Prominent ethnomathematician, author and director of Hargeysa Cultural Centre Jama Musse Jama checks a collection of old tapes containing traditional songs and poetry from Somaliland at Hargeysa Cultural Centre in Hargeisa, on November 11, 2024. Since 2021, Hafsa Omer has been painstakingly archiving and digitising a collection of some 14,000 cassettes. Bought back, found, or donated, these tapes contain more than half a century of the daily, musical, cultural, and political life of the region.  Nomadic shepherds, Somalis have an oral culture, and what is now Somaliland has long been an epicentre of music and poetry -- an art that plays a crucial, even political, role in this corner of Africa. (Photo by LUIS TATO / AFP) (Photo by LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images)