Igiaba Scego


Igiaba Scego is an Italian writer, journalist, and activist of Somali origin.

Biography

Scego's father was a prominent Somali politician. She graduated in Foreign Literature at the First University of Rome and obtained a PhD in pedagogy at the Third University of Rome. Presently, she is writing about and researching cultural dialogue and migration.

Works

She writes for various magazines dealing with migrant literature and African literature, such as Latinoamerica, Carta, El Ghibli and Migra.
Her works include autobiographical references, and they depict the delicate balance between her two cultural realities, the Italian and Somali.
In 2003, she won the Eks & Tra prize for migrant writers with her story "Salsicce", and published her debut novel, La nomade che amava Alfred Hitchcock.
In 2006 she attended the .
Scego collaborates with newspapers such as La Repubblica and Il manifesto and contributes to the magazine with an opinion column, titled "The colors of Eve".
In 2007 along with Ingy Mubiayi, she edited the short story collection Quando nasci è una roulette. Giovani figli di migranti si raccontano. It follows the story of seven boys and girls of African origin, who were born in Rome of foreign parents or came to Italy when young. In 2011, she won the "Premio Mondello" with her book La mia casa è dove sono, which was published the previous year by Rizzoli.
In 2017, her book Adua was translated into English by Jamie Richards, and in 2019, Aaron Robertson translated her book Oltre Babilonia, again into English, with the title Beyond Babylon.

English Translations