Book Talk with “The Cream of Yemen”

Mohammed Basefer talks about his book "The Sheikh Who Ate Bacon".

- My upbringing was anything but ordinary, says Mohammed Basefer, also known as “The Cream of Yemen”.

The stand-up comedian from Stavanger was born in Yemen and began his life fleeing first to Saudi Arabia, then to Sweden, and finally to Norway.

Throughout his years on the run, prayer and religious rituals were a fundamental part of Mohammed’s daily life. As his parents’ demands grew stricter the older he became, fitting in at his Norwegian school became increasingly difficult. He tried to meet both his parents’ expectations and those of the wider society with which they refused to identify. The two worlds collided. This forced Mohammed to see the world in a new way.

Was it right to boycott the class every time someone celebrated a birthday? Was it absolutely necessary to memorize the Quran? Should he stop his sister from riding a bicycle because their father had forbidden it? And what did the neighbors think when they witnessed him and his father celebrating the collapse of the World Trade Center?

Mohammed writes about this and much more in his debut book The Sheikh Who Ate Bacon. He is now coming to the university library to talk about both himself and the book.

Language: Norwegian.

The event is free and open to everyone. No registration required.