Review of Mogadishu: Then and Now by Rasna Warah, Mohamud Dirios and Ismail
Osman
When I was writing my
book about Somalia, the only way I could get a sense of what the capital,
Mogadishu, was like before it was destroyed was by reading the novels of the
Somali writer, Nuruddin Farah, looking at a few scratchy pictures on the
internet and speaking to people who had known it before all hell broke loose in 1991.
Mogadishu: Then and Now changes all that. The book – which describes
itself as ‘a pictorial tribute to Africa’s most wounded city’ – is a treasure
trove of photographs and other images, protected and preserved for years by the
former curator of the Mogadishu Museum, Mohamud Dirios. Thanks to this book, I
can now ‘see’ the city as it used to be.
Several of these
precious pictures are juxtaposed with photos of the same place, taken years
later by the Kenyan photojournalist, Rasna Warah, who made a brave trip to
Mogadishu in 2011. There is a shocking contrast between the original grand,
graceful structures and their bullet-scarred, shattered remains. But at least
there is now a visual ‘memory’ available, which will doubtless be an invaluable
resource for reconstruction work. If the situation in the city continues to
improve, and the rebuilding continues, maybe one broken building should be left
as a reminder of what war can do.
One of the most
striking photos in the book is of Lido Beach in 1983. Scantily clad Europeans
bronze themselves in the sun, relaxing with Somali friends on the beach. The city
has taken a long and painful journey away from this liberal, cosmopolitan
culture. But, as Warah points out at the end of the book, there are ‘glimmers
of hope’ as a ‘fragile peace’ returns to the city.
Another remarkable photo
taken by Warah is of Somali athletes training for the London 2012 Olympics in a
smashed-up stadium. Everything is battered and broken apart from freshly
painted lines marking out the running lanes.
Mogadishu: Then and Now is more than a book of pictures. In just a few
pages of beautifully written text, Warah gives us the history, politics and
culture of the city. She does not shy away from difficult subjects such as the possible
roles of the clan and nomadic culture in the destruction of the city. She casts
a critical eye on the ‘many foreign journalists and international aid agency
staff who quite often tell their horror stories about the city from the comfort
of their plush offices in Nairobi, without ever setting foot in Mogadishu’.
Warah takes us on a
fascinating journey from the birth of the city more than one thousand years ago,
describing the involvement of many different cultures to make it what it is today. She
also wrenches the Mogadishu narrative away from what she calls ‘The Black Hawk
Down Syndrome’, whereby descriptions of the city ‘as the “world capital of
things-gone-completely-to-hell… ravaged by some fatal urban disease” would
inform all discourse on Mogadishu and Somalia from then on.’
The book helps to give
a more complete and balanced picture of Mogadishu and its inhabitants, past,
present and future.
Mogadishu: Then and Now by Rasna Warah, Mohamud Dirios and Ismail Osman was published in 2012 by Author House. ISBN 978-1-4722-2903-3
