Golol Gallery, the first and the last independent gallery in Somalia, will hold the first exhibition in Africa outside Mogadishu from June 26 to July 26 this year at the Nairobi National Museum.
The event will bring together different stakeholders including art critics, Kenyan government officials, Somali diplomats in Kenya and members of the international community in what promises to be one of the biggest art exhibitions in Nairobi’s recent history.
Organized by the founder of the gallery, renowned Somali artist and intellectual Ali Said Hassan, the exhibition will showcase some of the most beautiful and historically significant fine art pieces from Somalia from the last century, many of which have never been seen by the public before.
The gallery was founded in 1987 and is keen on preserving the legacies of Somali artists of the last century to whom the past, current and future generation owe gratitude for using their craft to mirror the Somali society and honor their story.
This exhibition will take place at the backdrop of rising business and political influence of Kenyan Somalis in Kenya. Attendees will have an opportunity to see the true power of the Somalia nation-state as captured through the eyes of its artists.
The story of Golol gallery
Golol gallery was officially opened in 1987 in the middle of Mogadishu, after seven years of preparation. Its creation coincided with the assassination of Thomas Sankara, one of the foremost pan-Africanists of that era.
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During his brief stay in power, between 1983 and 1987, Sankara inspired a marxist social, political and cultural awakening that spread across Africa like wildfire. It’s this pan-Africanism philosophy that drove Said Ali Hassan to start what would become the first and last independent gallery in Somalia.
After spending 23 years working as a filmmaker in Italy, Said Ali returned to Somalia in 1980 with the desire to raise his people’s collective consciousness through cultural and artistic awakening. While the Gallery generally thrived during the first two years, its operations were stifled by Said Barre’s autocratic and oppressive regime.
The 1991 revolution that deposed Said Barre’s regime marked the collapse of the Somalia nation-state as it was known. But the fall of Mogadishu did not just claim lives and properties, it stole an important section of Somalia’s recorded history; like the powerful pieces of art housed at the Gallery.
Said Ali flees to Kenya
Out of the 1,114 paintings, only 46 survived. The rest were looted during the revolution. But saving the 46 wasn’t as easy as taking a sweet from a baby. Said Ali had to leave his family behind, flee to Kenya where he kept the surviving paintings at his sister’s place before returning to Somalia.
He would relocate to Kenya in 1996 where he stayed as a refugee for six months before leaving for Italy with the paintings. He held the first exhibition outside Mogadishu in Florence later that year, and another one in Germany one year later where he ended up as a refugee.
In 2010, Siad had another exhibition in Germany, this time in Frankfurt, and another one four years later in Lund, Sweden. Before this exhibition, the Gallery had held two successful exhibitions in London, in 2015 and 2017.
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