Somalia and UNESCO workshop seeks to register Radio Mogadishu’s archive, but only 10 percent has been digitized so far

Somalia’s information ministry and UNESCO’s regional office for Eastern Africa held a workshop in Mogadishu in early June to advance registration of Radio Mogadishu’s archive with the Memory of the World programme. Archivists from across the country attended the sessions, which focused on cataloguing the station’s holdings for international recognition.

Al Jazeera reported that the archive contains roughly 45,000 tapes and reels representing an estimated 400,000 hours of material recorded since the station’s founding in 1951.

An expert assessment completed in April found more than 85 percent of the tapes remain playable, while around 10 percent have deteriorated with age and more than 5 percent have been destroyed or severely damaged. Some reels suffered damage in an electrical fire in 2018, and others were lost during fighting in 1992.

Archivist Abdiqadir Geedi Robleh threads reels onto tape machines in an air-conditioned room at the station and records the contents onto computers.

A team works to convert the broadcasts before the magnetic tape deteriorates further. ” Digitization efforts began as early as 2012, yet only approximately 10 percent of the archive has been converted. Station director Abdi Jeite said new tools and training have arrived, but additional support is still required.

Police colonel Abshir Hashi Ali earlier risked his life during 1990-1991 fighting to prevent looting of the archive. Radio Mogadishu initially broadcast in Italian and Somali before adding services in Swahili, Oromo, English and Arabic. Under Siad Barre, who seized power in a 1969 coup, the station aired nationalist and anti-colonial content, including songs such as “Oh Africa, still asleep” by Halimo Khalif Magool.