Occupation poet Ethnicity Somali | Name Abdillahi Mohammed Role Poet | |
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Died February 6, 1973, Kalabaydh, Somalia | ||
Abdillahi Suldaan Mohammed 'Timacadde' (Somali: Cabdillaahii Suuldaan Maxamed, Arabic: عبد الله سلطان محمد) was a Somali poet. He was among the most prominent bards of his day.
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Biography
Timacade was born in 1920 in the small town of Galooley, situated near Gabiley in the northwestern Somaliland region of Somalia. He hailed from a Habr Awal Isaaq family, and belonged to the Jibriil Abokor subclan that predominately inhabits the Gabiley region. After having spent some time in Ethiopia and Djibouti in the 1940s and 1950s, he returned to Gabiley and took part in the independence movements against the then ruling British administration of the former British Somaliland protectorate.
Timacade was famous for his numerous poems, particularly his one euphoric paean to liberty that marked the June 26, 1960, celebrations of British Somaliland's independence from the British and pending reunification with Italian Somaliland days later.
In the mid-1960s, he joined the Somali Democratic Union (SDU) and became its main poet, continuing his anticlanist themes. He later refused to vote in the 1969 elections and welcomed the October 1969 coup d'état.
Later years
In his fifties, Timacade suffered from a throat illness. He was eventually taken to Jomo Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to undergo a number of treatments.
Timacade died on 6 February 1973 in Kalabaydh, Somalia. He was buried in Gabiley.