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In Somalia, A Rare 21-year-old Female Artist Promotes Images Of Peace

Published

4 years ago

October 28, 2021

Among the once-taboo professions emerging from Somalia’s decades of conflict and Islamic extremism is the world of arts, and a 21-year-old female painter has faced more opposition than most.

A rare woman artist in the highly conservative Horn of Africa nation, Sana Ashraf Sharif Muhsin lives and works amid the rubble of her uncle’s building that was partially destroyed in Mogadishu’s years of war.

Despite the challenges that include the belief by some Muslims that Islam bars all representations of people, and the search for brushes and other materials for her work, she is optimistic.

“I love my work and believe that I can contribute to the rebuilding and pacifying of my country,” she said.

Sana stands out for breaking the gender barrier to enter a male-dominated profession, according to Abdi Mohamed Shu’ayb, a professor of arts at Somali National University. She is just one of two female artists he knows of in Somalia, with the other in the breakaway region of Somaliland.

And yet Sana is unique “because her artworks capture contemporary life in a positive way and seek to build reconciliation,” he said, calling her a national hero.

Sana, a civil engineering student, began drawing at the age of 8, following in the footsteps of her maternal uncle, Abdikarim Osman Addow, a well-known artist.

“I would use charcoal on all the walls of the house, drawing my vision of the world,” Sana said, laughing. More formal instruction followed, and she eventually assembled a book from her sketches of household items like a shoe or a jug of water.

But as her work brought her more public attention over the years, some tensions followed.

“I fear for myself sometimes,” she said, and recalled a confrontation during a recent exhibition at the City University of Mogadishu. A male student began shouting “This is wrong!” and professors tried to calm him, explaining that art is an important part of the world.

Many people in Somalia don’t understand the arts, Sana said, and some even criticize them as disgusting. At exhibitions, she tries to make people understand that art is useful and “a weapon that can be used for many things.”

A teacher once challenged her skills by asking questions and requiring answers in the form of a drawing, she said.

“Everything that’s made is first drawn, and what we’re making is not the dress but something that changes your internal emotions,” Sana said. “Our paintings talk to the people.”

Her work at times explores the social issues roiling Somalia, including a painting of a soldier looking at the ruins of the country’s first parliament building. It reflects the current political clash between the federal government and opposition, she said, as national elections are delayed.

Another painting reflects abuses against vulnerable young women “which they cannot even express.” A third shows a woman in the bare-shouldered dress popular in Somalia decades ago before a stricter interpretation of Islam took hold and scholars urged women to wear the hijab.

But Sana also strives for beauty in her work, aware that “we have passed through 30 years of destruction, and the people only see bad things, having in their mind blood and destruction and explosions. … If you Google Somalia, we don’t have beautiful pictures there, but ugly ones, so I’d like to change all that using my paintings.”

Sana said she hopes to gain further confidence in her work by exhibiting it more widely, beyond events in Somalia and neighboring Kenya.

But finding role models at home for her profession doesn’t come easily.

Sana named several Somali artists whose work she admires, but she knows of no other female ones like herself.

(AP)

Headline

12 Die, 30 Missing In Peru Landslide

Published

16 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Editor

At least 12 people, including three children, died in a landslide at a river port in central Peru on Monday, and 30 were reported missing, officials said.

The landslide submerged a boat with about 50 passengers on board, and another with none, as they were docked at the port of Iparia in the Amazon jungle region of Ucayali, according to a police report cited by the Andina news agency.

Six people were injured, it added, and a search and rescue operation was underway at the start of the Peruvian rainy season.

Without giving a toll, Peru’s COEN national emergency operations centre said on X that tragedy struck at dawn due to “erosion” of the bank of the Ucayali river.

It said the navy has been called in to help.

AFP

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Nigeria Grants Asylum To Guinea-Bissau Opposition Candidate

Published

16 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian embassy in Guinea-Bissau has granted asylum to Fernando Dias da Costa, the country’s opposition presidential candidate, following alleged threats to his life after last week’s military coup, The Cable Reports.

The coup was announced by military officers on Wednesday, just days after Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election in which both incumbent President Umaro Embaló and his main challenger, da Costa, claimed victory before official results were released.

Nigeria condemned the takeover and urged an immediate return to constitutional order.

In a letter to the President of the Economic Community of West African States Commission, Omar Touray, dated November 30, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said President Bola Tinubu had approved asylum and protection for da Costa inside the Nigerian embassy in Bissau.

Tuggar wrote that the decision was made “in response to threats made against da Costa’s life.”

“In this regard, it would be appreciated if you would kindly mandate the ECOWAS Stabilisation Support Mission in Guinea-Bissau to provide him protection and security while in the premises of the Nigerian embassy,” the letter stated.

The foreign affairs minister’s Special Assistant on Media and Communications Strategy, Alkasim Abdulkadir, confirmed the letter’s authenticity to The Cable on Monday.

He said, “The decision of the Federal Government of Nigeria to grant asylum and provide protection to Fernando Dia Da Costa falls squarely within Nigeria’s sovereign responsibility and longstanding commitment to regional peace, stability, and democratic governance.”

He added that Nigeria acted “in the broader interest of de-escalation,” saying the government had exercised its discretion “to prevent further deterioration of tensions and to promote social cohesion in Guinea-Bissau and the wider West African sub-region.”

According to Abdulkadir, the intervention aligns with ECOWAS principles and reflects Nigeria’s role as a stabilising force in West Africa.

Following the coup, ECOWAS held an emergency virtual summit of heads of state and subsequently suspended Guinea-Bissau from the regional bloc until constitutional order is restored.

Headline

Trump To Attend FIFA World Cup Finals Draw On Friday

Published

16 hours ago

December 1, 2025

Editor

The White House on Monday confirmed US President Donald Trump would attend the draw for the FIFA World Cup finals in Washington later this week.

The United States will co-host the 2026 tournament alongside Canada and Mexico.

“On Friday, President Trump will attend the FIFA World Cup final draw at the Kennedy Centre,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Trump has made the World Cup a centrepiece event of both his second presidency and the 250th anniversary of US independence next year.

But the giant sporting extravaganza has not escaped the political turmoil caused by Trump’s hardline stance on a host of issues.

Trump, a Republican, has raised the possibility of moving games from some US host cities amid a crackdown on what he says is crime and illegal migration in some Democratic-run areas.

AFP