The rainy season used to be the best time of the year, says Asha Ham. Love would arrive in the village along with the precipitation: with enough for everyone to eat, well-fed goats to slaughter and a sufficient number of camels to pay the dowry, it was the wedding season. It was a time of abundance and the people of Somaliland enjoy showing photos of those happy times: smiling men and women in an undulating sea of grass.
Asha Ham, a proud nomad and mother of seven, is one of those who is fond of recalling such past periods of plenty – despite the pain it causes these days. This is a darker time, in which everyone is fighting for survival.
