Daily Times

Award-winning Somali poet Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, better-known by his pen name Hadraawi, died Thursday aged 79, prompting a flood of tributes to the “Shakespeare of Somalia”. Hadraawi died in a hospital in Hargeisa, the capital of the breakaway region of Somaliland, after battling ill health for the past seven years. The poet, who composed dozens of songs and epics in verse, spent five years in prison during the military dictatorship of Siad Barre for criticising the regime. Following his release, he moved to Ethiopia, where he joined the opposition Somali National Movement before travelling to Britain and finally relocating to Somaliland, where he was a popular presence at literature workshops and seminars.