Senegalese by birth, Italian by adoption, Pap Khouma, of the Mouride brotherhood, immigrated to Italy in 1984 and has been an Italian citizen 1994. He lives in Milan where he is active in the areas of culture and literature and raises awareness of the issue of immigration through his writings and numerous collaborations with public and private sector organisations and schools, both in Italy and around the world.
He is listed on the Order of foreign journalists and in 1990 published, together with Oreste Pivetta, “I Was an Elephant Salesman”, which tells the story of his tough life as an immigrant street vendor.
He later published “Nonno Dio e gli spiriti danzanti” and “Noi neri italiani”.
Fluent in four languages (Wolof, French, English and Italian) and an authority on migrant literature in Italy, he is cofounder and editor of on-line literature magazine El Ghibli and managing editor of Assaman, an online Italo-African information magazine.
Since 2019 he has been a member of the board of ItaliaHello (ItaliaHello.it), network of an American foundation for immigrants and refugees.
Commissioned by the Institut de Culture Italienne de Dakar, in 2021 he translated the first Canto of Dante’s Inferno into Wolof as part of the celebrations of the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri.