Said Salah Ahmed

Said Salah was previously a biology teacher in Somalia.[1] In 1984-1985, Ahmed directed his first feature film, The Somali Darwish (alt. The Somalia Dervishes), with Amar Sneh serving as producer.[1][3] With a budget of $1.8 million, the 4-hour-and-40-minute epic was devoted to the revolutionary Somali Dervish Movement. In the film dialogue you can hear seven languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, English, and three regional dialects. The movie included an actual descendant of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan as its star, Sheikh Osman Mohamoud Omar, and featured hundreds of actors and extras.[1]

Following the start of the civil war, Ahmed emigrated to Minnesota. He subsequently wrote the children's book The Lion's Share, which served as the basis for a Somali folklore-based play that he both penned and produced for the SteppingStone Theatre.[4] Some of his poems have been translated into English by the Poetry Translation Centre.[5]