Saado Cabdi Amarre is a poet whose emotional verse laments the senselessness of the successive civil wars that have affected Somaliland in the aftermath of its secession. Her masterpiece ‘Haddaba Deeqaay, dagaalkani muxuu ahaa’ (roughly translated as ‘O! Deeqa! What is the meaning of this war?’) touched the hearts of many when it was first recited publicly in 1994 and her public readings have continued to attract enthusiastic audiences.
This poem is read first in English translation by Sarah Maguire and then sung in Somali by Saado herself.