Ndeye Faty Diop, from her writing name Fatya Ibrahim, with reference to her father’s name, is a civil engineer and works in the hydraulics department of the Ministry of Water and Sanitation. She was the guest of the literary evening in the whatsapp group “We love to read” initiated by Abdou Rahmane Mbengue, a group which brings together writers and journalists from the continent and the diaspora. Fatya presented her only work, a collection of poems entitled “Haïlée“, published by Edilivre Paris.
Invited at 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, 2020, Faty Diop, in a very good mood, immediately stated that the title of her work, “Haïlée”, means “girl” in the Ethiopian language, but it also designates the name of her sister to whom she is intimately linked, like all members of her family.
In this book dominated by the theme of love, she also evokes solidarity, childhood, the return to humanism, solidarity and disappointment. Quoting the famous phrase of the French poet, Victor Hugo, “when I speak of myself, I speak of you”, she makes her production an opportunity to share her vision and her feelings in relation to certain aspects of social life.
She did not fail to underline the usual difficulties of Senegalese authors, namely publishing which not only is not regulated, but only obeys a logic of fund raising. On the other hand, if we are to believe it, inspiration and writing, part of a gift, “cannot be difficult.”, she said.
As part of the promotion of reading, it offers equipment for libraries in schools as well as in neighborhoods.Her attachment to literature, in particular to poetry, is all the more remarkable since she even composed a sensational poem in Wolof on the pandemic currently raging in the world, the coronavirus.
Currently, she is working on two literary projects: another collection of poems and a novel.
t would be appropriate to say that this group “We Love to read” which brings together all the professionals: writers, poets, publishers, academics, journalists, booksellers and readers, allows the members not only to exchange on their writing work but also to dialogue on ideas according to their current or future writing project. In other words, the literary group aims to contribute to the promotion of literature and books. This by allowing a fruitful exchange on Senegalese literary creation as it has been the case. This evening was thus an opportunity to share with Fatya Ibrahim.
Listen to a reading of Fatya Ibrahim : “Ascension” page 17 in “Haïlée” July 2016, Edilivre Paris :
