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Somali Elders: Portraits from Wales / Odeyada Soomaalida:
Muuqaalo ka yimid Welishka
Glenn Jordan (photographs and text) with the assistance
of Akli Ahmed and Abdi Arwo
Price (UK) £24.95 + £5.00 postage. ISBN
1-898317-13-5.
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Somali Elders: Portraits
from Wales / Odeyada Soomaalida: Muuqaalo ka yimid Welishka
Somali Elders: Portraits from Wales is a book of
powerful colour portraits and text, which brings us
face-to-face with a largely unseen history and presence.
It is an important cultural-political intervention.
Large-size and beautifully produced, it is the first
book of its kind.
We live in a socially and culturally diverse society,
in an increasingly polarised world. Somalis have been
in the U.K. for more than 100 years—since shortly
after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. There have
been people of Somali descent in Wales for four or more
generations. Many of the 47 men pictured here worked
for decades as seamen or in heavy industry. Yet, they
are virtually invisible in mainstream history, art and
culture. Somali Elders: Portraits from Wales seeks to
reverse this trend.
Photography often shows us things—people, places,
faces, everyday life—we had failed to notice before.
It has the ability to help us see what our unseeing
eyes have missed. Through humanist, empathetic portraits
of older Somali men, this book seeks to open eyes—to
confront stereotypes and misrepresentations.
Somali Elders is intended for a wide and varied readership—including
people interested in cultural diversity, photography,
local history, racism and the African diaspora. It is
hoped that the faces and experiences featured in the
book will be a source of education, inspiration and
pride. 202-page paperback 65 full colour plates. Bi-lingual
production in English and Somali W240 x H300mm
Table of Contents
Forward vi
Introduction 1
The Somali Community in Cardiff: Its History & Presence
7
What Kind of Photographs Are These? A Dialogue between
31
Author and Photographer
Portraits 57
Faces, Memories, Voices 169
Contributors 190
The Author and Photographer Glenn Jordan is Director
of Butetown History & Arts Centre and Reader in
Cultural Studies at the University of Glamorgan, where
he teaches cultural theory, cultural policy and photography.
Born and raised in California, he studied at Stanford
University and the University of Illinois. His publications
include: Cultural Politics: Class, Gender, Race and
the Postmodern World (1995, with Chris Weedon); Tramp
Steamers, Seamen & Sailor Town: Jack Sullivan’s
Paintings of Old Cardiff Docklands (2002); and Fractured
Horizon: A Landscape of Memory / Gorwel Briwedig: Tirlun
Atgof (2003, with Mathew Manning and Patti Flynn). He
is currently writing Race (forthcoming, Routledge) and
Birth of the Black Subject (to be published by Blackwell). |
