Poet
Ribka Sibhatu
Ribka Sibhatu
(Eritrea, 1962)
© Unknown
Biography
inside the theatre,
women dressed in black
sit on red velvet seats
with bombs in their laps.
women dressed in black
sit on red velvet seats
with bombs in their laps.
This Eritrean poet and activist knows how to sum up razor-sharp what it is like to live as a migrant in Europe. Ribka Sibhatu was born in Asmara. After being unjustly imprisoned for a year in 1979, she fled the country shortly after her release. In 1985, she migrated to Europe where she has lived in Italy ever since. She writes poetry in Italian and in Tigrinya. She has published several books of poetry, including a collection of poetic retellings of Eritrean fairy tales. Her best-known, most lyrical collection, Aulò, is compared in Italy to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, an extraordinary work rooted in the Eritrean oral tradition. She has also published sociological work, writing critically, for example, about the way the Italian media portrays migrant communities. In addition to her poetry, she has worked for the city of Rome and for the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research. She currently works as an interpreter and consultant within the Italian legal system.
Poems
Poems of Ribka Sibhatu
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère