Simon Mol

Interview with Simon Mol

Interviewed by Valentina Acava Mmaka

Born in Rome, Valentina Acava Mmaka grew up in South Africa during the apartheid regime. She is a Journalist, writer, poet and a translator from Kiswahili and English into Italian and a reporter for numerous NGO's on Africa.  She had always been committed to telling the Western world about African with an inside point of view. She has authored: "Il  mondo a colori della famiglia BwanaVal" / The colourful world of the BwanaVal family (Kabiliana, 2003); Jabuni: il mistero della città sommersa/ Jabuni: the secret of the submerged town  (EMI; 2003);

Writer Wins Freedom Award

Warsaw Voice - 29 November 2006

This year's Freedom of Expression awards, handed out by the International PEN Club and Oxfam Novib for activities promoting human rights, were presented in Amsterdam Nov. 18. Among the five winners of the prestigious award is longtime freelance contributor to The Warsaw Voice Simon Mol, a poet, journalist and playwright who has been living in Poland for seven years. Mol got the award for his theater and literary activities promoting the rights of Africans in Poland. He has founded the Migrator Theater, with a multinational ensemble composed of immigrants, mainly from Africa.

Of Life & Death

Life, Death, Life.
Light, Darkness, Light, Darkness;
Light, Life…
Nothing Can Stop Nature.
Not even Nature Itself.

Tackling Racism

By Simon Mol (Warsaw Voice, 8 November 2006)

Actors from Warsaw-based Migrator Theater, African soccer players in Poland led by Legia Warsaw’s Zimbabwean defenders Dickson Choto and Herbert Dick, and dozens of Polish supporters gathered in front of the City Council on Bankowy Square Oct. 25 for a street event described as “a theatrical football demonstration.”

The participants were all dressed in the red-and-white colors of the Polish national soccer team. The event was spiced up by a spectacular performance by a Capoeira group led by João Carlos do Nascimento, a Brazilian expert in the martial art, and his Polish students.

Children listening to rhythm of African drums

Gazeta Wyborcza, Lublin ( 2006-11-19)

Last Sunday in Gardzienice about a hundred children learnt a Togolese dance and took part in a Congolose ritual to welcome New Year.

“Children are open-minded and do not think in stereotypes. Thanks to this kind of meetings we have an opportunity to inplant in their heads a positive image of Africa,” says Simon Mol from Cameroon, head of Migrator Theatre. Thirteen  members of the multinational group held a workshop with children from nearby villages, drawn from local primary schools in Stryjno, Piaski and Gardzienice.