Ahmed Eissa
Protecting Socotra Folk Literature

The project involved gathering and translating 15 traditional folk tales from Socotra’s cultural heritage. These stories were presented in Socotri, Arabic, and English, and subsequently published on a dedicated website and in a book, which were supplemented by a variety of photographs that express Socotra’s uniqueness and cultural diversity.

Favourite Moment
"One of the greatest moments was, when we witnessed our accomplishment, when I read the first tale, published in its original Socotri language with its original system of writing, alongside its Arabic and English translations."

© Goethe Institut - Jordan Ahmed Eissa Al-Daarhi is a lecturer at the Community College in Socotra. He holds a master’s degree from the Russian University for Human Sciences in 2021 and has also worked for a long time with the Russian orientalist Vitaly Naemkin in the team that collected the vocabulary of the Socotra language and some materials of Socotra literature for more than ten years. He is a co-author of the book Corpus of Soqotri Oral Literature among other international experts such as Vitaly Naumkin, Leonid Kogan, Dmitry Cherkashin, Maria Bulakh, and Ekaterina Vizirova. 

Favourite Moment
"One of the greatest moments was, when we witnessed our accomplishment. When I read the first tale, published in its original Socotri language with its original system of writing, alongside its Arabic and English translations."