Based on Walls’ long-standing engagement with the Horn of Africa, this book offers a comprehensive and fine-tuned account of the current political landscape of the Somali regions, with a particular focus on Somaliland. It details the country’s transition to the current multi-party democracy, and the formation of a hybrid system based on both consensus and representative decision making processes. Somalilanders’ impressive ability to manage crises, often at the last moment, and their careful negotiation of nation-state politics and Somali custom are painstakingly examined, offering a powerful counter-narrative to that of the ‘failed state’ that tends to dominate the region. Walls’ analysis of the successes and challenges that lie ahead resonate beyond Somaliland. This book is an essential read for researchers, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in governance and politics in the region.
Ingeborg Vardøen's first visit to Hargeysa, in 1991, left an indelible mark as she witnessed the devastation of war in the city, but she was also captured by the optimism and an incredible spirit and will to recover. Since then she has become a regular visitor to the Horn of Africa and an eyewitness to the progress made in Somaliland. This book draws on her many encounters with the Somalis, both in the Horn of Africa and in Norway, where she is an active member of the Norwegian-Somali Community.
Muuse Ismaaciil Galaal (Muse Ismail Galal in the anglicised spelling) was a researcher, scientist, historian, writer and poet whose most important lasting legacy is the role he played in the creation of the modern written Somali alphabet and in preserving numerous accounts of Somali culture and heritage, which would otherwise have been lost forever.
Hargeysa Breeze is a collection of poetry written for Hargeysa and Laas Geel. (NOTE: only paperback version available.)
Mohamed Ibraahin ‘Hadraawi’ is the most famous of living Somali poets, described as ‘the Somali Shakespeare’. This collection of his poetry in English and in Somali marks the first bilingual printing of most of the poems included, and is the first volume in an intended series.
The first in a two-volume set, 'Somaliland: The way forward' is edited by Jama Musse Jama and argues that Somaliland's international recognition is not only long overdue but essential for the consolidation of the peaceful settlement in a uniquely democratic state within the volatile Horn of Africa. It includes chapter contributions by Dr. Mohamed A Omar (then Foreign Minister of the Republic of Somaliland), Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar, Sylvie Aboa-Bradwell, Dr. Michael Walls, and Dr. Steve Kibble. It also contains major writings by the late Professor Ibrahim Megag Samatar, who was an active participant in Somaliland politics for almost five decades.
This prison memoir gives a first-hand account of the brutalities of Siyad Barre’s Somalia, but also of the life of a nomad child brought to the city to live with his aunt. With a father without camels to care for, an urban life was seen as the only option, but hunger was never far away. That motivated Mahamed to perform well at school which gave him the opportunity to go to the United Kingdom. After he earned his university degree, he went back to his home town Hargeysa where he met other young professionals. They decided to volunteer for their community, establishing what became known to the international community as the Hargeysa Self-help Group - locally known as UFFO. For their noble acts, Mahamed and his colleagues were imprisoned and what followed were eight long lonely years, where the studying of insects was the main entertainment of the day. The reasons they were freed, even as the rest of their community was destroyed, were as strange and surprising as the reasons they were jailed in the first place. But there was no time in Mohamed’s life to get depressed or discouraged as the reconstruction of the country had to start immediately.