A beauty salon at Hargeisa in Somaliland. Somalia 2008.

Last month Somaliland made International headlines when it’s elite leaders from visited Washington to lobby the United States to acknowledge the territory’s independence, trumpeting the country’s stable governance and geostrategic location that they argued could be an asset for U.S. interests in the Horn of Africa. Its was a geopolitical move given both Sudans have decided to fail as nations as…

Outskirts of Somaliland capital Hargeisa

Ph by Yusuf Dahir

Subscribers: Our map of territorial control in Somalia has been updated for May 2020, and upgraded to show state capitals, regional boundaries in the north, claimed borders for Somaliland and Puntland, and more accurate city and town sizes.

I need to have this LP asap! So, so good.

Interesting story too:

With the attack (of Hargeisa) imminent, a few brave radio operators and dedicated vanguards of Somali culture knew the archives, containing over half a century of Somali music had to be preserved. Thousands upon thousands of cassette tapes and master reels were quickly removed from the soon-to-be targeted buildings. They were dispersed to neighboring countries like Djibouti and Ethiopia, and buried deep under the ground to withstand even the most powerful airstrikes.

These audio artifacts were excavated and recalled from their foreign shelters only very recently. Some of those recordings are now kept safe in the 10,000-strong cassette tape archive of the Red Sea Foundation, the largest collection of Somali cassettes in the world, in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa. The Ostinato Records team digitized a large portion of the archive, distilling 15 songs that reveal the panoramic diversity of styles and sophistication of Somali musicianship.

Over a millennia of trade in the Indian Ocean invited the cultures of the Arabian Peninsula, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and even China to slowly work their melodies, scales, and sounds into Somalia’s rich musical repertoire. Each track is a keen illustration of a carefully refined, rarely revealed cultural crossroads of the world.

The archive offered a living window to the Mogadishu of the 1970s and 1980s, when the coastal capital glistened as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean." With its iconic ivory-colored architecture and crescent beaches overlooking the Indian Ocean, Mogadishu was home to the lavish Al Uruba and Jazira sea side hotels, where youthful bands like Iftiin, Sharero, and Dur Dur serenaded cosmopolitan crowds at some of the most elegant nightclubs in East Africa. These damaged cassettes evoked memories of the revered national theater, where Waaberi Band provided unforgettable soundtracks.

"This record is a miracle. A legacy of the past that blurs the trauma of the present."

-- Le Monde

"Perhaps the most beautiful music in the world, finally rediscovered."

"Relationships are usually formed on social media, or at work or at the local madrassa or even in places of education. We first met on social media, in fact, without social media, we wouldn’t have found each other. After messaging each other back-and-forth, we decided to take it to the next step and had several phone conversations before our first meeting. When we met for the first time, I fell in love with her pure natural beauty, her open-mindedness and her mesmerising smile. On that same day, I decided I wanted her to be my wife and proposed to her. She happily accepted, and our wedding happened in 2016, and we have been inseparable ever since. We now have a beautiful daughter to live for and all this happened because we connected on social media."

(Hargeisa)

"Dadka qaar waxa kulmiya baraha bulshadu kawada xidhiidho, qaar kale goobaha shaqada, qaarkoodna dugsiyada iyo jaamacadaha. Gaar ahaan anigu waxaan abaalka ugu weyn u hayaa baraha bulshada oo sabab u noqday isbarashada aniga iyo xaaskayga. Kadib isbarashadayadii, waxa aannu si toos ah uga wada hadli jirnay telefoonka in muddo ah, kahor kulankayagii kowaad. Kulankayagii koowaad waxyaabaha aad iisoo jiitay waxaa ka mid ahaa, quruxdeeda dabiiciga ah, furfurnaanta ka muuqatay hadalkeeda, waji furnaanteeda iyo dhoolacadeynteeda. Habeenkaas kadib, waxa aan go’aansaday inaan usoo bandhigo guur, alxamdulilaah, way iga aqbashay guurkaasi, wuxuuna ku dhamaaday guul. Guurkayagu wuxuu dhacay sanadkii 2016. Waxaa uu Alleh nagu arsaaqay gabadh yar."