5. Hiddo Dhawr: Singing Love in(to) Somaliland, by Christina Woolner

Camthropod

Opened in 2014, Hiddo Dhawr is Somaliland’s first and only live music venue to operate since the 1988 civil war, which decimated the capital Hargeysa, and displaced the artistic community. In this episode, social anthropology PhD candidate Christina Woolner visits Hiddo Dhawr – which specializes in the performance of acoustic music popular before the war – to explore what it means to sing, and particularly about love, in contemporary Hargeysa. Conversations with the venue’s founder Sahra Halgan, reflections from some young patrons, and an evening taking in the music reveal the many meanings of love songs, and offer insight into the social and political climate of life in a post-war, unrecognized state.