Somalia is a whole nation reduced to a refugee camp.

I wrote this for Mama Soul´s visit - the famous American singer- to Mogadishu and her subsequent tour to the camps of displaced people. I admire her courage to go into the interiors of this war-torn city for the sole purpose of helping the Somali people whose lives have been shattered by endless wars and strife over a period of two decades.

Mama Soul
You have visited the camps in Mogadishu
Despair greeted you with hands of anguish
As agony tormented the hearts of the poor
You have met the orphan and the homeless
Your have cried loudly like never before

You have seen a living misery
Not the fictious Hollywood stuff
Displayed in the screens of fun
But a real tragedy of deep pain
Mirrored in the eyes of the child

You have shaken hands with poverty
Not the one we read in text books
Written by the arm-chair authors
But a real tragedy of deep pain
marked in alleys of abandoned souls

Mama Soul
Would your visit make a change?
Let us hope so.