Final Report of
The Somali Creative Community Week
Held in Djibouti from 24 June – 2 July
2003
Djibouti,
10 July 2003
Description
A well-attended
literary and cultural gathering was held in Djibouti, capital of the Republic of
Djibouti, from 24 June – 2 July 2003 under the name of ‘The Somali Creative
Community Week’. The three-pronged gathering was organized by the
International PEN’s Somali-speaking Centre in association with CERD Research
Centre, RDT (Djibouti Radio and Television) and People’s Palace, with
financial and technical assistance from Daallo Airlines and Dahabshiil Company.
The organization of the week-long cultural event was made possible thanks to the
moral and material support provided by President Ismail Omar Guelleh who is
renowned of his constant encouragement and support to the promotion of
literature and culture. The president was kind enough to inaugurate the Week
with an opening speech in which he stressed the importance of culture and
literature expressing the renewed commitment of the Djibouti Government to
promote art and culture and to support the activities of the creative community.
This PEN event
brought together over 150 writers, celebrated poets, literary scholars,
performing artists and creative journalists from all Somali-speaking areas
throughout the Horn of Africa including Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.
The Somali creative community in the Diaspora was also represented by
participants from the United Kingdom, Sweden, USA, Canada, South Africa, Russia
and the Arab world.
Among the well
known literary figures attended were the acclaimed novelist Nuruddin Farah,
celebrated poet Maxamed Ibraahim Hadraawi (both of them patrons of the
Somali-speaking PEN Centre) and AwJaamac Cumar Ciise, a highly respected
historian and elder statesman of Somali studies. Other noted figures included
Cali Sugulle, Cabdulqaadir Xirsi Yamayam, Maxamed
Xaashi Dhamac Gaarriye, Cabdi Muxumad Amiin, Mustafe Shiikh Cilmi, Cabdulqaadir
Cabdi Shube, Ibraahim Sulaymaan Gadhle, Maxamed Cabdullaahi Riiraash, Maxamed
Daahir Afrax, Idiris Yusuf Cilmi, Cabdi Aadan Qays, to name but a few. The
Attendance also included around 40 media practitioners, most of them young
creative journalists representing over 30 media channels from within the region
and the Diaspora.
Thus, the PEN
regional conference uniquely served as a bridge or meeting point in a number of
counts. First, it brought together two generations of the Somali creative
community members. While the authors and scholars enlisted above are considered
as the leading literary figures belonging to the older generation of the
pre-civil war period, the vast majority of the journalists and younger poets are
members of the new generation who have emerged in the later years of the civil
war era in Somalia to resume the activities of a Somali-speaking media after the
destruction by the civil war of everything that existed before the collapse of
the Somali state. Second, the event has linked people from different creative
practices (writers, oral poets, performing artists and journalists) who have
never had the opportunity to come together and share experiences and ideas on
issues of common concern. Third, the Conference brought together participants
from a wide variety of geographical locations both from within and outside the
region.
The three
components of the event (detailed below) centered around the same theme entitled
‘‘Engaging the Creative Community: Somali Literature and Artistic
Media as Vehicles for a Culture of Peace”. This central theme provided a
focus and coherence for the different activities of the event.
As suggested by
the theme, the main purpose of ‘the Somali Creative Community Week’ was to
address the pressing need of helping the Somali creative community to piece
themselves together and play a visible role in reversing the tragic situation
prevailing in Somalia using their art. In other words, the aim was to restore
hope to Somali authors and artists and to provide a forum and network for their
constructive work by revitalizing and reinforcing the Somali-speaking Centre of
the International PEN devising it as a logistic base for such a creative
network. To serve this purpose, we aimed to organize the Centre’s
Congress/General Meeting to strengthen its structure making it more broad-based,
and to move its head office to the region, to Djibouti. We have also aimed to
create awareness of the PEN International movement and to promote its ideals
among the Somalis and to outreach the locally-based members of the Somali
creative community at large.
Evaluating the event, we can confidently say that these
main objectives have virtually been achieved. To substantiate this statement let
us sum up the core outcome of the event’s three components separately.
The PEN Congress/General Meeting
After a period of low profile activities due to the harsh
conditions, the Somali-speaking PEN has succeeded to hold its 2nd
Congress in Djibouti within the framework of the ‘Somali Creative Community
Week’. Participated by some 40 delegates from different countries, the
two-day- long Congress conducted a rigorous review of the Centre’s work and
addressed issues crucial to the implementation of PEN objectives and to the
promotion of literature and culture in the Horn of Africa.
This has resulted
in restructuring the Centre in such a way that makes it more broad-based and
more effective in outreaching locally-based writers and artistic creators. The
main resolutions and outcome could be summarized as follows:
1.
The election of a new governing body, an Executive Committee;
2.
The establishment of six Standing committees for the six main areas of
the centre’s activities: language & translation, literary activities for
peace, communication, authors rights, women writers affairs and writers in
exile;
3.
The outlining of an engaging plan of action for the coming period;
4.
Moving the main Office from its temporary location in London to the
Somali-speaking city of Djibouti.
5.
Making Somali the official working language of the organization while at
the same time all important documents will be translated into English.
All these are
considered as a great step forward for the journey of the Somali-speaking
writers Club of the International PEN, the world association of writers.
The Literary Conference
Throughout the
‘Somali Creative Community Week’ all mornings were allocated for different
panel discussions, with the exception of the morning of the first day, the day
of the opening ceremony with its keynote speeches boosted by the presence of
President Ismail Omar Guelleh accompanied by his Prime Minister and Minister of
Culture and information among other dignitaries and guests of honour.
The participants
engaged in a vivid intellectual debate where tens of discussion papers and/or
informed interventions were presented and thoroughly discussed throughout the
week. The discussions centered around the following five related topics, each of
which was exhausted for a day: (i) the Catastrophe in Somalia and its impact on
the creative sectors of culture and information; (ii) the important role of
literature and art in Somali society and how it can be utilized in promoting a
culture of peace; (iii) The Somali-speaking media: its current situation and
expected role; (iv) the experience of writing the Somali language and how the
process has been hampered by the civil war in Somalia; (v) the need to identify
the difficulties facing the Somali creative community as well as its strengths
and to establish a network for co-operation.
In conclusion the
participants made a body of recommendations ranging from the need for the
standardization of the written Somali, safeguarding it from current abuses, to
the need to create a forum for networking the creative community. The PEN
network was suggested to play such a role. The detailed recommendations enlisted
under each of the above topics are available in a separate document. These
recommendations together with the background analysis by the informed
participants will serve as guidance to the future activities of the working
committees established by the Somali PEN who will serve as a follow up
mechanism.
A Festival of poetry and
performing arts
Throughout
the Somali Creative community Week the cultural life of the city of Djibouti was
remarkably revitalized by the presentation and highlighting at the People’s
Palace of top pieces of poetry, drama, music and songs performed by leading
poets and theatre groups. While the morning periods were allocated for the
literary conference, the evenings were set aside for either poetry readings or
theatrical performances or a blend of both. In a four poetry evenings and other
occasions a total of around forty poets presented over 100 moving pieces of
poetry carrying messages of peace and understanding.
On the other
hand, three different theatrical performances of drama, music, dances and poetry
were presented on 26 June, 30 June and 2 July. A huge crowds of Djibouti
population flooded the National Theatre (Guriga Ummadda) each night to enjoy
viewing these public performances presented by two leading theatre groups, 4
Mars, Djibouti’s national artists and Shamsul Amal the best organized Somali
theatre group at present. The popularity of the Somali Creative Community Week
was reinforced by the fact that it coincided with the celebrations of the
national days of both Djibouti and Somalia. The celebratory mood of the people
on such occasions made the events of the Creative Week all the more attractive.
The festival has
resulted in a wealth of invaluable materials for current and future use by
various media channels, peace-promoting agencies and cultural preservation
bodies, including Government departments. The output of the Week in general is
currently preserved in a big number of audio and video cassettes held by both
the Somali-speaking PEN and Djibouti Radio and Television (RTD). Many of the
pictures, documents and other materials are available online in the archives of
the Somali PEN website (Somalipen.org), itself being one of the achievements of
this recent PEN initiative. The storage of the site also includes nine issues of
an informative newsletter printed daily throughout the duration of the event.
The different
activities of the event had been extensively covered by the Somali-speaking
media everywhere, including the many internet websites. This means that much of
the information about the event is also currently available in many of the bulky
Somali websites. This had been facilitated by the presence in the event of tens
of reporters representing different Somali-speaking media channels. They
attended either as participating PEN members or invitees or just as reporters.
It is planned to compile the proceedings of the rich Somali ‘Creative
Community Week’ and publish them in a comprehensive volume. The
Somali-speaking PEN is prepared to do so once the necessary funding is granted.
As an example of
the outcoming benefits of the Creative Week, the provision of such huge and
precious materials has inspired the Djibouti-based satellite TV Channel, ‘Somaaliyey
Maqal’ to revitalize its operations with the extensive use of the
recordings of the literary conference and the arts and poetry festival as well
as the resultant materials of the side activities such as the many interviews
conducted by journalists with individual poets, writers and artists. This has
provided the TV channel with interesting materials which are planned to be aired
in a series of cultural programs that will continue for many months, from July
to, probably, the end of the year.
The channel was
originally created in 2000 in the days of Arta Peace Conference to promote the
ongoing Somalia peace and reconciliation activities and it was highly popular at
the time. In the past two years, however, things went down due to the lack of
content of much interest to the Somali viewer. Now the editors are confident
that the new programmes will reverse the situation and will be a good beginning
for the resumption of the original popularity of the Satellite channel.
Other outcoming benefits
n
Issues of common concern addressed;
n
Awareness of a culture of peace through art and literature raised;
n
Scattered authors and artists connected, a focal point for a
creative network established in Djibouti, facilitated by PEN;
n
Isolated and dejected writers and artists uplifted and linked with
each other; a sense of belonging restored; the event has inspired a group of
well known poets led by Mohamed Hadrawi to continue their coming together and
immediately go on a peace-promoting tour throughout Somalia;
n
Previously untapped resources (unknown talents & new works)
identified;
n
Creative community data base commenced;
n
International PEN movement extended to the Horn of Africa;
n
Somali PEN revitalized and strengthened, its membership remarkably
increased (members of the new committees alone amount to nearly 60), previously
remote areas outreached by establishing branches and recruiting members;
n
Literary and cultural website launched.
Afterword
In conclusion,
having highlighted the positive outcome of the initiative and the difference it
has made, the big challenge remains how to sustain these benefits and build upon
them? How to avoid going back to square one at some point? How to implement the
outcoming recommendations and make use of the precious resultant materials in
various ways? How to make sure that the new PEN structures work as effectively
as required?
All these could
only be achieved by the joint efforts of all concerned: the Somali-speaking PEN,
the International PEN, our partners including those who supported the Creative
Week, the Djibouti Government, any future Somali Government; and indeed anyone
concerned with the development of literature and culture or with the promotion
of a culture of piece in the Horn and beyond.
