Sada Mire

Sada Mire was born in Hargeisa, Somaliland, in 1977 before relocating to Mogadishu with her family. Her father was as a police official who died during the early stages of the collapse of the Somali state when she was 12.{{Cite web|url=http://wyborcza.pl/piatekekstra/1,129155,12908538,Indiana_Jones_z_Somalii.html|title=Wyborcza.pl|website=wyborcza.pl|access-date=2017-08-02}}{{cite news|last=Barth|first=Amy|title=5 Questions for the Woman Who Found Somalia's History|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2011/apr/05-questions-woman-found-somalia-history-sada-mire#.UaOS6-tAuwY|access-date=27 May 2013|date=June 19, 2011|publisher=Discover Magazine}} After this traumatic experience, in 1991, she fled Somalia with her mother and siblings on a relative's lorry during the Somali Civil War. Mire and her identical twin, Sohur, emigrated to Sweden where an older sister lived and received asylum. The twins later moved to the United Kingdom to study.{{cite news|title=Here today, gone tomorrow? Saving Somaliland's heritage|url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/10/sada.mire.somalia.archaeologist/index.html|access-date=27 May 2013|newspaper=CNN|date=May 10, 2011}} Mire studied Scandinavian pre-history and archaeozoology at Lund University in Sweden before receiving a BA degree in History of Art/Archaeology of Africa and Asia at SOAS, University of London in 2005, and subsequently an MA in African Archaeology in 2006 and PhD degree in Archaeology in 2009 at University College London.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14592866|title=Sada Mire: Uncovering Somalia's heritage|date=20 September 2011|publisher=BBC News|access-date=27 December 2013}}[https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/sada-mire#tab-2 Profile: Sada Mire - Assistant Professor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802165603/https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/sada-mire#tab-2 |date=2017-08-02 }}. Leiden University

She has conducted field research in Somaliland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Egypt, and has worked for the United Nations Development Program.{{Citation|title=Cultural heritage: a basic human need - Sada Mire at TEDxEuston| date=18 February 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UQYem6Dvc|language=en|access-date=2021-08-10}} A TED-speaker,{{cite web|title=Travels in Space, Time & Imagination at the TEDSalon in London|url=http://blog.ted.com/2011/11/14/tedsalon/|publisher=TED|access-date=27 May 2013|date=November 14, 2011}} she has participated on the editorial boards, including African Archaeological Review.{{cite web|title=Sada Mire|url=https://ucl.academia.edu/SadaMire|work=ucl.academia.edu|access-date=25 May 2013}}

Motivated to learn the history of Somaliland, her homeland which was once a colonial country in Africa, she took up a fellowship under the department of art and archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (also head of the department of antiquities in Somaliland). She launched an ambitious programme of archeological explorations in 2007.

Until 2019 Mire held the role of assistant professor at the faculty of archaeology, Leiden University. She is currently associate professor in Heritage Studies at University College London.{{Cite web |title=Sada Mire - Associate Professor in Heritage Studies (UCL East) |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/sada-mire-associate-professor-heritage-studies-ucl-east |website=UCL Institute of Archaeology|date=5 April 2022 }}

Mire, leading a team of 50 helpers, has discovered prehistoric rock art in Somaliland at almost 100 sites; at least 10 of these are likely to receive World Heritage status. The Dhambalin site, which is located approximately {{convert|40|miles}} from the Red Sea, contains rock art in sandstone shelters, which are inferred as about 5,000 years old, of horned cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as giraffes, which no longer exist in Somaliland.{{cite news|last=Alberge|first=Dalya|title=UK archaeologist finds cave paintings at 100 new African sites Scientist unearths 5,000-year-old rock art, including drawing of a mounted hunter, in Somaliland|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/17/cave-paintings-found-in-somaliland|access-date=25 May 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=September 17, 2010}} The NGO, Horn Heritage, partially funds her work for Somali Heritage.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14592866|title=Sada Mire: Uncovering Somalia's heritage|last=Hegarty|first=Stephanie|date=September 11, 2011|publisher=BBC|access-date=27 May 2013}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.trinidadexpress.com/woman-magazine/A_CNN_HERO-146560685.html|title=A CNN HERO|date=27 November 1982 |access-date=2016-09-28}}

In order to educate her people on the cultural heritage of their country, to continue with the archaeological explorations and get UNESCO World Heritage Sites status for some of the rock art sites she has discovered, Mire has established the "Horn Heritage", a non-profit organization to fund her work. She was also involved in establishing Somalia’s Department of Tourism and Archaeology.{{Cite web|url=http://www.themarysue.com/archeaology-somalia-sada-mire/|title= Meet Sada Mire, The World's Only Active Somali Archaeologist|date= 20 June 2011|access-date=28 May 2013|publisher= The Mary Sue, LLC}} Through her charity Horn Heritage and with partners, Mire initiated and implemented digital 3D and virtual reality (VR) projects for Somali heritage, so that anybody anywhere could access her rock art work.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cyark.org/projects/rock-art-sites-of-somaliland|title=CyArk|website=CyArk}} In 2006, Mire created the first website dedicated to Somali Heritage and Archeology.

Mire has run national and international media campaigns to fight the looting and destruction of Somali archeological sites.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14592866|title=Sada Mire: Uncovering Somalia's heritage|work=BBC News }} One of her direct messages to the Somali public warning against looting was broadcast by BBC Somali.{{Cite web | url=http://www.bbc.com/somali/maqal_iyo_muuqaal/2010/07/100721_sada_mire.shtml | title=BBC Somali - Maqal iyo Muuqaal - Sacda Mire}}

Mire's designed a MOOC (Massive online open course) on 'Heritage under Threat', (2016 - 2020).{{Cite web|url=https://fr.coursera.org/learn/heritage-protection|title=Heritage under Threat {{!}} Coursera|website=Coursera|language=en-US|access-date=2017-08-02}} This video based course introduced learners to the topic of heritage under threat. The course was written and presented by Mire.

In her 2011 NewScientist interview article titled 'We need culture in times of war', Mire argued "Cultural heritage, including archeological knowledge, is a basic human need".{{Cite news|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128240.400-somali-archaeologist-we-need-culture-in-a-time-of-war/|title=Somali archaeologist: We need culture in a time of war|last=Abraham|first=Curtis|newspaper=New Scientist|access-date=2016-10-16|language=en-US}} Her work bridges archaeology and anthropology of the Horn of Africa in investigating the pre-Islamic and pre-Christian indigenous religions and traditions of the Horn of Africa.http://africaspeaks4africa.org/meet-sada-mire-the-first-somali-archeologist-known-to-the-world/ Africa

Mire discussed the misuse of archaeology for politics and intentional destruction of heritage sites by ideological groups for example India.{{Cite news|url=https://www.academia.edu/205697|title=Ayodhya konflikten- hur länge ska arkeologerna tillåta att den inomdisciplinära debatten tystas av politiska hänsynstagande? [Originally published in Swedish, lit. 'The Ayodhya Conflict – How long will the archaeologists let the interdisciplinary|access-date=2016-10-16}} For her geographical area of fieldwork, she has argued that archaeologists need to move away from the nation as this is a new construct and study the continuity of influence across different indigenous peoples in the horn of Africa, proposing regional perspective on the archaeology of the Horn of Africa.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/african-studies/african-studies-events/ucl-ras-mire|title=UCL African Studies|date=2015-11-04}}

Mire is considered to have pioneered the study of indigenous heritage management systems in Africa with her article "Preserving knowledge, not objects: a Somali perspective for Archaeological Research and Heritage Management" (African Archaeological Review, 2007).{{Cite journal|last=Posnansky|first=Merrick|date=April 2012|title=Archaeology and the local community in Africa: a retrospective|journal=Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage|volume=4|issue=2|pages=77–84|doi=10.1080/20518196.2017.1308299|s2cid=133074485}} She addressed the looting and destruction of Somalia's heritage after the start of the Somali civil war.{{Cite web|url=http://www.somaliheritage.org/endangered.php|title=Somali Heritage and Archaeology - Heritage in Danger}} She advanced a theoretical approach she terms "the Knowledge-Centered Approach"{{Cite journal|last=Mire|first=Sada|date=2011-04-01|title=The Knowledge-Centred Approach to the Somali Cultural Emergency and Heritage Development Assistance in Somaliland|journal=African Archaeological Review|language=en|volume=28|issue=1|pages=71–91|doi=10.1007/s10437-011-9088-2|s2cid=144818299|issn=0263-0338}} arguing that objects and monuments are not necessarily important but knowledge, skill and memory as practiced and symbolized in the landscapes. Her approaches have been discussed by other scholars in the application of locally appropriate theoretical frameworks.{{Cite book|title=European Archaeology Abroad. Global Settings, Comparative Perspectives|last=Linde S.J. van der, Dries M.H. van den, Schlanger N., Slappendel C.G (Eds.)|publisher=Sidestone Press|year=2012|location=Leiden|pages=377–388}}{{Cite web|url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/47918/Preserving_Knowledge_as_a_Basic_Human_Ne.pdf?sequence=1|title=Preserving Knowledge as a Basic Human Need: on the History of European Archaeological Practices and the Future of Somali Archaeology. An Interview with Sada Mire. | Scholarly Publications}}

In 2011, Mire proposed to UNESCO the digital preservation of Somali potential World Heritage. She's a speaker of the first UNESCO Debate organized by UNESCO Netherlands at the RMO, September 2016.{{cite news | url=https://www.unesco.nl/event/eerste-unesco-debat-over-moedwillige-vernietiging-van-cultuur | title=Eerste UNESCO-Debat over moedwillige vernietiging van cultuur | newspaper=Unesco | date=3 May 2016 }} Mire spoke along Dutch philosopher Stephan Sanders.{{cite news | url=https://www.unesco.nl/en/node/3556 | title=Terugblik op UNESCO-debat 'Werelderfgoed: Schat of schietschijf?' | newspaper=Unesco | date=6 October 2016 }}

Mire has spoken on several BBC Radio programs including BBC World Service Forum panel on the Aftermath of war and marriage.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00qy7ql|title=BBC World Service - The Forum, 28/04/2012 GMT|website=BBC}}

She was a speaker at the Europe Lecture and an "eminent" respondent to UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, June 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.leiden-delft-erasmus.nl/nl/agenda/2016-06-13-archeoloog-sada-mire-eminent-respondent-europalezing-over-erfgoed-en-conflict|title=Archeoloog Sada Mire 'eminent respondent' Europalezing over Erfgoed en Conflict|website=www.leiden-delft-erasmus.nl|date=13 June 2016 }}

In September 2018, Mire participated to Hague Talks "How can we Invest in Sustainable Peace?"[http://www.haguetalks.com/speaker/sada/]. "Revise the History Books".

Mire was a speaker at the Swedish National Heritage Board[https://www.raa.se/evenemang-och-upplevelser/hostmotet/talare-hostmote-2018] in November 2018. Transforming times : a personal journey in moving humanity and on BBC World Service radio documentary "Stories on the Rocks", December 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.mixcloud.com/documentaries2/stories-on-the-rocks/|title=Mixcloud|website=www.mixcloud.com}}

In April 2017, Mire was selected for the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts' 30 international thinkers and writers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2017/05/sada-mire-selected-for-the-international-hay-festival-list-of-30-thinkers-and-philosophers|title=Sada Mire selected for the international Hay Festival list of 30 thinkers and philosophers|website=Leiden University|date=17 May 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2017-08-02}}

In 2016, Mire was included a list of 12 pioneer women archaeologists who have contributed to the enrichment of the discipline throughout history.{{cite web | url=https://simonae.fr/sciences-culture/sciences-humaines/archeologie-feminin-treize-personnalites-histoire-discipline/ | title=Simonae.fr | date=12 December 2023 }}

Mire is on the boards of several notable institutions, including the Prince Claus Foundation.{{cite web | url=http://princeclausfund.org/en/network/sada-mire.html | title=Prince Claus Fund - Network }}

CNN{{Cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/10/sada.mire.somalia.archaeologist/index.html|title=Here today, gone tomorrow? Saving Somaliland's heritage|website=www.cnn.com}} made a feature documentary on the story of Mire and her twin sister Sohur. The CNN African Voices Program featured the sisters in their professional environment, as an archeologist and a medical doctor giving back to their community and working in their homeland, Somalia. The documentary discusses how they fled the Somali civil war and started new lives in Sweden as child refugees.

For National Geographic's Don't Tell my Mother I'm in Somalia episode, presenter Diego Buñuel met up with Mire in her office in Hargeisa and with her visited some of the landmarks of Somaliland.

Brazil's Futura (TV Channel) aired in 2014 a documentary titled Sada and Somaliland, following her progress as the country's only Somali archeologist.{{cite news | url=http://www.futura.org.br/programas/entre-fronteiras/ | title=Entre Fronteiras - Futura | newspaper=Futura }}

Mire was one of the experts featuring in the 2017 PBS series Africa's Great Civilizations, presented by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.{{Cite web|url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2017/02/archaeologist-sada-mire-in-africas-great-civilizations|title=Archaeologist Sada Mire in 'Africa's Great Civilizations'|website=Leiden University|date=27 February 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2017-08-02}}

Mire is the presenter and screenwriter of the MOOC titled Heritage under Threat.

• "Somali Shield, Gaashaan". Hazina. 2006.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/205696|title=Somali Shield, Gaashaan|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=January 1, 2006|journal=Hazina: Trade, Tradition and Transition in Eastern Africa|via=www.academia.edu}}
• "The Transition to Farming in Eastern Africa: New Faunal and Dating Evidence from Wadh Lang’o and Usenge, Kenya". Antiquity. 2007.{{Cite web| title=The transition to farming in eastern Africa: new faunal and dating evidence from Wadh Lang’o and Usenge, Kenya | url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/50927.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011202849/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/50927.pdf | archive-date=2016-10-11}}
• "Preserving Knowledge, not Objects: A Somali Perspective for Heritage Management and Archaeological Research". African Archaeological Review. 2007.{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-007-9016-7|title=Preserving Knowledge, not Objects: A Somali Perspective for Heritage Management and Archaeological Research|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=December 1, 2007|journal=African Archaeological Review|volume=24|issue=3|pages=49–71|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/s10437-007-9016-7|s2cid=144173042 |url-access=subscription}}
• "The Discovery of Dhambalin Rock Art Site, Somaliland". African Archaeological Review. 2008.{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-008-9032-2|title=The Discovery of Dhambalin Rock Art Site, Somaliland|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=December 1, 2008|journal=African Archaeological Review|volume=25|issue=3|pages=153–168|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/s10437-008-9032-2|s2cid=162960112 |url-access=subscription}}
• "The Knowledge-Centred Approach to the Somali Cultural Emergency and heritage development assistance in Somaliland". African Archaeological Review. 2011.{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-011-9088-2|title=The Knowledge-Centred Approach to the Somali Cultural Emergency and Heritage Development Assistance in Somaliland|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=April 1, 2011|journal=African Archaeological Review|volume=28|issue=1|pages=71–91|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/s10437-011-9088-2|s2cid=144818299 |url-access=subscription}}
• "Beautiful Somali buildings are rising up in a former war zone. It gives me hope". The Guardian. 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/13/somali-buildings-nomadic-huts-somalia-heritage|title=Beautiful Somali buildings are rising up in a former war zone. It gives me hope | Sada Mire|date=September 13, 2015|website=the Guardian}}
• "Wagar, Fertility and Phallic Stelae: Cushitic Sky-God Belief and the Site of Saint Aw-Barkhadle in Somaliland". African Archaeological Review. 2015.{{Cite journal|title=Wagar, Fertility and Phallic Stelae: Cushitic Sky-God Belief and the Site of Saint Aw-Barkhadle, Somaliland|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=March 1, 2015|journal=African Archaeological Review|volume=32|issue=1|pages=93–109|doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9181-z|doi-access=free}}
• "Mapping the Archaeology of Somaliland: Religion, Art, Script, Time, Urbanism, Trade and Empire". African Archaeological Review. 2015.{{Cite journal|title=Mapping the Archaeology of Somaliland: Religion, Art, Script, Time, Urbanism, Trade and Empire|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=March 1, 2015|journal=African Archaeological Review|volume=32|issue=1|pages=111–136|doi=10.1007/s10437-015-9184-9|doi-access=free|hdl=1887/3198283|hdl-access=free}}
• "Tourism of Somalia. 2015".{{Cite book|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_697-1|title=Encyclopedia of Tourism|first=Sada|last=Mire|editor-first1=Jafar|editor-last1=Jafari|editor-first2=Honggen|editor-last2=Xiao|date=December 27, 2014|publisher=Springer International Publishing|pages=1–3|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_697-1}}
• "‘The child that tiire doesn't give you, God won't give you either.’ The role of Rotheca myricoides in Somali fertility practices". In: Anthropology & Medicine, 2016, 23: 3, p. 311-331.{{Cite journal|title='The child that tiire doesn't give you, God won't give you either.' The role of Rotheca myricoides in Somali fertility practices|first=Sada|last=Mire|date=September 1, 2016|journal=Anthropology & Medicine|volume=23|issue=3|pages=311–331|doi=10.1080/13648470.2016.1209636|pmid=27830941|doi-access=free|hdl=1887/73979|hdl-access=free}}
• "The Role of Cultural Heritage in the Basic Needs of East African Pastoralists". African Study Monographs 53(Supplementary Issue): 147-157.{{Cite web|url=https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/48108/ASM_S_53_147.pdf?sequence=1|title=The Role of Cultural Heritage in the Basic Needs of East African Pastoralists. African Study Monographs | Scholarly Publications}}
• "Black history has much to reveal about our ancestors – and ourselves". The Guardian. 2018.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/30/black-history-month-ancestors|title=Black history has much to reveal about our ancestors – and ourselves | Sada Mire|date=October 30, 2018|website=the Guardian}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|www.sadamire.com}}
• [https://www.europelecture.com/id/vk1lecrl7cvb/europe_lecture_cultural_heritage Europe lecture on cultural heritage]
• [https://www.europelecture.com/id/vk4xdqq3bsoj/reflections_by_sada_mire Reflections by Sada Mire]
• Mire TEDxEuston [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4UQYem6Dvc Cultural heritage: a basic human need - Sada Mire at TEDxEuston]

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mire, Sada}}

Category:Somalian archaeologists

Category:Living people

Category:1977 births

Category:People from Hargeisa

Category:Lund University alumni

Category:Alumni of the UCL Institute of Archaeology

Category:Academic staff of Leiden University

Category:Somalian women archaeologists