Hadrawi: The Somali Shakespeare

I was lucky enough to be asked by the BBC to make a documentary about the Somali poet Hadrawi who lives in Bur'ao in Somaliland. You can listen to the programme here: The Somali Shakespeare

I took lots of photos while making the programme.

Hadrawi and me

Festive car (I didn't take this photo)

Independence celebrations (I didn't take this photo)

There are many poets in Somaliland including this policeman who has published a book of poetry

Delicious fresh fish in the port town of Berbera

Hadrawi and his wife at home in Bur'ao

Pomegranate growing in Hadrawi's favourite hotel in Bur'ao, City Plaza

No guns or knives allowed in City Plaza

Interviewing Hadrawi

Hadrawi holding some of his manuscripts

Hadraw's personal assistant, Mohammed Suleiman, who makes sure the poems are kept safely. 

City Plaza hotel

A Syrian doctor who had fled from Aleppo was staying at the hotel. He works in Erigavo.

A poet

Recording the sea

Outside Hadrawi's house

Hadrawi's wife

This young camel herder sang beautiful camel songs

Livestock market

These students in Hargeisa all knew Hadrawi's poems by heart

Another poet

Berbera Somaliland

There's a lot of fuss in Somaliland right now over a possible UAE military base being built in the coastal town of Berbera, where the giant company DP World is taking over the port. 

I expect this will bring changes to the town and its buildings, many of which are decorated with fishes and nautical images. Here are some of my photos from the town as it now.

Blankets offer a bit of shade for the trucks

Grave of a Sufi saint

I was told these chimney pots were from the days Somaliland was a British protectorate