Today we’ll be taking you all on a journey to the country of Somalia in this episode of Continental Drift!

Somalia, or the Federal Republic of Somalia, the easternmost country in continental Africa, and borders Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, and Kenya to the southwest. The country is home to roughly 18 million residents, of which the vast majority are ethnic Somalis. The Somali music tradition is a long-standing one, with some of the instrumentation and folk texts dating all the way back to 6000 BCE. Though similar to the musical cultures of nearby regions such as Oromo in Ethiopia, Sudan or the Arabian Peninsula, the music of Somalia has distinct features such as its heavily pentatonic tonal structure. As listeners, we are typically used to a heptatonic scale (i.e. 7 notes in a key), but somali folk music is usually performed usig only five notes in a scale which gives it its pentatonic character.

The most fundamental instrumental building blocks of somali music are the oud, small drums such as mokhoddon or masoondhe, and reed flutes such as malkad and siinbaar.

A genre of Somali music called "balwo" (which means overcoming misfortune) was pioneered by Abdi Sinimo in 1940s. The legend goes that Sinimo was a long-distance truck driver and when one day his truck broke down, he composed a song Balwo while fixing it.

(The title of the video is wrong as many people in the comments are pointing out. The song is by Abdi Sinimo.)

We quote some lyrics here:

“Balwoy! O' Balwoy I know not what made me suffer It is a truck that made me suffer She is berguba who made me suffer”

(It is basically Somalia’s country music, if u really think about it: the song is about a truck breaking and a girl.)

The balwo style was exemplified by Hudeidi, known as the “king of the Oud”. He learned to play the instrument from another legendary somali musician, Abdullahi Qarshe, who composed what would go on to become Somalia’s national anthem. Hudeidi was a scion of anti-imperialist resistance, and often found himself imprisoned for his poltically contentious lyrics. The song you’re about to hear features him and another legendary somali musician of from later years, Aar Manta: Uur Hooyo (feat. Hudeidi). (In the Spotify playlist)

We will also play some songs from the set “Sweet As Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa”.

The Guardian (2017) wrote about it: “This extraordinary set, compiled largely from cassettes that had been hidden away for decades, is a reminder of “swinging Somalia” in the 1970s and 80s, before the country was torn apart by civil war. Mohamed Siad Barre’s military regime may have controlled the music industry during this golden age, but bars and clubs flourished in Mogadishu and Hargeisa. Local bands developed a unique style that mixed Arabic and Indian influences with funk and soul, along with the reggae-like dhaanto. Organ and synths dominate…”

If you want to hear more of it, here is the entire set:

It is really fascinating seeing that at the time female performers could perform with their heads uncovered. Whether music is considered Haraam by the current government affected the music scene a lot. For example, in the present day, in areas that Al-Shabaab controls music is banned. It seems like in some other parts of the country music is enjoyed is produced.

In 1991, the Barre administration was ousted by a coalition of clan-based opposition groups, backed by Ethiopia's then-ruling Derg regime and Libya. The country collapsed into civil war following Somaliland’s declaration of independence, and many of its artists fled the country to avoid political persecution for their endorsement of Barre in the years prior. Maryam Mursal, one of the former members of Waaberi, found success abroad by pioneering the fusion of traditional somali music with jazz & blues. Here is one of the songs from her critically acclaimed album “The Journey”, released in 1998. Kufilaw - Maryam Mursal (in Spotify playlist).

In 1970s the Somali civil war broke out against Barre's regime. Somali National Movement (SNM) seized Burao and Hargeisa, and in response Barre started bombing Hargeisa. Sahra Halgan (one of the most famous Somali singers, 16 years old at the time) then started working as a nurse for the SNM.

"At the front, I was finally free. The soldiers had other things to do than forbid me to sing."

For a lot of musicians, going back to Somalia can be dangerous. For example, Saado Ali Warsame was shot dead by Al-Shabab two years after he returned to Somalia in 2012.
However, Somali musicians keep making music at home and abroad, and we keep supporting them.