The article “The Defiant Story of Sahra Halgan, the Singing Nurse” highlights the story of Sahra Halgan, a Somaliland singer whose life and music are deeply intertwined with political struggle and the fight for freedom.
The article opens by emphasizing the importance of protest in today’s world, given rising global challenges and restrictions on dissent.
It introduces Sahra Halgan, born in Somaliland in the 1970s, who faced societal disapproval for singing and performing publicly.
Halgan grew up during a period of political unrest under the authoritarian rule of Mohamed Siyad Barré.
As a teenager, Halgan became a nurse and singer for the Somali National Movement (SNM) rebels during the civil war, earning the nickname “Halgan” (the fighter). Her songs boosted morale.
After the war, Halgan fled to France as a refugee and began her professional music career, releasing her first album in 2009. Her music became a way to keep the spirit of her homeland alive and to connect with her community.
Halgan’s music is a blend of various genres, reflecting her life experiences and cultural heritage. Her lyrics, often written by her husband, explore themes of love, loss, exile, reconciliation, and politics.
The article emphasizes the power of Halgan’s music to transcend language barriers and convey a message of freedom, hope, and love. She has become an icon for the people of Somaliland and for anyone who desires a better, more just world.
In essence, the article portrays Sahra Halgan as a symbol of resilience, resistance, and the power of music to inspire change and connect people across cultures.
The complete piece is as follows:
The Defiant Story of Sahra Halgan, the Singing Nurse
Matthew Ingate
We are living in an age where the right to protest is being rolled back, both at home here in the UK and abroad in countries like America and Russia. We are also living in a time when the need to protest is greater than ever.
The need to protest against the wealth transfer and theft of resources by the growing billionaire class; to protest against the rising waves of racism and anti-immigration rhetoric that is taking a chokehold on the global political stage, or against misogyny and violence against women and girls, as well as both increased acts of homophobia and transphobia. To protest against the global government and media inaction in the face of climate change. To protest against the ongoing genocides against the people of Palestine and of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Protests can take on many forms, from marches to sit-ins or public acts of disruption. Some people create art which highlights injustice, whilst others start grass-roots political campaigns. Sometimes, an act of protest can take an even simpler form, still. In some circumstances, the act of just existing can be the most effective form of protest of all.
In the early 1970s in Hargeisa, Somalia, where Sahra Ahmed Mohamoud–better known professionally as the artist Sahra Halgan—was born and raised, performing on the stage and singing in public was frowned upon by her community, but from her early teens, she dedicated her life to not only singing and performing but pushing for social change in her songs, as well.
Mohamoud was growing up against the backdrop of deepening political unrest, a multitude of human rights abuses, and, eventually, civil war. Mohamed Siyad Barré had seized control of the country in the 1969 Somali coup d’état and set about implementing a strict socialist regime.
Despite the fact that Barré’s government pushed for a program built on the Muslim principles of social progress, equality, and justice; despite the fact that his urban and rural literacy campaigns helped to dramatically improve literacy rates in the country and that nationalization of industry saw increased local prosperity; and his foreign policy saw—somewhat surprisingly—an improved relationship with the US and the West, Barré’s time in power was characterized and marred by a continuous wave of human rights abuses, as well as the persecution, jailing, and torture of political opponents and dissidents.
By the late 1970s, resistance movements supported by the Ethiopian government had begun to develop across Somalia. One of the most prominent was The Somali National Movement (SNM), which seized the territories of Burao and Hargeisa. With civil war looming at the end of the 1980s and fighting breaking out across the region, Barré launched a bombing campaign, targeting the rebels of the SNM in Hargeisa.
Sahra Ahmed Mohamoud, then only 16 years old and with no prior training, joined the rebellion as a nurse and helped to aid the injured resistance fighters back to health. “At the front, I was finally free”, she later said of her time during the Civil War. “The soldiers had other things to do than forbid me to sing.”
It was during the civil war that Mohamoud earned herself the nickname ‘Halgan’, or ‘the fighter’. She helped to heal the wounds of the fallen and empowered them to get back out onto the battlefield with her voice and songs of liberation, her songs of freedom.
Once Barré had been removed from power, Halgan escaped Somalia as a political refugee and settled in Lyon, France. For the first time in her life, Halgan was free to pursue her love of and passion for music, and in 2009, released her first album, Somaliland. Working as a maid, Halgan would sing in her spare time and on weekends, keeping the spirit of her home country alive within herself and for all the people she’d left behind. “I was singing at weekends. It was hard, but I was free to continue doing what I loved,” she has said. “I sang in festivals for Somaliland, for the community!”
Her debut album was named after the new designation of her homeland, Somaliland, which has claimed independence since the fall of Barré in 1991, although it is yet to be recognized on the international stage.
Halgan’s music is as complex as the story of her land and of her life. Upbeat, reverent, joyous, tense, rocking, soulful, tightly rhythmic, and free are some words you could use to describe it, but they wouldn’t all tell the full story. She says that her lyrics—often written by her husband—contain themes of “love, sadness, nostalgia for exile, reconciliation, politics”.
The sounds of her songs contain elements of Afrobeat, Tuareg, Ethio-jazz, funk and psychedelic rock and are as vivid and vibrant as the bright and multicolored headscarves and veils she wears when performing on stages around the world. Her voice is both light and weighty; both very much rooted in the earth and celestially free-flying, so classic and unique all at once. Even without understanding the language she is singing in, her message of freedom, hope, love, and escape finds you, and moves both your body and your spirit.
Since her debut album, Halgan has continued to release new music, including Faransiskiyo Somaliland in 2015, Waa Dardaaran in 2019, and, most recently, Hiddo dhawr in 2024, and has toured extensively with her band. Where once she had brought comfort to the wounded soldiers who were fighting for freedom, Halgan now sings for the people of Somaliland—to whom she has become an icon—and for all of us who want to see a better world filled with love, and free from oppression and tyranny.
