This is the style my parents went with but with a larger gate, around a decade ago, he planted a lot of fruit barring trees, like pomegranates, pears and mangoes.
Are somali cities competing with indian slums ?
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Not a single slum in sight lool the city is now building out more with high rise apartments and the skylines is transforming, areas are being surounded with greenery and palm trees everywhere
Some pictures of mogadishu i posted in another thread a while back ago:
Xamar beaches
skylines
Ahmed Gurey's and Sayid Abdullah Hassan broken statues
An outdoor picture of a public dining area.
Public areas near major constructions.
Beautiful built , that empty land next to it can be converted into a park or play field , with some greenery.
Somalis don't cheap out on homes, most of the land near my parent's home is of a similar style, the parks have all disappeared but there are several football fields within walking distance.
After the stagnation after the fall of Adal and Ajuuran even without a functioning "government" after the 90's, individual entrepreneurship and diaspora investment has kinda breathe back life to our reach history with stone buildings, I love the unique designs and the colourful roofs.
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Imo, you should. Geography is an underrated topic when it comes to Somalia and I'd appreciate your insight into it
Garowe doesn't look bad, it's actually far above the average subsaharan African city and indains slums. However I don't think Somalis should make mid thier goal, beautification of cities need to have better colors, better roads, more trees, strategically pretty places, simple things like small parks, small ponds etc.. Just the small stuff.
There wasn't like a long stagnation. There was a significant construction boom in the 1800s in the major cities and real estate market that was flourishing as well. Somalis were building many stone houses and buildings/& or financing it.
Also an active quarrying industry, Somalis used to transport building materials on camel carts and dhows.
and subsequently in the 1970s/80s in the major cities there was also a boom , i shared how Hargeisa looked in the 1980s
The typical home in Hargeisa used to grow gardens with fruits and mango trees.
Memories of Somalia: Codad Ka Yimi Soomaaliya
It was essentially a garden city in a way. In Mogadishu they used to build out various social housing units and also single estates with gardens.
There are other things i could have mentioned like the availability of wood and timber. which is extensively cultivated along the northern Somali coastal plain.
Somalis used to also export, transport timber for dhow/ship and boat construction and exported it also to Arabia. They also used it locally to construct houses with it and for roof making on brick and stone houses , you can read more about it here Non-timber Uses of Selected Arid Zone Trees and Shrubs in Africa
But to keep it short, which it would have been a extensively long thread. Somalis are blessed geographically speaking.
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That's how the wealthiest Somali cities like Mogadishu and Jigjiga is starting to look in many places. Shared a few photos earlier
All that comes when the city grows and there is more accumulation of wealth, investments and establishment of housing authorities for planning. Mogadishu is an instructive case because it shows more or less developmental trend all other Somali cities will take in the future.
It's even more remarkable because Somalis are doing this without a functioning public sector.
Where as elsewhere the build out of towns and cities without their irregularities was done at the behest of Governments in what is called ''urban planning reforms'' in Europe/Australia and ''City Beautiful movement'' in North America
Many of the current western countries you see today, during early/mid 1900s tore down entire towns filled with ugly crowded industrial buildings that made things polluted, created slums and bad atmosphere.
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That's really good actually. Green just changes the looks of things man. If our governments weren't busy in pity garbage, corruption and clanism we would have already been 10x times better. I can't wait for these stupid boomers to retire or die off, wallahi nothing good comes form them.That's how the wealthiest Somali cities like Mogadishu and Jigjiga is starting to look in many places. Shared a few photos earlier
All that comes when the city grows and there is more accumulation of wealth, investments and establishment of housing authorities for planning. Mogadishu is an instructive case because it shows more or less developmental trend all other Somali cities will take in the future.
It's even more remarkable because Somalis are doing this without a functioning public sector.
Where as elsewhere the build out of towns and cities without their irregularities was done at the behest of Governments in what is called ''urban planning reforms'' in Europe/Australia and ''City Beautiful movement'' in North America
Many of the current western countries you see today, during early/mid 1900s tore down entire towns filled with ugly crowded industrial buildings that made things polluted, created slums and bad atmosphere.
Somalis love nature trees, greenery and open spaces, so historically many of the town lay outs and houses featured courtyards and people would plant trees and gardens. Any visitor that came to our major commercial centers would note this
Description of the city build out of Berbera in the 1800s:
Same thing was observed in Zayla, Mogadishu, Harar Luuq etc. In Benadiir i read that they would employ people from the country side with special expertise in planting trees which they called ''BaarFuul''(Palm Trees Cultivators).
With that said you can't underestimate a functional state or government, when a commercial city grew wealthy and was governed by an Emir or a Governor in the past it usually involved some level of planning. Further more during the Kacaan government they sought to continue the Somali cultural architecture of white washed dwellings- with many washed villas surrounded with garden and streets were lined with palm trees.
It's what characteristically gave Mogadishu the name ''The white pearl of the the Indian ocean'' . So how cities looked were enhanced by a central coordinator.
The whitewashed dwellings and buildings is a typical cultural feature you would see throughout Somali society, even in the countryside away from the cities you would see it with old tombs dotted throughout.
In Somali culture the colour white symbolizes purity, virtue and truth.
Bright coloured buildings you see today are not really a cultural Somali thing, and if they added anything to the houses would usually be covered with wooden balconies , window/door carvings and roofs.
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Beautiful would love to see reconstruction of these ancient citiesSomalis love nature trees, greenery and open spaces, so historically many of the town lay outs and houses featured courtyards and people would plant trees and gardens. Any visitor that came to our major commercial centers would note this
Description of the city build out of Berbera in the 1800s:
Same thing was observed in Zayla, Mogadishu, Harar Luuq etc. In Benadiir i read that they would employ people from the country side with special expertise in planting trees which they called ''BaarFuul''(Palm Trees Cultivators).
With that said you can't underestimate a functional state or government, when a commercial city grew wealthy and was governed by an Emir or a Governor in the past it usually involved some level of planning. Further more during the Kacaan government they sought to continue the Somali cultural architecture of white washed dwellings- with many washed villas surrounded with garden and streets were lined with palm trees.
It's what characteristically gave Mogadishu the name ''The white pearl of the the Indian ocean'' . So how cities looked were enhanced by a central coordinator.
The whitewashed dwellings and buildings is a typical cultural feature you would see throughout Somali society, even in the countryside away from the cities you would see it with old tombs dotted throughout.
In Somali culture the colour white symbolizes purity, virtue and truth.
Bright coloured buildings you see today are not really a cultural Somali thing, and if they added anything to the houses would usually be covered with wooden balconies , window/door carvings and roofs.
I was looking at major cities on the Indian ocean becuase of this thread. My search made me realize mogadishu actually has a lot of potential. 1) of all the major cities 2 million+ in the western Indian ocean (western coast of India to east africa) mogadihsu has the best climate
2) it has the best beaches (the Indian ones are unsafe because of industrial pollution)
3) little slums compared to Indian ones or dar es salaam
4) really close to all the major markets (middle east, Europe, india) where also the best gateway to the rest of africa on top of a likely increase network of somali traders/buisnessman across east africa.
It almost feels like mogadishu is guaranteed to become a top 3 hub of the Indian ocean.
2) it has the best beaches (the Indian ones are unsafe because of industrial pollution)
3) little slums compared to Indian ones or dar es salaam
4) really close to all the major markets (middle east, Europe, india) where also the best gateway to the rest of africa on top of a likely increase network of somali traders/buisnessman across east africa.
It almost feels like mogadishu is guaranteed to become a top 3 hub of the Indian ocean.
The Dahab Tower will be the first skyscraper in xamar, and you can bet different business men will try to outdo it in a typical somali way.That's how the wealthiest Somali cities like Mogadishu and Jigjiga is starting to look in many places. Shared a few photos earlier
Is the other pic also from xamar?
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NordicSomali
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You would need an expensive bureaucracy to monitor and enforce laws which Puntland can't afford.
Yeah I saw a post on twitter about a guy who said that back in 2009 that he couldn't have imagined they would get this far.
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