Academic, writer, translator, and journalist Nasser Ahmedin Mohammed is in ICORN residency in Oslo
In September 2024, Nasser Ahmedin Mohammed, an academic, writer, translator, and journalist from Eritrea, arrived in Oslo where he will be in ICORN residency until 2026. He is the city’s tenth ICORN resident. Nasser’s work spans a diverse range of topics, including research on totalitarianism, nationalism, and militarism, arts, and culture.
From the Norwegian capital, Nasser continues his work aimed at shedding light on life under totalitarianism. With the particular focus on the conditions in Eritrea, he examines issues of surveillance, information control, and dehumanisation.
Nasser began his journalism career in 1998 as a radioreporter for the Eritrean Ministry of Information, working on the cultural and arts programme ‘Seat Sne Tibebat’. This popular show introduced emerging poets and artists to the public and earned Nasser recognition as a prominent radiojournalist.
In 2002, he started working on a youth-oriented radio programme, sponsored by the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students. During this period, Nasser began publishing articles and conducting interviews in the Union’s publications. Concurrently, he completed a degree in social sciences which served as foundation for his future academic pursuits. Nasser’s research and PhD thesis, undertaken in Uganda, examined wartime nationalist discourses in Eritrea.
As a translator, he has brought both literary fiction and non-fiction works into his native Tingrinya. In 2008, he translated Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, followed by Taleb Saleh’s Seasons of Migrations to the North in 2013. Under a pseudonym, he also translated works challenging the Eritrean regime.
Nasser’s professional activities and opposition to war and military operations led to persecution by the Eritrean government. He faced threats, harassment, and imprisonment both within Eritrea and after fleeing to Ethiopia in 2010, where the intimidation continued.
Oslo: An ICORN City of Refuge
Since 2001, Oslo has been part of ICORN, offering protective residencies to writers, artists, and journalists at risk due to their work. The programme is managed by the city’s social services in collaboration with theDeichman Library, which provides ICORN residents with workspace, equipment, andaccess to a professional network.
Over the years, Oslo has hosted ten ICORN residents,including Nasser Ahmedin. Other notable residents include writer Soudabeh Alishahi; novelist, editor, and poet Aziz Sangtarash; journalist and translator Kosar Fattahi; writer and intellectual Massaad Abu Fajr; writer and journalist Philo Ikonya; psychologist and writer Mahsa Nikan; documentary filmmaker Benyamin Farnam; psychologist and researcher Emmanuel Shokrian; and journalist and human rights activist Reza Sharifi Boukani.
