A CELEBRATION of Henley’s friendship link with Borama in Somaliland will be held once again this summer.
The Mayor Lorraine Hillier and Brigadier Malcolm Page, founder and chairman of the Henley Borama Friendship Association, met with four Somalis who now live in Britain at the town hall last week.
The men brought flowers for the Mayor as they proposed a repeat of the “Borama Comes to Henley” event featuring dancing and drumming, which was held in Market Place in 2014 and attended by about 60 Somalis from around Britain.
There was also a five-day exhibition of Somali art and craft at the Old Fire Station Gallery. The Mayor agreed for an event which provisionally will take place in July.
Councillor Hillier said she would like the town’s schools involved in producing artwork celebrating the link to display at the same gallery.
She said: “They were lovely people. They were doing a video to show back home so they wanted me to dress up in my regalia.
“Henley has helped in Borama a great deal and there are quite strong links there. The people are so grateful and they have this real love for Henley.”
Borama is on the western boundary of the former British protectorate of Somaliland (now the unrecognised Republic of Somaliland).
The association was established in 1983 at the suggestion of Mr Page who had visited Somalia as a guest of the country’s government three years before.
