I first learned to construct nomadic huts with my grandmother in the summer holidays – spent, whether I liked or not, living in Dayniile, near Mogadi… - Sada Mire

It was an incredible feeling just to stand in front of the paintings. Then I lay down to take photos and heard a snake breathing in my ear. My assistant told me he was thinking how he would cut off my arm, leg, or wherever to stop the poison if it attacked. I believe he would have done it. I didn’t tell my mother.

We never planned to live like that, later, as it happened, we became refugees and ended up internally displaced in what would have otherwise seemed like barren landscapes.

In 2007, I was in the Sanaag region, where the largest archaeological robberies in the country were taking place. They were ordered by a wealthy Somali living in one of the oil countries of the Persian Gulf. He came and tried to intimidate me. But the local elders sided with me. We managed to stop him. He had connections with a French organization posing as a non-profit institution to protect Somaliland's heritage. In reality, these people were looting antiquities.