By Bodhari Mohamed Warsame A note on translation and the translator It is important to have a forum where literary written works produced by the Somali authors of our generation, who today write in different languages, including the mother language, get translated and circulated. This is needed both for deeper understanding of each other’s work...
March 15, 2025
Category: Camels and Poets
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Herdsman, Townsman, American: My Segmented Life
By Prof Said S. Samatar Can a case be made that adults are educable? I’ve lived a life of segmented improbabilities. I was born and raised a camel herder in the over-heated sand dunes of Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden (Somali region), between a place called Qari-Jaqood and another called Jiriiban (from “Jirriban,” or “Land of Torture,”...
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A REJOINDER TO SAMATAR’S CONFESSED ADOPTION TO GERI CLAN
By Guuleed Samatar Dear Distinguished Professor Samatar, I read your engaging and interesting article, “Confessions of a new convert to the Geri-Koombo Clan- Family”, with fascination. As a former covert to the most accommodating noble Geri Koombe, who has since been excommunicated from the communion of the scattered and loosely-affiliated Absame polity, I am very...
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Saado Cali: Voice of the Nation
Editor’s note: An iconoclast like Saado is a rarity. But this one was ours. A poet, an artist and a brave human right activist. She was a mother, a sister and a daughter to a whole nation. Her velvety voice, we hummed, whether singing about a lost love or a besieged nation. She stood erect...
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CONFESSIONS OF A NEW COVERT TO THE GERI-KOOMBO CLAN-FAMILY
By Prof Said S. Samatar This is the story of my recent dramatic, almost mystical conversion to the noble Geri-Koombo clan-family. What bizarre private agencies of enlightenment and pleasant beneficence that drove me into abandoning my Leelkase kin and embracing the Geri will take a psychiatrist to divine. But before dwelling on my impulsive, inexplicable...
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Trekking with Ethiopia’s Nomads, from Watering Holes to Pasture Lands, For a Better Life
By William Lloyd-George Camels wait for treatment from the Liyu police veterinarian teams outside Bulali town in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS SOMALI REGION, Ethiopia, Jun 30 2014 (IPS) – When he was a young boy, 20-year-old Abdi, who comes from a small pastoralist community in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, “knew about school, reading and writing but...
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An Interview with Prof Lidwien Kapteijns (Ladan) on Somali Arts and Literature
Editor’s note: Prof Lidwien Kapteijns (Ladan) is not new to Somalia or Africa. Prof Lidwien teaches African and Middle Eastern history at Wellesley college and is the author of Clan Cleansing in Somalia (2013), Women’s Voices in a Man’s World (with Maryan Omar Ali, 1999) and numerous research papers that have contributed to the Somali...
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Minyaro
By Yasmeen Maxamuud Minyaro in this poem refers to Qat (Khat), a substance chewed by many Somali men. This stimulant/drug is a huge social ill. It’s an addiction that claims many. The problems of Qat are countless. Families talk about the grip this social pass time has on those who fall under its grip. It...
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The Ancient Kingdom of Punt and its Factor in Egyptian History Part IV
By Said M-Shidad Hussein On the Records Textual Accounts It seems that some scholars have not paid adequate attention to the fact that Pliny, a Roman author (d. 79 CE), and others, state that the Egyptians had contacted and influenced Somalia. There are at least two kinds of information in this regard. Firstly, he attests...
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I. M. Lewis and Somali Clanship: A Critique
Prof . Lidwien Kapteijns Introduction When large-scale violence occurs in Africa, initial analyses rarely go beyond characterizations of it (and, by implication, characterizations of the nature of the groups involved) as “ethnic” or “tribal.” Over time, more nuanced, historically based, and carefully contextualized analyses emerge. These often try to understand the complexities of, and changes...