Ali Mahdi: This is a message from “Willie Soyinka”… and I dream of returning home

Al-Ahdath – Magda Hassan

Theatrical artist Ali Mahdi, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, celebrated a message he received from the Nigerian writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature and is considered by some to be the best playwright in all of Africa.

Mahdi expressed his gratitude on his Facebook page for Soyinka’s question.

(Al-Ahdath) Ali Mahdi inquired about the content of the message, and he revealed many upcoming works. Mahdi revealed his intention to hold the Al-Baqaa Festival in November in the city of Port Sudan, where he began to mobilize creative people. Mahdi said that he dreams of returning home today before tomorrow.

In the space below, Mahdi wrote to (Al-Ahdath) about Willy Soyinka’s letter:

“In my distant times, I remember some of the stories that live in me, not only in my mind, but they follow my steps here and there… In my past days, I received a letter from my friend, the Nobel Prize winner, the writer and thinker Willy Soyinka, and there was a friendship between us in which there was a little political dialogue, and a look at the future of our people and the mother continent, Africa,

Then the great Arab homeland with its possible extensions, a lot.

I knew him for years, and in crucial moments for me and him, the degrees of closeness to them vary, a memory or an event. The day he came to Rome – Italy to witness the celebration of him, I was the closest to him, and I stood after him telling stories, and he added that I love old stories. And these are signs of diagnosis, or that they are from the roles of grandfathers, inherited by grandchildren.

Before he concluded, he asked me with all the tenderness of grandfathers, to tell me, in what remains, a story about it, bedtime stories for children. So I said, then we walked together towards the dinner of Their Excellencies the Ministers of Culture in which all of Europe was present, no one was absent, he Honorable, and we, the people of the Executive Office of the International Theater Institute, are witnesses, not organizers of the great event, but we are the closest to it, and in the morning lecture he referred to our old dialogues with their other dimension.
He said (We are bridges between our African worlds and the other wherever he is, in the distance), and I said years later when I stood lecturing in the Library of the (US Congress – Washington), and my title was a partnership between me and the organizers of that afternoon, in the most important hall in the most famous library (The Impact of Sufism on Contemporary Theater).
After that, we exchanged opportunities for direct dialogue, the last of which I sat enjoying and listening to his talk at the World Congress of the International Theater Institute in the city of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, and he is the first president from Africa and one of the founders.
After that, he said: You are now completing the closest to half of your life in this arduous work, bringing people together, especially creative people, is a hardship. Then, how were you able, with all this, to present theatrical works? I found acceptance in different theaters, such as the (Lamama Theater in New York), and they said about it (Outside Broadway), anf your show is (Outside Bardawi). Yes, those are conversations that make me happy with him, and build – despite the distance – bridges that he talks about. He asked me about my next show, and I am working on it with all my care, because it is based on the novel by my master Tayeb Salih, may God sanctify his secret (Season of Migration to the North). The show was stopped by the Arab writer and thinker, Professor Sameh Mahran, and its date is the Arab World Institute Theater (Paris). I will return to it after years, the last of which was my show (Between Sennar and Aizab) seven years ago, then we return to (New York) and before that to (Washington). I arranged with the Kennedy Center for the Arts, and conversations after the show with students from (Georgetown University, Washington). He was present for conversations that preceded the message years ago. It deserves another post, and God willing, he is not far from this.