This is a completely new edition of the only scholarly work on the poetryof popular and mass culture among a people who are renowned for their passion forpoetry. Johnson traces the heello movement from its origins as a youth culture whichin its early days was concerned with themes of love and pleasure. It later becamethe medium for freedom songs in the preindependence period, for the expression ofmodern political ideas, political protest, rallying songs and social comment, manyexamples of which are cited in this volume. Heello became the most dynamic form ofSomali poetry in this century....