Artist in Exile: Mukhtar Shehata’s “Makaki de Afrika” (Egypt) with Translator Melissa Krawczyk

Photo Courtesies: Mukhtar Shehata and Melissa Krawczyk.

The City of Asylum Artist in Exile series continues this August with a reading and discussion of Mukhtar Shehata’s forthcoming novel Makaki de Afrika (The African Monkey) between the author and Arabic-to-English literary translator Melissa Krawczyk. The work is structured as a multi-generational mystery blending Brazilian, Syrian, Polish-Jewish, and West African Muslim threads—exploring slavery, religious syncretism, exile, inherited trauma, and the porousness of identity across diasporas. 

Makaki de Afrika follows Farida Noah, a Syrian-Brazilian woman in her fifties living in the mountain town of Santo Antônio, Brazil, who works at a social services office and carries the weight of a fractured, multi-religious family history. Born in Aleppo to a Ba’athist Syrian father and a Polish-Jewish mother who fled Europe after WWII, Farida grew up caught between her Muslim paternal heritage and her mother’s Jewish identity, eventually leaving Syria for Brazil as a teenager after her father’s infidelity destroyed her parents’ marriage.

When a young Egyptian-Nubian graduate student named Muhamed Mostafa arrives in Santo Antônio to research the history of enslaved African Muslims in Brazil, Farida is struck by his resemblance—in looks and even his name—to Mostafa Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian man she loved and lost in Cairo decades earlier. Together with her closest friend Camila, an anthropologist of African descent, they discover a cache of 19th-century manuscripts written in Arabic by “Alfa,” an enslaved Hausa Muslim from West Africa who survived the 1835 Malê slave uprising in Salvador, Bahia, and later encountered a real historical figure, the visiting Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Baghdadi, who came to minister to Brazil’s enslaved Muslim population. The novel interweaves Farida’s psychologically fraught present (her mother’s terminal illness, Muhamed Mostafa’s mysterious degenerative illness, eerie premonitions and “déjà vu” connecting him to Alfa’s lost descendants) with the historical manuscripts being translated chapter by chapter.

This program is followed by a public reception with complimentary hors d’oeuvres and drinks for all artists and attendees. 

About the Author:

Mukhtar Shehata is a novelist and ethnographer from the Egyptian Delta whose work explores social change, class, gender resistance, and urbanism in rural Egypt. He has published more than 15 books in Arabic, including novels, short stories, and research papers. His book Diary of an Arab in the Land of the Samba won the 2019 Ibn Battuta Award for Travel Literature. Mukhtar graduated from the University of Bahia in Brazil and works as a Research Scholar in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Applied Linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University. He has been a Writer-in-Residence at City of Asylum Pittsburgh since August 2024.

About the Translator:

Melissa Krawczyk is a freelance Arabic-to-English literary translator based in Southern California. She holds a BA in Arabic Language and Culture from PennWest California University, a Certificate in Middle Eastern Language and Culture from UCLA Extension, and a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and has excelled in graduate-level Arabic translation coursework at Kent State University. She brings more than 20 years of experience studying and working with Modern Standard Arabic to her translation work and has also studied Spanish, French, German, and American Sign Language. Melissa has worked with Iraqi refugees, tutored Arabic students, and conducted spoken English assessments for a government agency requiring ILR Level 5 speaking proficiency. She has traveled to Egypt, Dubai, and Qatar. Her reading interests span science fiction, fantasy, medical thrillers, and historical fiction, and she closely follows developments in medicine, science, and technology. Melissa is currently translating Makaki de Afrika by Mukhtar Saad Shehata, Amin Al-Alawani by Faycel Lahmeur, and E.S.P. by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant, Cucina Alfabeto, is open for brunch from 9:30 to 2 p.m. and for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Please visit OpenTable or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.