January 2014 - Mauritania

On my Literature blog http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/ I set up a new challenge related specifically to reading novels from countries that have a UNESCO World Heritage Listed natural site. In all there are 193 countries that have a natural site of “outstanding universal value”. For 2014 I have chosen a random 12 to be visited via their writing.

First up is the Country of Mauritania, a West African Nation that has a strong oral history of fables, poetry and writing, but unfortunately a country that has a very very poor representation of works translated into English.

Wikipedia tells me the following celebrated writers:

• Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti (1872–1913), Arabic-language writer.
• Amadou Oumar Bâ (1917– ), poet.[Gikandi]
• Ibn Razqa (died 1144 AH/1731 AD), poet and scholar.
• Moussa Diagana (1946– ), French-language writer.
• Moussa Ould Ebnou, French-language novelist.
• Mohammed al-Shankiti (1907–1973), Islamic scholar.
• Abderrahmane Sissako (1961– ), filmmaker

Further research shows none of their works being translated into English excluding a handful of Amadou Oumar Ba’s poems via the Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry.

This led me to the blog “A Year of Reading the World” and their entry entitled “Mauritania: language barriers” (http://ayearofreadingtheworld.com/2012/12/12/mauritania-language-barriers/) where they state  “If there were a hall of fame for hardest countries in the world to find literature from in English, Mauritania would be up there with the best of them. The short answer is that there are no commercially published translations of books penned by writers from the country in either Arabic, French, Hassaniya Arabic, Pulaar, Soninke or Wolof – the six most commonly spoken languages in the nation.”
As a result of visiting “A Year of Reading the World” I came across “Angels of Mauritania and the Curse of the Language” and a free download at that. This will be my first book reviewed here. I will also attempt to find copies of Amadou Oumar Ba’s poetry and if successful will post a review here too.

I would be extremely grateful if somebody could locate further Mauritanian works in English, I now feel like a dog with a bone, I won’t let go until I have a decent representation of Mauritanian works to review.

This blog is open to all and sundry to read a book (or books) from the mentioned Nations and post their thoughts. Please feel free to join me in exploring these Nations through their writing.

I will also post information about the World Heritage listed sites in the Nation that is featured each month so I’ll be back with a few details about Banc d’Arguin National park in Mauritania soon.

Intro and reason for the blog

For quite sometime my wife and I have been planning to see as many UNESCO World Heritage Listed sites on the planet, now with over 981 properties on the list that is one hell of a travel budget. Maybe we should restrict it to the 193 natural sites that have “outstanding universal value?” Having this bucket list gave me a thought, why not read novels from the countries we visit? How about I extend that challenge? So here it is, my 2014 challenge, to read at least twelve novels from countries that appear on the UNESCO World Heritage List (Natural Sites only).

How I’ve put together the 2014 listing was to simply put together the list of the eighty-four countries that feature a heritage site, and then generated a random number for each (thanks excel) and then sorted – viola my listing appears.

1 – Mauritania

2 – Peru

3 – Zambia

4 – Tanzania

5 – Denmark

6 – Bangladesh

7 – Chad

8 – Mexico

9 – New Zealand

10 – Saint Lucia

11 – South Africa

12 – Norway

As you can see I have set myself quite a challenge, it will mean researching works from these countries and then sourcing them in English. Given Mauritania appeared at the top of the list (probably the hardest one to research and source) I’ll kick this challenge off in February and somewhere during the year squeeze in two over a month (probably South Africa and Norway at the end of the year).

Who is up to join me for quite a challenging but one I believe will be extremely rewarding – one month, all the way through? Contributions as to what on earth I should read will be more than welcome. There seems to be quite an African flavour there, with a few obscure smaller Nations also included (where are Australia, USA, UK???)