August 08, 2021 –Socotra Online
Reporting and Photography: Saad Mohamed Taha -Arif Abdo
In the midst of an official and popular presence, the Competition of Poet of Socotra was launched, the largest public competition, which comes within the activities of the annual Sheikh Zayed Festival in Satorah, west of Nujed, in which 12 prominent poets of the island would compete to win the title, which was supported by the Sheikh Khalifa Foundation.
Poet Salem Suleiman Sharqak, Secretary-General of the Socotri Poetry and Literature Association and a judge in the competition, confirmed that today the first round of the Socotra Poet Competition began with the support of the Khalifa Foundation, which witnessed a wide presence of senior poets and audiences and an enthusiastic atmosphere dominated by the honorable challenge by poets competing.
Yahya Muhammad Abdullah Badbeh, a judge in the competition, expressed his happiness for organizing these competitions, which worked on reviving Socotra poetry, which began to lose its importance and disappear. He also extended his thanks and appreciation to Khalifa Foundation, represented by its general representative, His Excellency Khalfan Al Mazrouei, for their annual support for the Poet of Socotra Competition for the fifth year. He highlighted that this indicates his interest in the Socotra heritage and the promotion of the status of Socotra literature and poetry in addition to the revival of its status after many poets recounted their inability to organize poetic poems in the Socotri language, stressing the importance of adhering to it and passing it on to future generations.
The poet, who qualified for the final stage, Abdullah Muslim Shenhi, said that in his poem, which he participated in, he tried to focus on the customs, traditions and way of life of parents and ancestors in a poetic way in the Socotra language, which won the consensus of the control committee, and qualified him for the final stage, expressing his happiness with his superiority in the first stage despite the difficulty Competition due to the presence of great poets.
The event accompanying the opening ceremonies of the competition included the participation of the popular market troupe in many dances, the Qannah Troupe of Liters, and the authentic rural repertoire with rural voices and zawamil, which attracted the admiration and interaction of the present audience.
