Debates around the impact of the increasing ubiquity of digital media tend to take the experiences of the western (or advanced industrial) world as an implicit but central point of reference from which theorisation on the interaction of ‘old’ and ‘new’ technologies of cultural production proceeds. Exploring the modern phenomenon of ‘Book Fairs’ held across the divided and conflicted territories of the Somali Horn of Africa, this paper argues that localised historical experiences of media development, decline and re-adoption must be understood in order to conceptualise the complex relationships that exist between so-called ‘old’ media (such as print books) and ‘new’ digital media for highly connected non-Western publics. This ethnographic case study of Book Fairs as youth events in the Somali Horn of Africa demonstrates that certain forms of ‘old’ media (such as books) may be imbued with potentially different sets of symbolic and practical values that are dependent on particular histories of multifaceted media development and socio-economic or political change.
Driven by activists, recent Somali Book Fairs have been designed to challenge the dominance of external narratives that emphasise the violent politics of the region, whilst showcasing a resurgence of Somali-language literature and cultural production. The Hargeysa International Book Fair, held in the capital city of the breakaway independent (but diplomatically unrecognised) Republic of Somaliland celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2017. Since 2014, other Somali cities such as Mogadishu (political capital of the Federal Republic of Somalia) and Garoowe (centre of Puntland’s autonomous but non-secessionist ‘state’ administration) have emulated this literary festival model and have succeeded in capturing a degree of international attention. Journalists often remark on the 'surprising' juxtaposition of apparent cultural renaissance and continued instability across these divided territories that continue to constitute the official nation state of ‘Somalia’.
The emphasis on the printed word implicit in the branding and focus of the book fairs is not the result of technological ‘backwardness’ or a lack of digital media in these societies. Since the collapse of the centralised Somali state in 1991, the different territories fragmented by civil war have experienced rapid development in mobile and digital telecommunications infrastructure. Mobile phone are virtually ubiquitous, internet equipped smart phones are widely used in urban areas and a ‘public sphere’ of Somali news transmission and political debate is facilitated across the territories and into the global Somali diaspora by multiple online journalistic and social media platforms. The book fairs themselves are events that are extensively and intensively mediated by digital technologies, reflecting and reproducing their social, political and cultural significance to regional and global audiences.
This paper explores the relationships that exist between so-called ‘old’ and ‘new’ media in this particular context of political fragmentation and digital communications development. It argues that the renewed salience of certain forms of ‘old’ media (such as books) must be understood with reference to specific histories of cultural and literary change in the Somali horn of Africa, and that such contexts serve to problematise notions of linear media technology progression (or potential ‘leapfrogging’) that are implicit in much western-focused scholarship on digital media and culture. In the Somali context, a variety of historical factors – including the relatively recent adoption of a formalised written Somali script and the cultural disjuncture brought by civil war and state collapse – have meant that print (book) publishing has long been marginal across the territories. However, recent economic growth and increased stability in certain areas and diasporic influence, has meant that books have (re)emerged into the cultural landscape as media form that is, in many ways, ‘new’ to many young readers. After surveying relevant (mostly western-focused) literature on old/new media interrelations in different contexts and explaining this study’s methodology, the paper details the modern historical context of print media development in Somalia and presents contextual and ethnographic data from the 2017 Hargeysa and Mogadishu book fairs. It concludes with a discussion of the future of (digital) print media and the cultural heritage industry in the Somali Horn of Africa.