Forbidden Love
| Front Page |
Latest edition: 21 st February (BBC World Service)
Cilmi Bodheri isthe great modern popular Somali poet of love and a cultural phenomenon. Every Somali can quote some lines of Bodheri.
His beautiful poems which are being passed down through the generations, were born of a tragic and true story of forbidden love.
50 years ago Cilmi was working in a bakery Northern Somalia when a young woman, Hodhan, came in to buy bread.
He fell instantly in love with her but in a deeply conservative society, he had no means of either contacting her or expressing his feelings.
Hodhan married a rich man from her own social class and Cilmi was inconsolable. He died a young man, childless, heartbroken.
He had only seen Hodhan once on that fateful morning in the bakery.
Cilmi left behind a body of tragic poetry that has obsessed a nation ever since and which tells this, his story.
Robert Walker starts the journey by visiting the bakery where it all began.
Home | Contact us | Links | Archives