waris Dirie is the most famous Somali Writer. Her biography has been translated into 45 different languages on wikipedia.
Waris Dirie (Somali: Waris Diiriye; born 21 October 1965) is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist in the fight against female genital mutilation (FGM). From 1997 to 2003, she was a UN special ambassador against FGM. In 2002 she founded her own organization in Vienna, the Desert Flower Foundation. She has won numerous awards recognizing her work on eradicating FGM, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (2007). Born in Somalia, she moved to London where she began her modeling career. She was a model for top brands such as Chanel, Levi's, L'Oréal and Revlon. As a model, Dirie was the first black woman to appear in an Oil of Olay advertisement. In 1987, Dirie played a minor role in the James Bond film The Living Daylights. In 1997, at the height of her modeling career, Dirie spoke publicly for the first time with the women's magazine Marie Claire about the FGM that she had undergone as a child, and would become a UN special ambassador against FGM that same year. She has created a platform for raising awareness about FGM that includes numerous foundations, campaigns, books, and documentaries. Her first book, Desert Flower (1998), is an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller, selling over 11 million copies worldwide, and inspired the film Desert Flower (2009). She created two foundations: Desert Flower Foundation, an organisation whose goal is to eradicate female genital mutilation worldwide, and the Desert Dawn Foundation, which raises money for schools and clinics in her native Somalia.
2. Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (1856 - 1920)
With an HPI of 54.89, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan is the 2nd most famous Somali Writer. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Muḥammad Ibn Abdallāh Ibn Hassan (Arabic: محمد بن عبدالله حسن: Somali: Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan; Osmanya: 𐒉𐒖𐒕𐒕𐒘𐒆 𐒑𐒙𐒔𐒖𐒑𐒑𐒗𐒆 𐒛𐒁𐒆𐒚𐒐𐒐𐒖𐒔 H𐒖𐒈𐒈𐒖𐒒: 7 April 1856 – 21 December 1920) was a Somali, scholar, poet, religious, political, and military leader who founded and headed the Dervish movement, which led a holy war against British, Italian and Ethiopian intrusions in the Somali Peninsula. He was famously known by the British Empire as the ''Mad Mullah". In 1917, the Ottoman Empire referred him as the "Emir of the Somali People". Due to his successful completion of the Hajj to Mecca, his complete memorization of the Quran and his purported descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad, his name is sometimes preluded with honorifics such as Hajji, Hafiz, Emir, Sheikh, Mullah or Sayyid. His influence led him to being regarded the “Father of the Somali People”.
3. Nuruddin Farah (b. 1945)
With an HPI of 50.47, Nuruddin Farah is the 3rd most famous Somali Writer. His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.
Nuruddin Farah (Somali: Nuuradiin Faarax, Arabic: نورالدين فارح) (born 24 November 1945) is a Somali novelist. His first novel, From a Crooked Rib, was published in 1970 and has been described as "one of the cornerstones of modern East African literature today". He has also written plays both for stage and radio, as well as short stories and essays. Since leaving Somalia in the 1970s he has lived and taught in numerous countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Sudan, India, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa. Farah has garnered acclaim as one of the greatest contemporary writers in the world, his prose having earned him accolades including the Premio Cavour in Italy, the Kurt Tucholsky Prize in Germany, the Lettre Ulysses Award in Berlin, and in 1998, the prestigious Neustadt International Prize for Literature. In the same year, the French edition of his novel Gifts won the St Malo Literature Festival's prize. In addition, Farah is a perennial nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
4. Nadifa Mohamed (b. 1981)
With an HPI of 18.83, Nadifa Mohamed is the 4th most famous Somali Writer. Her biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Nadifa Mohamed (Somali: Nadiifa Maxamed, Arabic: نظيفة محمد) (born 1981) is a Somali-British novelist. She featured on Granta magazine's list "Best of Young British Novelists" in 2013, and in 2014 on the Africa39 list of writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define future trends in African literature. Her 2021 novel, The Fortune Men, was shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize, making her the first British Somali novelist to get this honour. She has also written short stories, essays, memoirs and articles in outlets including The Guardian, and contributed poetry to the anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby, 2019). Mohamed was also a lecturer in Creative Writing in the Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London until 2021. She became Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University in Spring 2022.
People
Pantheon has 4 people classified as Somali writers born between 1856 and 1981. Of these 4, 3 (75.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Somali writers include Waris Dirie, Nuruddin Farah, and Nadifa Mohamed. The most famous deceased Somali writers include Mohammed Abdullah Hassan. As of April 2024, 1 new Somali writers have been added to Pantheon including Nadifa Mohamed.
Living Somali Writers
Go to all Rankings
Waris Dirie
1965 - Present
HPI: 61.76
Nuruddin Farah
1945 - Present
HPI: 50.47
Nadifa Mohamed
1981 - Present
HPI: 18.83
