Abdul-azeez Mohammed

My name is Abdul-azeez Mohammed; I was born on 21st December 1956 in Keren town, in the then fourteenth province of imperial Ethiopia, now Eritrea. I received the first of my short-lived education at Government Primary School Keren. I had then proceeded to St, David secondary School where I studied for a period less than one year before I discontinued that owing to a host of circumstances.

My family comprising- four brothers, four sisters, the youngest of whom was by then under one year and my mother sought refuge in the northern part of the Sudan where I begun to work as a painter and occasionally as interpreter for tourist. I have travelled to a number of central and West African countries in the process of which I was able to study for a higher diploma in arts education and English language. I have staged a number of arts exhibitions for my painting mainly portraying themes of human conflicts with special emphasis on the three decades that characterised the repressive reign of Ethiopia in Eritrea. I also composed post-independence poetry, reflecting on internal conflicts, social justices, ethno-nationalism and the exodus of thousands of Eritreans out of Eritrea.

Since I came to live in London in 1991, I have staged three painting exhibitions under the auspices of the Horn Reflections that generated great interest from those who came to see it. Besides, I have deeply rooted interest in writing poetry as I always found it to be one of the most compatible medium through which I expressed my personal and general feelings. In deed poetry became more than a medium; to me poetry became an intense form of catharsis. All the poems I write stem from events that have left an engraving impression in my feeling. I therefore experienced profound relief whenever I composed one.

Since the poetry I write is based on actual events and always wished readers to share the core experiences, I always endeavoured to render expressional clarity without necessarily compromising the poetic qualities hence I adopted a narrative form of poetry. I recited poetry to numerous audiences in Africa and the United Kingdom. I was greatly encouraged by the response I had that I have now completed a poetic anthology comprising over 130 poems which I also illustrated and am writing a novel entitled ‘Paradisal Soil’ which is still in its initial stage.