Somalis Respond to Airwaves Ban by Broadcasting Gunshot and Animal Noises

As the Mogadishu-wide ban on broadcasted-music went into effect this week, local radio stations innovated resistance in the sounds of gun shots, frog croaks and cock crows broadcast over the airwaves. The UN's humanitarian news and analysis organization IRIN reports that after the ban on secular music came into effect yesterday, April 13, "most" of the 16 local radio stations began their not-so-subtle form of protest.

"We are not allowed to play music and we have to fill the slot, so we came up with this; these are the sounds one hears most often in this city, so I think they are appropriate," one anonymous broadcaster told the news organization. And while the provisional government that clings powerlessly to a few blocks in central Mogadishu still broadcasts music from its official radio station, Radio Mogadishu, the independently run stations are unsure of their fates.

As one broadcaster put it, "We always start all our programmes, except the religious ones, with a Somali jingle; today we started with a cockerel crowing. Who knows, tomorrow we may start with the sound of frogs or donkeys."