Stopover In Somaliland

The next official stop in our African Odyssey is Somalia, but first we are making an unofficial stop in the Republic of Somaliland, a self-declared independent state occupying the northern part of Somalia. 

I did not include Somaliland as a stop in the tour as it is not on the UN's list of recognised countries. But neither is Western Sahara and that is going to be part of the tour, so I have arguably been a bit inconsistent. The main difference between them though is that while there are 40-50 countries that recognise Western Sahara as an independent state, none have ever recognised Somaliland.

I won't get into the politics of why that is, because I don't understand them, but in practice Somaliland has been functionally independent since the early 1990s when the Somali civil war led to the collapse of any recognisable form of government down in Mogadishu. Since then the powers that be there seem to have been largely content to leave the good folks of Somaliland to their own devices.

I probably would have just let all of that pass us by and headed straight to Somalia if it weren't for the great Sahra Halgan. A singer and activist who served as a nurse in the war of independence, she would be greatly insulted to be described as a representative of Somalia. But she is far too good not to feature in our African odyssey. 

Hence this Sahra/ Somaliland Special. The audio tracks are both from her 2019 album "Waa Dardaaran", and the video is the lead single from "Hiddo Dhawr" which came out a few months ago. Buy them both, you won't be disappointed.

And if you live in or near Norwich, Stroud, Guildford, Manchester, York, Totnes or London, go along and see her when she plays in your town in September. I have my ticket already. 

"Aalah" - Sahra Halgan

"Kiidhaba" - Sahra Halgan