By Mo Farah People often ask me what it’s like to have a twin brother. I tell them: there’s this special connection that the two of you have. You instinctively feel what the other person is going through – even if you live thousands of miles apart, like Hassan and me. It’s hard to explain to...
May 19, 2026
Category: Book Shelf
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An Interview with Prof. Kapteijns: Author of Clan Cleansing in Somalia – WDN
Editor’s Note: WardheerNews has been afforded the rare opportunity to conduct the first interview with Professor Lidwien Kapteijns, author of the recently debuted book, Clan Cleansing in Somalia, The Ruinous Legacy of 1991 . Lidwien Kapteijns is a professor of history at Wellesley College. Dr. Kapteijns is the author of many papers, research and books. Professor...
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Clan Cleansing in Somalia, The Ruinous Legacy of 1991: A Book Review
By Faisal A. Roble If the epic poems of Guba, “instigator” in Somali, documented the internecine small scale clan wars in the Hawd and Reserved Area in the 1890s-1920s, Clan Cleansing in Somalia undoubtedly serves as a repository for the historical origins and the memory reconstruction of mass violence in post-colonial Somalia. This time (1978...
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Suturing Somali Wounds
By Ali Jimale Ahmed PhD I first heard of Abdi Latif Ega’s debut novel Guban last November, when, towards the conclusion of an event where I was the discussant of scholar Mahmood Mamdani’s new book Define and Rule, Mamdani asked me out of the blue: “Have you read Gubaan?” Unsure of what he was saying,...
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THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE CONFLICT OF THE HORN
This is an excerpt of the book Cold War Fallout: Boundary Politics and Conflict in the Horn of Africa written by Abdisalam M. Issa-Salwe ___________________ The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created a geopolitical situation which increased the competition among the European colonial powers for control of the coast along the Red Sea...
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One Woman’s Tale and the Myths of Happiness
“Every moment wasted looking back keeps one from moving forward.” —Hillary Clinton. In a San Francisco airport lounge, I was reading Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky’s new book, The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy but Doesn’t What Shouldn’t Make You Happy but Does (January 13, 2013), when a woman who seemed to be in...
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WDN Interview with Nadifa Mohamed: The Author of Black Mamba Boy
Editor’s Note: WardheerNews had the rarest of opportunities to interview Nadifa Mohamed the author of Black Mumba Boy. Black Mumba Boy, the first novel of British novelist and Somali-born author Nadifa Mohamed debuted in 2010, has been long listed for the Orange Prize and shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Prize. It was also shortlisted for...
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Black Mamba Boy: A Book Review
By Hassan M. Abukar There are three types of women; those who have little or nothing to say about their fathers; those who revile their fathers and those who lionize them. The American writer/poet Sylvia Plath made it fashionable to excoriate her father in the most corrosive terms. It did not matter that Plath’s father...
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An Interview with Yasmeen Maxamuud
Raaz for MMW: I found Nomad Diaries a wonderful introduction to the lives of Somali women living in the United States. There were times where I was reminded of my own immigrant grandmother and mother as I read about Nadifo’s life. As I mentioned in my review of Nomad Diaries, I am not familiar with stories that portray an African...
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Yaa Qoray Buugga “Maansadii Tima Cadde”?
W/Q WardheerNews Waxa aannu halkan idiinku soo bandhigaynnaa faallo ku saabsan ururintii u horraysay ee maansadii Eebbe naxariistii janno ha siiyee Cabdillaahi Suldaan “Timacadde”. WardheerNews waxa soo gaadhay nuskhad buug aan la faafin, madbacadna aan lagu daabicin oo teeb lagu garaacay. Kaas oo cinwaankiisu yahay “Maansadii Timacadde” oo ay wada qoreen Boobe Yuusuf Ducaale iyo...