Birds of Nabaa is a tale of physical and spiritual journeys, from the narrator’s beginnings in Nabaa, a remote Mauritanian village, whose herds lead the community according to their own inscrutable instincts, to life in Madrid, the Gulf states and Guinea, where his work as an embassy accountant takes him, and back to Nabaa and Nouakchott. Inspired by the Sahara of his childhood and devoted from an early age to the vagabond life of the pre-Islamic poets, the narrator’s constant life on the move in search of the inner stillness known only to desert dwellers leads him back always to the music, song and poetry so much a part of Mauritanian life and the spiritual universe of Sufism. The narrator’s travels take him to the village of Kanz al-Asrar near a tributary of the Senegal River, an area so fertile it is like a lush paradise. However, two and more years without any rain create drought, wells dry out, livelihoods shatter, and dreams turn to disturbing and nightmarish premonitions of disaster. The burning fire of the sun is winning its eternal struggle with the hidden water that the clouds plant in the depths of the sand. As desertification takes hold, that paradise of southern Mauritania and of Nabaa gradually declines and the waves of migration, always a feature of life in the Sahara, intensify.

"Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Mauritanian author Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah is a cathartic experience inspired by the passion of Sufism."

"Uld Mohamadi Bah's characters are refined and crafted with delicate nuance. He captures the discordant feelings of those who have experienced immigration, whether by choice or impossible circumstances."

Reviewed by Noshin Bokth in The New Arab newspaper: https://www.newarab.com/features/birds-nabaa-mystical-roamings-mauritanian-sufi

Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah is a writer, novelist and journalist from Nabaghiya in southern Mauritania. His journalistic career began in the mid-1980s with al-Sha‘b newspaper. He became the West Africa correspondent for the daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, and later for the MBC TV channel, and for Aljazeera in Africa. As well as Birds of Nabaa (Tuyur Nabaa) his works include Timbuktu wa Akhawatuha (Timbuktu and her Sisters) and Yawmiyat Sahafi fe Ifreeqiya (Diary of a Journalist in Africa). He is currently CEO of Sahara Media Group in north and west Africa. Raphael Cohen is a professional translator and lexicographer who studied Arabic and Hebrew at Oxford University and the University of Chicago. He has translated a growing number of novels by contemporary Arab authors including Flowers in Flames by Amir Tag Elsir (2022), Guard of the Dead by George Yarak (2019), Butterfly Wings: an Egyptian Novel (2014) by Mohamed Salmawy, The Art of Forgetting (2011) and The Bridges of Constantine (2014) by Ahlem Mosteghanemi, Status Emo by Eslam Mosbah (2013) and So You May See by Mona Prince (2011). He is the translator of The Madness of Despair by Ghayla F T Al Said, and translated and introduced Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (both Banipal Books, 2021). He was a contributing editor of Banipal magazine of modern Arab literature that closed in 2022 where his translations included works by Arab poets Ahmed Rashid Thani, Samer Abu Hawwash, Hala Mohammad, Ahmed Al-Mulla and Marwan Makhoul. Forthcoming in 2024 with Banipal Books is his translation of The Secrets of Folder 42 by Abdelmajid Sebbata.