Ramla Ali approaches a table at a New York City hotel restaurant struggling to balance slices of orange and a 1.5-liter water bottle in her right hand. Meanwhile, she sticks her left hand in a pocket of her sweatpants, fiddling it to confirm that she has all her supplements. Glucosamine, fish oil, vitamin-B complex, coenzyme […]
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Story by Pranjali Korgaonkar Hailing from thousands of years ago, Laas Geel in Somaliland is Africa’s best-kept secret. While Africa is famous for wildlife and national parks, stretching deserts, incredible waterfalls, heart-thumping safari adventures, and diverse ethnic groups, Somaliland is barely thought of as a tourist destination. Disclaimer: Somaliland is not similar to Somalia in Africa. Somaliland is itself […]
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Nujuum Hashi, who has overcome traditional prejudice to become a respected artist in Somalia, decided on her career as she drew pictures in the sand as a seven year old in the capital, Mogadishu. Her family had no fixed abode as this was the height of the civil war of the 1990s and early 2000s. […]
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‘I am quitting, and you guys have 24 hours to release me from all contracts,’ Halima Aden recalled of her abrupt announcement in 2020 that she was leaving the fashion industry for good. At the time, the UNICEF ambassador explained her decision via an Instagram story, noting: ‘Looking back now I did what I said […]
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By Mary Harper – Africa editor, BBC World Service News The Somali people are known as “a nation of poets” and there is no greater poet of modern times than Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, who has died in Hargeisa, the capital of the self-declared republic of Somaliland, at the age of 79. Tens of thousands attended […]
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry posed for a selfie with history-making Muslim model Halima Aden when attending the One Young World Summit in Manchester on Tuesday evening. The Duke, 37, and Duchess of Sussex, 41, who gave a keynote speech at the event at Bridgewater Hall, were pictured taking the snap with the 24-year-old following […]
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By Hussein Ali Hussein “Call him a thinker, a philosopher, an intellectual, a revolutionary, a critic, a teacher, at every turn in the checkered history of his homeland, Hadrawi has delighted his people with his striking poetry, and his clarity of vision, speaking truth to power when the occasion demanded, joining the guerrilla movement to fight […]
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Somaliland is celebrating its 15th anniversary of the famed Hargeisa Book fair with the theme of Solidarity. The self-declared independent country hopes to bring the continent together through culture, arts and creativity. The festival’s country partner this year is Senegal and the theme is “Solidarity”. One of the key corporate partners for the book fair […]
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By Mary Harper of BBC I was relaxing in a comfy chair when a woman came at me with a long, sharp knife. That first time, I was terrified. Now I am accustomed to ladies approaching me with blades. It is all in the name of beauty. Carving knives are used in some beauty parlours […]
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“This is your country.” That’s what everyone tells me and it’s true, my mother tongue does not surround me anywhere else, and in no other country does my face blend into the crowd so seamlessly. But is Somaliland my country? I don’t know. I left my hometown of Hargeisa at the age of four. As […]
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