Simon Mol

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.

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.

MIGRATOR ACTOR STABBED! The eighth performance of Simon Mol’s RACE of STAMPS ends in bloodbath

Attack on Moroccan actor (Radio Polonia Online)

Police in northern Poland are holding four men in custody for brutally attacking a Moroccan actor during a festival which was meant to make young Poles more aware of the dangers of racism. Eyewitness reports suggest that the attack on the Moroccan was an act of racism.

This report is by Bogdan Zaryn.

ATTACK ON ABDEL WAS RACIALLY MOTIVATED: DECLARES WITNESS

Marcin Wojciechowski, Gazeta.pl

The Olsztyn Police have arrested two more suspects in connection with the attack on the Morrocan, Abdela Mandili, which took place during the International Theatre Festival in Wegajty. At the moment there are five suspects in police custody.

The incident has eually attracted the attention of the Ombudsman, Janusz Kochanowski, “He asked the prosecutor in Olsztyn to forward all related documents to him, establish exactly whether the attack was racially motivated and also to investigate whether those who were responsible for security during the festival did fulfil their responsibilities,” said Stanislaw Wilenski from the Ombudman’s office.

Finally broken - a portrait of a young poet, activist and political refugee

By Michiel Drost (Medianet)

As a young journalist critical of corrupt governments in his home country Cameroon and Ghana, Simon Mol, now 33, ended up in jail twice and was tortured. He refused to stop although he could. As a political refugee in Poland he has been fighting discrimination and for refugee rights. Now, the one-man-institution who inspires thousands is on the verge of giving up.

He is the co founder and secretary general of the Polish Association of Exiles, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Voice of Exile magazine, a play writer and director. But above all, Simon Mol is a poet: “Poetry is my religion”, he says. All this work doesn’t benefit his personal life though, “I don’t even have my own accommodation or money to eat tonight.”

Artistic Exile for Artists from the Black Land

By Julia Sawicka (Originally published in Zcie Warszawy)

They can’t return to their home countries because of wars and conflicts going on there, and they are afraid of persecutions. In Poland they have found a second home.

They come from a multicultural and colourful continent. Although they come from different countries, speak different languages and being brought up in different cultures, for Poles they are all exiles from Africa. In Warsaw they are represented by the Association of Exiles, where we can also find refugees from other continents. Simon Mol from Cameroon is one of founders of this association.

Siesta on Stellar fields with the Goddess of Mount Africa: On the Poetry of Simon Mol

By Magdalena Jakubczak - Originally published in Siecmilosci (Translated from Polish by Agata Grabau)

“Africa O! Africa,
When will you rise from slumber to shake
Down dusts from your eyes, Africa?

When will Pharaoh roar,
Or Magi turn bombs into bread Africa?
When will Nubian dance raise the dead,
Or Ashanti drums scare the foe...
O! cradle of creation?”

From Buea in Cameroon to Krakow: Fire-Eating Poet Simon Mol

“Everybody is a poet in Cameroon, just that not everyone writes poetry”, Violetta Zygmunt artistic coordinator of Stigmator Theatre’s cyclic meeting with foreign poets quoted the words of her guest. The poet, who writes under the pseudonym Simon Mol is a political exile from Cameroon . His real name is Moleke Mo-Nije. On Saturday February 25th he came to Krakow from Warsaw, where he lives and works since 1999.

Great Applause For Simon Mol

By Joanna Woźniczko (Gazeta Wyborcza)

He fled Cameroon to Ghana, and from Ghana to Warsaw. Now he feels that here is his home. In Warsaw he founded a Magazine for exiles. Yesterday ‘Voice of Exile’ celebrated its jubilee:

Simon Mol came with a black leather file during our meeting. With a mysterious smile he opened it and pulled out an African newspaper: printed on scratchy paper. This opposition newspaper caused him to be thrown behind the bars; “Before my arrest I was working as a journalist. I was writing for a pro-government newspaper in order to win my bread and at the same time I also wrote for an opposition newspaper. Not long afterwards I was handed an ultimatum; you either abandon the opposition newspaper or you get banned from practicing journalism. I decided to carry on with the opposition newspaper,” Simon narrates.

Has the African Woman a Voice?

With over 200 people in attendance, the debate 'Mama Africa: Has the African Woman a Voice’ went underway at Cafe Kulturalna, Warsaw, July 20th. There was a compelling representation of the African Community in Poland, creamed by diplomatic missions. Among them was the South African ambassador to Poland Her Excellency Mrs. Febe Potiegier-Gqubule, who was accompanied by first secretary Zola Nkatchani. There were two representatives from the Libyan embassy as well as the first secretary of the Angolan embassy.