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In a capital that pulses with the sounds of war, Mogadishu's Radio Xurmo was an oasis. Haunting Somali love songs and melodic nationalist tunes that evoked Somalia's lost glory filled the airwaves. "Now, the songs have vanished," said news anchor Yasmin Mayo Mohammed. The hard-line Islamist militia, Hezb-i-Islami, ordered stations in Mogadishu to stop playing music, declaring it un-Islamic. Radio Xurmo complied; the Islamists have killed Somali journalists for less cause.

In Somalia's oral culture, music has shaped society for centuries. Singers crooned about family values, ancient rituals, and past empires. Collectively, music helped forge a national identity in a region dominated by clans. "It is a source of oxygen, as important to us as the water we drink," said Mohamed Hassan Haad, a senior figure in the powerful Hawiye clan. "It makes you feel life is still okay," said hotel waiter Mohammed Aden Ahmed. "It is the wall between you and the violence."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050405123.html