Somalian artisan Muse Mohamud Olosow carefully sorts through a huge pile of camel bones, discarded by a slaughterhouse in Mogadishu, selecting pieces that he would carve into jewelry and ornate beads used by fellow Muslims while reciting prayers.
Olosow, 55, has endured hardships to keep his trade alive. In 2006, he was shot in the arm by the brother of the owner of a camel bone heap where he sifts for material.
To Olosow’s knowledge, he is one of just four artisans in his country of 16 million people who work with the bones of camels.
Photo: Reuters
In 1978, in one of Somalia’s many periods of war and turmoil, dozens of craftsmen were killed in Mogadishu and another town by gunmen, he said.
For years, he carved his bones secretly at home and then took them to markets to sell discreetly.
Olosow, whose strong hands and arms bear callouses and muscles from his work, learned his craft from his father in 1976.
Photo: Reuters
He plans to ensure this decades-old tradition does not fade away after he is gone.
“My kids will inherit these skills from me that I inherited from my father. I do not want these skills to stop,” he said from his workshop in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu, surrounded by bones.
His clients are mostly government officials or wealthy Somalians living abroad. Just one of his painstakingly carved prayer beads can cost about US$50, in a country where seven in 10 people live on less than US$2 per day.
A customer visiting his shop said the work justified the price.
“What matters is quality not price. I prefer this one to beads imported from other countries like China,” the customer said.
Somalia is home to the world’s largest camel population, and pastoralism of camels and other livestock provide livelihoods for 60 percent of the population, a 2019 US government study found.
For Olosow and his family, carving bones has been their main source of income for decades. They invested nearly US$5,000 to import machines from Italy to chisel and puncture the tough bones, he said, making it faster and safer to work “without bruises.”
Painstaking work by hand, passed down by his father, is what yields some the details that make his jewelry and beads distinctive.
He dreams of selling his work abroad.
“Our plan is to export these items to other countries. We shall continue this art craft until we become rich. God willing,” he said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS