About
The Somali Week Festival (SWF) is an integral part of Black History Month and an annual event that showcases the best of past and contemporary Somali arts and culture. The festival offers a wide variety of events which include poetry and literature, panel discussions, documentary film screenings, music and theatre, and has become a widely recognised and anticipated annual event in the UK. Over the past six years, festival participants have explored a variety of themes, employing a range of artistic forms of expression to facilitate discussion and debate over politically or culturally sensitive topics.
This year's SWF is centred on the theme of âJourney', a concept that resonates strongly with Somalis. We will invite writers, poets, scholars, and musicians of Somali heritage, and scholars who work with Somalis to share their experiences and discuss the concepts of exile, alienation, adventure, exploration, personal and collective change, identity, rights, tolerance and coexistence with people from different cultural and religious backgrounds.
Kate Stanworth is a London-based photographer who has carried out documentary projects in Europe, Africa and South America.
In this exhibition she presents photographs taken in November 2012 when she travelled to Somaliland from the UK to photograph the local council elections, Somaliland's sixth elections after declaring independence from Somalia in 1991 and establishing a multi-party democratic system.
From a base in the lively capital, Hargeisa, Kate travelled to the port town of Berbera and to Somaliland's second largest city, Burao, to capture a flavour of life in the country and the impact of the elections.
