MOGADISHU, Somalia – Thousands of reel-to-reel tapes, containing fragments of Somalia's 20th-century history, news bulletins, speeches, music, and voices, are being meticulously digitized by a small team at Radio Mogadishu. The effort aims to preserve these historical records before the magnetic tape deteriorates beyond recovery.

Radio Mogadishu, founded in 1951 during the Italian colonial era, served as Somalia's principal public broadcaster for much of the 20th century. It evolved from broadcasting in Italian and Somali to including foreign language services, becoming an influential voice in East African media, reaching audiences across the region and the Middle East.

Archivist Abdiqadir Geedi Robleh is part of the team working to digitize and order approximately 400,000 hours of broadcasts. He describes the archive as the "world’s largest store of Somali language music, culture, dramas and everything else," currently inaccessible to the public but with hopes for future access.

This preservation effort has gained new momentum in 2026. In early June, Somalia's information ministry, in collaboration with the UNESCO regional office for Eastern Africa, organized a workshop in Mogadishu. The workshop brought together archivists from across the country to discuss strategies for eventually registering the archive's contents with UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme.

Radio Mogadishu has been a vital repository of the country's collective memory, experiencing only a brief hiatus in the 1990s when it was under warlord control. Its broadcasts have served as a key source of news and cultural content for Somalis and audiences throughout East Africa.

The challenges facing the archive are significant, primarily the physical degradation of the magnetic tapes. The digitization process involves carefully threading each reel onto an old tape machine, connecting it to a computer, and recording its contents. This painstaking work is crucial to capturing the audio before it is lost forever.

Officials involved in the project emphasize the cultural and historical significance of the archive. Preserving these recordings is seen not only as an act of conservation but also as a way to reconnect contemporary Somalia with its past, providing valuable insights into the nation's development, cultural expressions, and political history.

While the immediate focus is on preservation, the long-term goal includes making these digitized records accessible to the public. This would allow researchers, cultural enthusiasts, and future generations to engage with a rich and comprehensive audio history of Somalia, fostering a deeper understanding of the nation's heritage.