The director of the Hargeysa Cultural Center Dr. Jama M. Jama reiterated the importance of togetherness at the 17th opening session of the HIBF. Read below full excerpts of the speech;
His excellency the vice president of the Republic of Somaliland, the mayor of our capital, other members of the executive, leaders of our political parties, members from the parliament, commanders of our forces, council of Somaliland artists, youth from different regions, ladies and gentlemen.
Dear friends,
Good morning.
It is blessing day. 17th years of the Hargeysa International Book Fair opens its doors today. And we are together one more time.
It is a major target of this movement for the commitment to promote the reading and writing culture among our society, especially among the youth. The consistent yearly event goes beyond the book, and as you know, and as you will witness, it is celebration of art and creativity in its all forms and shapes of art. You witnessed the starting with traditional dancers.
We will have 123 speakers who come to this stage, among them 25 foreign scholars, writers and artists coming from 14 different countries; we have 35 panels (26 Hargeysa and 6 Gailey and 3 children sessions Hargeysa, Gabiley and Arabisiyo); over 30 new Books (mostly Somali new books); 50 performance artists; 16 painters artists; presence of10 diplomatic missions, a circus for children and STEM entertainments, Chess and Shax competition…
We have Tunisia as the Guest country of the HIBF. We welcome our friends to our home, to Somaliland. It is a blessing to have you here with us. You arrived this morning and I know you are tired, but we equally see you the energy in your faces. Welcome.
We welcome other guests, some of them are coming next few days.
We are together for six days, but as a nation, as global citizens, and as humanity, we need to be together and united against the challenges of the nature, man made and nature challenges.
That is why we chose togetherness as the team of the year. When we chose the Somali term “ISahaansho” as the theme of the year, we could have select coexistence, unity, solidarity, as we actually did in the past. But togetherness is stronger. We are together, and we want to be together for celebrations and for existence. It is a feeling.
Togetherness is the pleasant feeling of being united with other people in friendship and understanding. Giving your community a greater sense of togetherness, is to provide an open door with others who want to join. We want to be together for critical dynamics, encompassing climate change, economic challenges, and other pressing issues.
For Somalilanders, it is a year of elections. Elections divide. We want to be together and recall this togetherness for the whole year.
This year, we have deliberately selected Togetherness as our theme to underscore the resilience demonstrated by Somaliland and the global community in the face of these formidable challenges. Democracy is hard to sustain. Freedom of speech is hard to sustain, so as to the climate change and other major world-wide complications.
Somaliland and its resilience could be an example for all. Once again, we are determined to embrace this spirit of resilience and leverage the power of togetherness to address these local and global challenges collectively.
I wish you a pleasant stay in Somaliland. For the first time comers, please visit different places of Somaliland, connect to your peers, enjoy the hospitality this nation proofed to the world.
Welcome to Somaliland, Welcome to the Hargeysa International Book Fair
