Literature & Ideas
Landmark
Stella Gaitano
born 1979
South Sudan's best-known writer of fiction, working in Arabic
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the South Sudan Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A pharmacist turned short-story writer and novelist whose work gives South Sudanese lives — displaced, southern, marginal in Khartoum — a literature of their own, written in the Arabic she grew up speaking.
Stella Gaitano was born in Khartoum to South Sudanese parents displaced by the war, trained as a pharmacist, and began publishing short stories that turned on exactly that position: southerners living in the northern capital, belonging fully to neither.
Her collection Withered Flowers and the novel Edo's Souls, translated into English, made her the most widely read South Sudanese writer of fiction. She writes in Arabic — the language of the state that fought her people — and has spoken about what it means to make a southern literature in it. She has faced pressure and censorship for her work and now lives abroad.
Her collection Withered Flowers and the novel Edo's Souls, translated into English, made her the most widely read South Sudanese writer of fiction. She writes in Arabic — the language of the state that fought her people — and has spoken about what it means to make a southern literature in it. She has faced pressure and censorship for her work and now lives abroad.
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