Remembering War in a Time of Peace

By: Abdi-Noor Mohamed

Remembering War in a Time of Peace is a collection of poems written by Abdi-Noor Mohamed, a poet and human rights activist who lived through war for nearly two decades. The poems capture the horrors of war as a result of state collapse in Somalia which has led to strife, disintegration, and dislocation over a period of thirty years. The poems do not only cover the journalistic aspect of the war but also explore further into the other dimensions of war not fully reported by the papers and other media outlets. Each poem has a human message of peace and hope despite written in a thread of horror. With a section entirely devoted to women and war, the intention is to expose how the female gender is double victimized by men who, on one hand, make wars, and, on the other, by reporters who write only about men's story of war.

In addition, the poems reflect the resilience and the unbreakable spirits of Somalis and how they have built coping strategies, as well as local and traditional defence mechanisms, in the middle of war and terrorism. They are lessons of life learned from experience. The poems can serve as a tool of survival for people who happen to be living in nation shattered by war by shedding light on how war has affected human integrity, relationships, love, identity, and heritage.