Ahmed Essadki

Ahmed Essadki was born in Ait Bouayach in the Moroccan Rif in 1959. He studied political science at the Universtity of Fez. Owing to the political, social and economic circumstances in Morocco he could not make a living and left for western Europe like many of his compatriots. Right now he works as a cultural worker in The Hague. By the end of the 1980s Essadki began writing poetry in Tamazight (Berber). In 1997 he published his first volume, The Battle Cry of the Earth with thirteen stories, translated into Dutch by Roel Otten. His second volume The Depth of Life is ready for publication. His poetry is characterised by a critical relationship with life, and deals with themes like oppression, abuse of power, migration, uprootedness and the value of one's own culture. In recent years Essadki has taken part in various cultural events both in the Netherlands and abroad. In the spring of 2008 a festive programme was organised in Antwerp as a tribute to the poet.