The bombed-out cities of Somalia are synonymous with militant insurgency, pirates and famine. But there is hope that the annual Somali book-fair might give the scarred capital Mogadishu, a new cultural lease on life.
For the first time since its inception three years ago the Somali book-fair has attracted foreign authors. A sign of slowly improving security as government troops win back territory from militants.
“The first year when we started in 2015, some of the authors were a little iffy about appearing in media and coming, especially that there were also non- Somalis coming also to visit and some of the authors were a bit spectacle but it looks like now almost three years later things are much better,” says Somali’s Mohamed Diini .
This is despite the 60 guards outside the hotel and the plainclothes security inside. The Al Shabaab militia was pushed out of the capital in 2011, but it continues to mount almost daily bomb attacks and assassinations. However that did not stop 31 authors from presenting their books at the fair.
Fartumo Kusow is a Somali-Canadian fiction writer returning home for the first time in 25 years.
“The image that I see on TV is not what I saw when I came here. What I see here is actually worse than what I expected to see, so the image of that never ending earthquake that comes to mind. It’s not really a point 5 that kind of destroys everything, it’s a kind of like medium scale kind of like 4.55 but causes enough destruction but not a wipe-out.”
Others came to show solidarity.
“The ABCs of Rwanda is a book that is teaching not only Rwandans but also people outside Rwanda to appreciate our culture. In Rwanda when you hear Rwanda you hear genocide because many of the books what we were written about Rwanda only talk about the genocide and we wanted to release a book that is talking about other things that is not just focusing on the genocide because Rwanda is now a happy country,” says Rwandan Author Dominik Alonga.
Somalia’s economy is still picking up slowly as efforts to rebuild continue. The African Union peacekeeping force with soldiers from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi and Djibouti continue to fight al Shabaab insurgents. The force plans to start withdrawing from the country in 2018.
