# Shabeelnaagood by Hassan Sheikh Mumin: Leopard Among the Women, a Somali play

> Hassan Sheikh Mumin's play Shabeelnaagood (Leopard Among the Women): its story and themes, the 1974 Oxford edition translated by B. W. Andrzejewski, and its author.

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Last checked: 2026-11-12
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## The play

**Shabeelnaagood** ("Leopard among the women") is a play by **[Hassan Sheikh Mumin](/en/people/hassan-sheikh-mumin/)** (1931 to 2008), a Somali poet, playwright, broadcaster and composer born in Zeila who grew up in [Borama](/en/regions/awdal/) ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)). Wikipedia dates the play to 1965, the year he joined Radio Mogadishu as its resident poet, playwright and lecturer. Mumin wrote both the play's text and its music ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)).

Somali had no official written form until 1972, several years after the play was written; see [The Somali language is written, 1972](/en/history/somali-language-written-1972/).

## The story and its themes

The "leopard" of the title is a man who preys on women. The heroine, **Shallaayo**, complains that he has tricked her into a false marriage ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)). Through her story the play looks at the social position of women, life in the growing towns, changing traditional practices and the importance of education in the years around independence ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)). The writer [Ubah Cristina Ali Farah](/en/people/cristina-ali-farah/) has written an academic study of how the play treats the role of women in Somali society, with an Italian translation of an extract ([Roma Tre University repository](https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/handle/2307/5733?locale=so)). See [Women in Somali society](/en/society/women-in-somali-society/).

## The 1974 edition

**Leopard Among the Women: Shabeelnaagood, a Somali Play** was published by Oxford University Press in [London](/en/diaspora/london/) and New York in 1974, with 230 pages. The translation and introduction are by B. W. Andrzejewski, the scholar of the Somali language at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London ([Internet Archive record](https://archive.org/details/leopardamongwome00hass); [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)).

## Its place in Somali literature

The play is regarded as one of the mainstays of Somali literature and is regularly taught in school curricula ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)). After the 1969 coup Mumin's poetry was banned and he moved to Djibouti, later settling in Borama. In 1997 he wrote and composed "Samo Ku Waar", which became the national anthem of [Somaliland](/en/states/somaliland-1991-to-2026/). He died in Oslo in 2008 and was buried in Borama; Djibouti later gave him its highest cultural award ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Sheikh_Mumin)).

## Where to read it

- 1974 Oxford edition, lending copy: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/leopardamongwome00hass)
- In a library: [WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Shabeelnaagood+Hassan+Sheikh+Mumin)

## Related pages

- [Aqoondarro Waa U Nacab Jacayl (1974), Faarax M. J. Cawl](/en/books/ignorance-is-the-enemy-of-love-cawl/)
- [Somali poetry](/en/society/somali-poetry/)
- [Books in the Somali language](/en/society/books-in-the-somali-language/)

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