Zihni Sako, folklorist and writer, professor, was born in Gjirokastra. Head of 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 was 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 creating and scientific systematization of the folklore archive. In 1951–1960 he directed and participated in preparing a series of anthological volumes on folklore subjects. Early collector of Albanian folklore. Responsible editor of the corpus “Trashëgimi kulturor i popullit shqiptar” (“Cultural heritage of the Albanian people”). He is the author of the section “Letërsia popullore” (“Folk literature”) in the work “Historia e letërsisë shqipe” (“The history of 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 for being the editor and editorial board member for most of the publications produced by the Institute of Folklore (today the Institute of Folk Culture). From 1966, he chaired the Balkan Folk Song Commission of the International Association of Southeast European Studies. Among his literary works are: the novel “Bereqeti” (“Harvests”) (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)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2292-2293.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal archive
Graphic processing: AHCF
