Somalia races to save Radio Mogadishu’s fading archive | Media News
Mogadishu, Somalia — An extensive collection of reel-to-reel tapes is currently preserved in the air-conditioned archive of Radio Mogadishu, Somalia’s public radio station. These tapes, housed on steel shelves and coated with dust, contain vital recordings of the nation’s history—ranging from news broadcasts and speeches to music and other cultural expressions—some of which date back to the early 1950s.
Abdiqadir Geedi Robleh, an archivist at Radio Mogadishu, is working diligently with a small team to digitize and organize approximately 400,000 hours of content, officials report. The urgency of this project is underscored by the risk of deterioration of the magnetic tapes, which would result in the irretrievable loss of crucial historical documents.
“This is the world’s largest store of Somali language music, culture, dramas, and everything else, and at the moment it is locked away from the public,” Robleh stated. “We’re working to preserve it and also open it up to the public in the future.”
Founded in 1951 during the Italian colonial period, Radio Mogadishu has evolved into Somalia’s largest and most significant public broadcaster. Originally, the station broadcasted in both Somali and Italian, eventually expanding to include foreign language services such as Swahili, Oromo, English, and Arabic.
During its peak, Radio Mogadishu was one of the most influential voices in East African media, reaching audiences as far as Tanzania and Ethiopia. Its style of radical pan-African broadcasting was reminiscent of Radio Cairo during the Nasser era. Aside from a brief interval in the 1990s under warlord control, the station has played an essential role in providing news to Somalis both locally and regionally, serving as a repository of the nation’s collective memory.
In early June, the urgency to preserve these archives intensified. Somalia’s information ministry partnered with UNESCO’s regional office for Eastern Africa to host a workshop for archivists, focusing on the eventual registration of the collection with UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.
“Protecting this knowledge isn’t just relevant for Somalia; it is relevant for everyone,” said Guilherme Canela, a senior UNESCO official overseeing the project.
An assessment conducted in April estimated the collection at roughly 45,000 tapes and reels, amounting to approximately 400,000 hours of material recorded since the station’s inception. Over 85% of these items remain playable, although around 10% have deteriorated, and more than 5% have been destroyed or are severely damaged.
Radio Mogadishu’s archives are notable not only for their size but also for the uniqueness of their content, much of which cannot be found elsewhere. Some tapes suffered damage during a fire in 2018, while others were lost amid the violence of the civil war in 1992. Abshir Hashi Ali, a police colonel during those tumultuous years, took significant risks to protect the archives from looting, underscoring their importance.
The digitization process began as early as 2012 but has faced resource limitations. According to Abdi Jeite, the station’s director, only about 10% of the archive has been digitized so far. “We’ve got some new tools and more training for our archivists,” he said, “but there is still a lot of support needed.”
For many in Somalia, radio is a primary means of communication and cultural expression. Iman Mohamed, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and a historian of Somalia, emphasized the role Radio Mogadishu played in creating a shared public sphere, enabling citizens to bond over national identity.
During its peak, the station served as a crucial platform for artistic talent. “If you were a musician, poet, playwright, or producer, Radio Mogadishu was the platform you wanted to appear on,” Robleh remarked.
Many journalists who later found success, including those at BBC Somali, began their careers at Radio Mogadishu. The station served as a vital news source, even reaching remote nomadic herders who followed international events.
Under President Siad Barre, who assumed power in 1969, Radio Mogadishu became an instrument of state ideology, intertwining news, drama, and nationalist content with educational initiatives such as a mass literacy campaign that significantly increased literacy levels.
But since the collapse of the government in 1991, the station’s role has diminished. The rise of private media outlets has reshaped the broadcasting landscape, and Radio Mogadishu has lost much of its former influence.
In November 2021, the assassination of Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled, the station’s director, by the militant group al-Shabab further underscored the ongoing challenges faced by media in Somalia.
As the civil conflict continues into its third decade, the preservation of Radio Mogadishu’s archives is increasingly urgent. Mohamed highlighted the risks associated with the destruction of cultural records, noting that researchers frequently rely on foreign archives or oral history, complicating the understanding of Somalia’s past.
“Recovering what we can is essential for youth who will never have known the world that Radio Mogadishu broadcast in its heyday,” Mohamed added.
