William J.F. Syad. Somalia (1930- ).

William Syad was born in French Somalia in 1930 and was educated in Saudi Arabia and at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. As a supporter of Somalian unity, Syad has spent much of his life in exile. He worked for Radio Djibouti from 1955-1960 but then fled into exile once again. When the Somalia Republic was formed, Syad became head of the department of Tourism and Culture at the Ministry of Information in Mogadishu. This was followed by a long and distinguished career in the Somali foreign service.

Syad's has published four volumes of poetry, Khamsine (1959), Cantiques (1976), Harmoniques (1976) and Naufragés du destin (1978). This body of work reflects the unique character of Syad's French Somali roots. It blends Syad's devotion to Islam with his acceptance of Western influences into into the Horn of Africa. Perhaps put best by Léopold Senghor (in Jahn, 1972), "His poems have the subtle perfume of the Song of Songs. And the tone of the poems of Tagore. They are natural flowers of a land of poetry, of a land of nard and incense: balmy orchids."

Escape, Lines 14-27

Like
a stiff-necked
flower
drooping
as dawn
crawls
out of night
Your frail
wings
left
a shudder
in the sand
of dunes on my deserted
beach

Yesterday, Lines 8-21

you have told me
my culture's past
wild thought
of my Somali
race

And like this fine sand
in the hollow
of a hand
you sift down into the past
where the mind
alone
may glean

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© Copyright 1995-2005. Dan Reboussin, Africana Collection, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida . Last modified: December 18, 2003 . All hyperlinks verified as of May 28, 2004.