EXILE SONGS RESURFACE

Somali singer Khadija Jiijo Jeesto soars again as 1994’s 808 Xamar is re-released by Ostinato Records

- JOHN CLEWLEY

From the early 1970s to the 80s, Mogadishu boasted one of the Horn of Africa’s liveliest night scenes with groups from this “Golden Era” like Dur Dur Band entertaining at clubs and hotels across the city. A coup in 1991 and subsequent civil war put a stop to the music and musicians had to go underground or migrate. Those who went by the latter route took their music and culture across the Somali diaspora (one of Africa's largest).

Singer Khadija Jiijo Jeesto, who used to front the Dur Dur Band, decided to migrate to Saudi Arabia. The liner notes in Ostinato Records’ latest release 808 Xamar: Exiled Digital Somali Sounds From The 1990s Saudi Arabia explain her torturous, dangerous journey. She made four trips to Saudi Arabia and was deported several times, once to Ethiopia.

She finally found a way in 1993, when one of Mogadishu’s Waaberi Band funded a trip on a cargo ship as a stowaway. She stopped in Jeddah and realised that her employment options were limited to domestic labour. At that time, music was banned in Saudi Arabia but along with some key members of the Waaberi and Sharero bands, including electronic music maestro Aweya Gulaangul, she began to record commissions in a soundproofed room. The penalties they would have faced had they been caught were severe.