we need to get hold of these historic materials
doesn`t ximan work for radiomogadishu
Somalis who return to Mogadishu for
the first time since the conflict began 20 years ago often lament that
there is little left of the beautiful, cultured
city they once knew. Much has indeed
changed. However, hidden in a backroom
of the Information Ministry is a treasure
trove of Somali history – the archives of
Radio Mogadishu.
The dark room is crammed full of
reels of quarter inch tapes - lovingly filed
in their dusty cardboard boxes on the
shelves, spilling over onto the desks, tables and floor with their contents written
by hand. There are, according to official
figures, more than 35,000 tapes in the archives. More than half of them are songs
but they also include drama, poetry, religious programmes, speeches and broadcasts in foreign languages including Italian, Arabic and English.
The archive collection began in 1951 –
the same year that Radio Mogadishu was
launched.
The collection began slowly but
built up over the years. Most of the songs
are love songs although some contained
hidden criticism of the Governments and
poets often ended up being imprisoned
for their efforts. There are also welcome
songs which range from one written for
Communist China’s first and longest
serving leader, Zhou Enlai, to one which
has just been composed for the UNPOS
deployment to Mogadishu.
Many of the
songs are still extremely popular and are
still being rebroadcast on Radio Mogadishu today, as are the plays and poetry.
Unfortunately the news and current affairs programs were never archived. However there is a short, historic recording of
the declaration of Independence of Somalia at midnight on 1 July 1960 as well as
songs written about Somali independence.
The archives contain some 2000 speeches by the former President Siad Barre and
800 speeches by other Presidents who
came before him. There are speeches by
many Prime Ministers although the recordings of the first ever Prime Minister
Abdullahi Isse were either deleted or lost.
There are also more than 400 speeches
by the warlord Mohamed Farrah Aideed,
who over threw Siad Barre. Both Aideed
and Ali Mahdi Muhammed, the first President after Siad Barre, clearly understood
the importance of the archives and sent
guards to protect them against being damaged or looting in the fighting.
The current archivist is Abshir Hashi Ali
who has been there since the fall of President Siad Barre in 1991. He says very little
has been archived during the past 20 years
of conflict and nothing is currently being archived due to lack of capacity even
though Radio Mogadishu is back up and
running and broadcasting 24 hours a day.
The most pressing concern is that the
condition of the tapes is deteriorating
fast. Some have already rotted and are beyond repair. There have been various offers to digitize the tapes to preserve them
although so far about five per cent have
undergone this process. The Government
is now appealing for help to preserve this
important historic record