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Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center Reveals Shortlists for Sard Al Thahab Award

A total of 15 works from eight countries have been selected to compete across four categories. WAM
A total of 15 works from eight countries have been selected to compete across four categories. WAM
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Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center Reveals Shortlists for Sard Al Thahab Award

A total of 15 works from eight countries have been selected to compete across four categories. WAM
A total of 15 works from eight countries have been selected to compete across four categories. WAM

The Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre (ALC) has unveiled the shortlists for the second edition of the Sard Al Thahab Award, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported Wednesday.

A total of 15 works from eight countries have been selected to compete across four categories: ‘Short Story for Published Stories’, ‘Popular Narratives’, ‘Short Story for Unpublished Stories’, and ‘Illustrated Story,’ WAM said.

In addition to these, the center will announce the winners in the ‘Narrators’ and ‘Emirati Narration’ categories, along with the winners in the four categories, over the coming months.

The shortlist features works from the UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia. The increase in the number of participating countries highlights the award's rapid expansion and its capacity to attract creative talents across its six categories.

The shortlist for the ‘Short Story for Published Stories’ category is: ‘The Two Sisters’ by Ali AlAbdan from the UAE, published in 2023 by the Emirates Writers Union; ‘The Last Storyteller in This Time’ by Abdulrahman Abbas from Sudan, published in 2023 by Rwafead Publishing & Distribution; and ‘The Green Dragon’s Wife and Other Colourful Tales’ by Rawaa Sunbol from Syria, published in 2019 by Alaan Publishers & Distributors.

The shortlist for the ‘Popular Narratives’ category features: ‘Bahraini Folktales: One Thousand and One Tales’ by Dr. Dheya Abdulla Khamis AlKaabi from Bahrain, published in 2018 by the Arab Institute for Research & Publishing; ‘Encyclopedia of Folktales: One Thousand and Eighty Tales from Northern Upper Egypt’ by Dr. Sayed Fares from Egypt, published in 2023 by the Sharjah Institute for Heritage; and ‘The Hidden Heritage: The Sumerian Legend and the Gulf Novel of the Al-Sirah al-Hilaliyyah’ by Fathy Abdelsamie from Egypt, published in 2024 by Dar Waad for Publishing and Distribution.

The shortlist for the ‘Short Story for Unpublished Stories’ category has five entries: ‘Rooms with People Running Underneath Them’ by the Iraqi writer Yas AlFahdawi; ‘Biography of a Creature’ by the Moroccan writer Said Alfellak; ‘Suspended Souls’ by the Egyptian writer AbdelHady Ibrahim; ‘Judeilah Weather’ by the Egyptian writer Aida Deraman; and ‘Al Hashashat’ by the Tunisian writer Nasr Sami.

The shortlist for the ‘Illustrated Story’ category has four works: a documentary film titled ‘Tifan’ by Aaesha Alteneiji from the UAE; a photograph titled ‘Grandma’s Stories’ by Nuwair Alhajeri from the UAE; a photograph titled ‘Wife’s Loyalty’ by Issa Mohamed from Bahrain; and a drawing titled ‘Antara and Abla’ by Mahmood Shubbar from Iraq.

The jury selected the nominated works based on their alignment with the award's standards and objectives, reinforcing the award's commitment to excellence and fostering creativity in the literary field.

The Sard Al Thahab Award is an annual initiative launched by the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Center. Its objectives are inspired by the poetry of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Father of the Nation. The award aims to serve as a platform that merges creativity with intellectual thought, fostering an artistic movement that draws upon Sheikh Zayed’s creative legacy as a foundation for new forms of creativity.

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Culture

Adieu Paris as Niger Nixes Colonial French Place Names

This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
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Adieu Paris as Niger Nixes Colonial French Place Names

This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)
This photograph taken in Niamey on October 15, 2024 shows children standing in front of the new plaque where Avenue General Charles de Gaulle was renamed to Avenue Djibo Bakary, named after the Nigerien political figure (1922-1998) who was the first mayor of Niamey (1956-1958), the president of the Niger Government Council (May 1957-October 1958) and a supporter of the immediate independence of Niger in the referendum called in 1958 by Former French President General Charles de Gaulle. (AFP)

Niger bid goodbye to the Avenue Charles de Gaulle on Tuesday as its ruling junta renamed several historic sites in the capital Niamey which previously bore references to old colonial master France.

Since taking power in a coup in July 2023, the Sahel nation's military rulers have turned their backs on Paris, instead forging ties with fellow juntas in Burkina Faso and Mali -- as well as Russia.

With the sound of marching bands blaring in the background, several junta officials took to the streets to witness the new names' inauguration.

"Most of our avenues, boulevards and streets... bear names that are simply reminders of the suffering and bullying our people endured during the ordeal of colonization," said Major Colonel Abdramane Amadou, Minister for Youth and a junta spokesman.

"The avenue which once bore the name of General Charles de Gaulle is henceforth christened 'Avenue Djibo Bakary'," Amadou added.

A socialist politician who died in 1998, Bakary was a key figure in the struggle for Niger's independence, which it obtained in 1960.

A few hundred meters further on, the memorial to those who died in the two world wars now pays "homage to all civilian and military victims of colonization to the present day".

With the ruling junta frequently accusing France of wishing to topple it, the renaming of monuments and streets marks a symbolic confirmation of Niger's break with its former imperial ruler.

Since the coup, Niger's authorities have expelled both the French soldiers fighting against the region's persistent extremist threat and the French ambassador, while the Franco-Nigerien cultural center is no longer run as a joint venture and has been renamed after Niger's filmmaker Moustapha Alassane.

- 'Honour our ancestors' -

Other monuments across Niamey will bear new names from Tuesday onwards.

A portrait of French commander and explorer Parfait-Louis Monteil, engraved for decades in stone, was replaced by a plaque bearing the effigy of neighboring Burkina Faso's iconic communist leader Thomas Sankara.

An anti-imperialist hero nicknamed Africa's Che Guevara, Sankara was killed in a 1987 coup his widow and supporters accuse France of having a hand in organizing.

Amadou hailed Sankara as a man whose "struggle for liberation" and "emancipation of peoples" was "still inspiring people" today.

Meanwhile the Place de Francophonie was renamed after the Alliance of Sahel States -- a confederation created with Mali and Burkina Faso in 2023, cementing relations between the coup-hit countries.

All three had their membership suspended to the 88-state International Organization of La Francophonie in the wake of their coups.

From now on "we are going to honor our ancestors", vowed General Assoumane Abdou Harouna, the capital region's governor and a junta figure.

Oumarou Abdourahamane, president of the Niger branch of the NGO Urgences Panafricanistes, welcomed the new names.

"It makes no sense for our streets to continue to bear the names of former colonists... and so justice is being done by renaming these streets, by naming them after our country's heroes," he said.

Urgences Panafricanistes is headed at the international level by activist Kemi Seba, known for his virulent anti-Western views, who was arrested on Monday in Paris for as-yet unknown reasons.

Seba, who was born in France to Beninese parents, holds a Nigerien diplomatic passport as special adviser to junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani.

The controversial militant, who was recently stripped of his French nationality, is a radical black power activist who is regularly accused of anti-Semitism and has been sentenced in France several times for incitement to racial hatred.

In June 2023, shortly before the coup that toppled elected president Mohamed Bazoum, Niger also adopted a new national anthem titled "For the honor of the fatherland", which references the anti-colonial struggle.

It replaced "La Nigerienne", whose lyrics were written by French composer Maurice Albert Thiriet in 1961, a year after the country gained its independence.