Discourse Analysis of the digital album: Sweet as Broken Dates- Lost Somali from the Horn of Africa

How did the Sweet as Broken Dates come about?

The album of Sweet as Broken Dates released in August 2017, is a compilation album consisting of 15 tracks from the golden age of Somali music in the 70s and 80s. The album ended up on Number 2 on Europe’s World Music Charts in October 2017 as well as being Grammy nominated for the Best Historical Album category 2018 (Ostinatorecords). The album was curated by the founder of Ostinato records, Vik Sohonie based in New York. Ostinato records are an independent record label that focuses on music from global south especially of the past. The label started up in 2016 and has since released albums from Haiti, Cape Verde, Somalia, Sudan, Djibouti and the latest, Senegal. Sohonie himself is a product of the global south, having been born in India, raised in Southeast Asia before relocating to the US & Europe later. As a former journalist, Sohonie combines his journalist skills and music to uncover for lost or rare music beyond the global north that tend to be overlooked.

The team at Ostinato were able to access the tracks from the albums through audio cassettes kept at the Hargeysa Cultural Centre (HCC) in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa. The civil war of 1988 led to leveling the city of Hargeisa and any means of communications which included the local Radio Hargeisa. The cassettes were then either buried or dispersed to neighboring countries of Djibouti and Ethiopia. As the oral society Somalis were, audio cassettes had a far greater impact on modes of communication than the written script. With the accessibility to cassettes, entire national literature heritage is recorded on cassettes along an insight into the socio-political changes occurring (Woolner, 2021). The team digitized a large portion of the archive, distilling 15 songs that reveal the panoramic diversity of styles and sophistication of Somali musicianship (obstinatorecords).

Why and for whom do the archives serve?
As someone of Somali background, I was curious to understand the motivation behind releasing a compilation album from Somalia in particular. As a second-generation Somali, my entry into Somali music has been through the stories of my parents during the golden age of Somalia and YouTube videos in the last decade or so. But I’ve yet to run into the extensive research done on the songwriters, composers, playwriters and poets that tend to collaborate in Somali music industry. To uncover each track, the team had to travel globally, as most musicians left during the civil war. The album came with a 15,000 worded notebook covering the history in depth.

I wanted to also get an insight as to why Ostinato records stands out from other western labels that remaster African tracks to the world. Firstly, they do not approach from the standard western method to licensing music from the global south. Instead, the negotiations are based mutual beneficial terms. Bringing western ethics and fairness is taking agency and imposing values important to you but not necessarily to them. Giving power to the artists, the cooperation goes from the artists to the label and not the other way around. Secondly, the licenses are not transfers of ownership but licenses for a temporary period. These could be terminated by the owner if dissatisfied with the reproduced work and so forth. Thirdly, the Ostinato model is big proponents of digitization and big opponents of how Western labels take cultural music artifacts from the global South. In Africa especially, up to 90% of cultural wealth resides outside the continent. Keeping the original copies in the country gives gatekeeping privileges and gives agency back to the global south (Medium).

What is the end goal to Ostinato records?
As a product of the global South, Sohonie focuses on decolonization of archives and giving control back to its original owners. To do this, establishing long term relationships that allow for technology and skills to be transferred is key to true agency. Exchange of the equipment per deal allows the work to continue once they leave. Albums released seek to revive another image of Somalia in this case, beyond what Somalia is correlated with today and instead give a sense of pride of their contribution to the world of music, once upon a time.

References:

https://medium.com/@ostinatorecords/ostinato-records-is-proudly-a-black-and-brown-operated-indie-label-what-does-that-mean-a3fdcc7e93e3

https://medium.com/@ostinatorecords/licensing-royalty-and-digitization-practices-for-upcoming-compilation-7449eda9b1f2

https://ostinatorecords.bandcamp.com/album/sweet-as-broken-dates-lost-somali-tapes-from-the-horn-of-africa

https://qz.com/africa/970117/one-mans-mission-to-unearth-africas-lost-treasure-trove-of-music
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/how-djibouti-s-once-hidden-music-archive-compels-us-to-decolonise-history-47733

Woolner, Christina. Preserving Somaliland’s Auditory Heritage. Dhaxalreeb VOL 017. NO.1, 2021