Flavia Aiello, Traore is her married name, was born in Naples; after a Ph.D. in African Studies at the University “L’Orientale” of Naples, she moved to Rende (Cosenza), where she has been teaching the Swahili language and carrying out research relating to Swahili culture and literature at the University of Calabria. She is the author of numerous publications on Swahili literature and culture and, for an Italian audience, has produced Separazione (Iride Edizioni, Soveria Mannelli, 2005), a translation of the Swahili novel Utengano by Said Ahmed Mohamed, and Taarab iko wapi? La poesia cantata taarab a Zanzibar in età contemporanea (Iride Edizioni, Soveria Mannelli, 2006).
