The Somali Heritage Through the Photography of David Tunnicliffe

Abdiaziz Mosque in Mogadishu was built 800 years ago.

Mogadishu (PP Editorial) — David Tunnicliffe was in Somalia forty plus years ago as a teacher of photography. While in Somalia he took the opportunity to take pictures of landmark places and historic buildings in Somalia particularly those in old quarters of Mogadishu— Hamar Weyne, Shangaani, Abdiaziz.

At Milton Keynes Central Library in the United Kingdom David will launch an exhibition that will run from 2 November to 30 November 2022, an opportunity for Somali children and teenagers and those who were born after 1991 to see photos that convey the depth of the Somali history and the contribution of different communities to the history of the ancient city of Mogadishu that Ibn Battuta visited many centuries ago.

An alleyway in an old quarter of Mogadishu city.

It is a testament to David’s long association with Somalia that his exhibition is educative and an opportunity for the old generation to reminisce about their homeland whose history has been overshadowed by three decades of civil strife that resulted from state collapse in 1991.

David Tunnicliffe deserves a medal from the Federal Government of Somalia for his work on the Somali heritage, a medal similar to the one awarded to the late SOAS Professor B. W. Andrzejewski for his work on the Somali language.

© Puntland Post, 2022