Zihni Sako, folklorist and writer, professor, passed away. He was born in Gjirokastra. Finished the “Zosimea” high school in Ioannina. In the years 1936-1938, he studied classical philology at the University of Athens. Participant of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War. After liberation, he was press director at the Ministry of Culture, vice president of the Culture Committee. In the years 1949–1957, he worked at the Institute of Sciences and the League of Writers, then in charge of the folklore sector at the Institute of History and Linguistics (1958–1961), director of the Institute of Folklore (1961–1979). For about 30 years, he led the work on the creation and scientific systematization of the folklore archive. In the years 1951–1960, he directed and participated in the preparation of a series of anthological volumes on folklore subjects. Early collector of Albanian folklore. Responsible editor of the corpus “Trashëgimi kulturor i popullit shqiptar” (“The cultural heritage of the Albanian people”). He is the author of the section “Letërsia popullore” (“The folk literature”) in the work “Historia e letërsisë shqipe” (“The history of the Albanian literature”) volume I (published in 1959), as well as co-author of the university text “Folklori shqiptar” (“Albanian folklore”) (Tirana, 1972). He was responsible editor and editorial board member in most of the publications produced by the Institute of Folklore (today the Institute of People’s Culture). From 1966, he chaired the Balkan folk song commission of the International Association of Southeast European Studies. Among his literary works are the novels “Bereqeti” (“The harvest”) (1951), “Ditë të gëzueshme” (“Happy days”) (1953) and many poems, especially for children. He was a deputy in the People’s Assembly in several legislatures. He received the “Republic Award of the First Degree”. (In the photo: Zihni Sako; Document with the proposal of the committee for literature, to award Sako the third prize of the Republic for his literary work “Ditë të gëzueshme” (“Joyful days”).)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2292-2293.
Photo: © National History Museum
Graphic processing: AHCF
