Somaliland's can-do spirit
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Somaliland claims to be an independent republic, though it is not internationally recognised and Somalia still claims the territory. It issues passports, has its own army, flag and president - and this week it held long-delayed elections. Mary Harper, a regular visitor, explains what the polls meant to Somaliland's people - especially some of its most marginalised. This weekend, Peruvian voters have to choose between two candidates for the Presidency - after a fragmented and confusing first round, the contest is now a neck-and-neck race between Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori. In Lima, Dan Collyns senses the mood polarising - and hears how heated the rhetoric has become. Iraq's Jewish community was once hundreds of thousands strong - but it's been whittled away drastically since the 1940s by persecution, emigration and ageing. Lizzie Porter has witnessed how Jewish sites across the country have changed, and how many are crumbling into disuse and neglect. But there are also people working to preserve this unique heritage. The pandemic meant many Singaporeans haven't been able to travel far for months, so there's been a surge of interest in the city-states last remaining wild spaces - the green areas where birds and tropical plants still flourish. Sharanjit Leyl is a keen birdwatcher herself, and says her fellow twitchers are worried over the future of their forests. And in southwestern France, Chris Bockman recently met a village mayor with unusual powers. Nothing to do with local government guidelines; rather, he's believed by many to be capable of healing illnesses, lifting curses - and even exorcism.
Producer: Polly Hope
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:05.3 | Today the political divide between left and right hardens in Peru as the country prepares |
| 0:11.4 | to elect its next president. Still visible in Iraq the very few traces of the Jewish community. |
| 0:19.8 | In Singapore we go twitching with the birdwatchers worried about the fate of a local forest and |
| 0:25.8 | we meet the mayor of a French village with an unusual sideline in faith healing and exorcism. |
| 0:33.5 | First to Somali land in the Horn of Africa. 30 years ago this northwestern chunk of Somalia |
| 0:40.0 | broke away and declared itself the independent republic of Somali land, although it's still not |
| 0:46.4 | recognised internationally. The territory suffered huge losses during a civil war in the 1980s |
| 0:53.1 | with most of its towns reduced to rubble. But since then it's improvised solutions to many of |
| 0:59.2 | its problems and enjoyed relative peace far more so than Somalia next door. This week it held much |
| 1:06.9 | delayed parliamentary and municipal elections, unusual in this volatile region where many states are |
| 1:13.5 | at war or ruled by dictators. The poll results should be out next week. Mary Harper's a regular |
| 1:20.5 | visitor to Somali land and she was impressed by the energy of the contest. An axe, a biro, a tank, |
| 1:29.0 | a baseball cap and many many more including a wooden chair and a long sword with its scabbard. |
| 1:36.3 | These are not emojis, they're the symbols assigned to each candidate running in the elections |
| 1:42.5 | so the 60 or so percent of adults here who can't read can still vote for the right person. |
| 1:49.2 | Anyone aged 15 or over is eligible to vote as this is the age once considered to have entered |
| 1:55.1 | adulthood in Somali land. We are at the bottom of the bottom says Barghad Yamahirasi Batun, |
| 2:02.8 | the first ever member of a minority clan to run for office. We're despised and considered dirty |
| 2:09.6 | even smelly by the rest of society. I want to show people that we're humans just like everybody else. |
| 2:17.0 | Barghad, who's running for the Wadani Party, has taken full advantage of the image he was given |
| 2:22.8 | on the candidate list. He was driven into election rally standing in the front bucket of a giant |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.