The Chairman of the Hargeisa Cultural Center, Dr Jama M. Jama, said that they are celebrating 15 years of great progress at HIBF.
In a multi-prong speech by Dr. Jama at the opening of the Hargeisa International Book Fair yesterday, Jama’s speech began;
“H,E. Vice President, the Mayor of the city of Hargeysa, members of the parliament, dear ministers, delegates and guests of the Hargeisa International Book Fair, representatives of the International Community, friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to the 15th Anniversary of the Hargeysa International Book Fair. It is such an honour and pleasure to have you with us, for full six days of packed programming, readings, books, and for who came to Somaliland for the first time, a learning process and knowing this country, its people, the inspiration and the willingness of this youth; the love for art and togetherness.
It has been 15 years of revolution for culture of reading and writing, the crucial passage from an oral society to written culture, started in Hargeisa, the capital of the Republic of Somaliland, known as “The Mother of Modern Art”, but spread to entire Horn of Africa and beyond.
15 years of connection between Somaliland and the rest of the world, where the youth of Somaliland, who – because of non-recognition and no recognize passport – confined in the territory, and cannot travel and visit other contemporary, finally found a window to see the rest of the world, the beauty of literature; the same window that allowed the rest of the world to know about Somaliland, to understand the inspiration of its youth, the will of its people, and fond desire to become a member of the international community. The spirit for peace, development, humanity, and tolerance.
15 years of invitation of 14 African countries, to connect each of them to Somaliland, and among them, to build pan-African ties through literature, to know each other,
15 years of discussing 15 different themes that reflect on the situation of this country and its own people, and allow its people to meditate and come up with solutions to the challenges of nature: what is culture if not learning from, developing, and shaping an answer to the fundamental questions that the nature asks the humanity; the collective reactions of the actions of the harsh nature of this world; political natural and man-made injustice and conflicts; learning from the odd, raising from the ash, and building this beauty of Somaliland we are enjoying today.
15 years that we were building a home for art, a hub for culture, history, knowledge-production, getting together, older and young generation of our people, to exchange ideas and learn from the past, to develop and give home art for the young and brilliant minds of this nation. I want to remember Said Jama Hussein, a progressive scholar whose work and participation as a major pillar in this festival who recently passed away. May Allah reward for his deeds.
This year we have Solidarity as our theme of the year, and Senegal as our guest country.
We will talk about these two issues for the entire week, and I leave them for others to talk, but allow me to mention why we chose Solidarity. Our city recently has been challenged the most devastated fire at Waaheen Market. Our people reacted in solidarity with victims; the world reactive in solidarity with us;
Solidarity can be simply defined as unity or agreement of feeling or action, especially among individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group. It is social cohesion based upon the dependence that individuals have on each other in more advanced societies.
Droughts, COVID19, Droughts, Waaheen Market fire, again Droughts, and still this society thriving and supporting its weak elements in solidarity. We need to talk the value, the positive values of this society.
On Senegal, we have many things in common, Somaliland is the eastern part of frontier towards the sea, gate for to Africa continental, and Senegal is the same in the Western part. We had common experience in terms of welcoming Islam and civilization to the continent. It is not only geographical similarities that link to the two countries and to the two people. We will know more about this during the week.
Hargeysa International Book Fair presents over 70 young men and women invited from all regions of Somaliland, also know Reading Clubs, over 25 international guests coming from 18 countries, launching around 49 new books, those who were lucky to get slot, and promoting over 100s and 100s of books in Somali and other languages, songs, traditional dances, two theatrical plays, music and other performances, for every age,
…. and this would not have been possible if not support of the historical friend of this festival. I want to thank the EU, members states of the European Union, the UK, supports local and international; business community in our country represented here by my friend Abdirashid, the CEO of Dahabshiil Group who never fails to support us. Thank you.
