Fighting to Be Heard: Somali Women's Poetry

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Periodical article

Title:	Fighting to Be Heard: Somali Women's Poetry
Author:	Jama, Zainab Mohamed
Year:	1991
Periodical:	African Languages and Cultures
Volume:	4
Issue:	1
Pages:	43-53
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Somalia
Subjects:	national liberation struggles women writers poetry Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Literature, Mass Media and the Press Women's Issues literature nationalism Historical/Biographical Politics and Government Cultural Roles
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/1771680
Abstract:	This paper discusses poetry by Somali women who were active in the independence struggle in Somalia during the 1940s and 1950s, and gives reasons why women's poetry never became part of the circulated collection publicly recited. The reasons are gender specific, being tied to the fact that men would not think it dignified to recite poems composed by women. The author shows how, in the early days of nationalism, the usual gender boundaries of social conduct were broken down by political activism and women at that time were able to perform publicly as poets, mainly at gatherings of the Somali Youth League (SYL). The classical genre of women's poetry known as 'buranbur' was particularly employed by the SYL women, but a new, shorter type of verse called 'balwo' was also developed. The author recorded a number of women's poems of that time in Mogadishu in 1987, some of which are cited here in English translation. Bibliogr.