TRACKS ON THE SAND: Hayat Journeys to Somaliland to discover herself

Hayat was born in Mogadishu (Somalia) in 1989, but had to flee the country before she was even two years old to avoid the armed conflict that is still going on today.

More than 20 years later, Hayat prepares herself to travel to a northern region of ancient Somalia, of which her mother had always told her family stories: Somaliland.

Although it is not recognized throughout the international community as a sovereign country, Somaliland declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, at the beginning of the war.

From then on, it has resurged from the ashes, to construct a state with its own political institutions, a democratically elected president, and its own currency.

Contrary to Somalia, which is still suffering from a dramatic armed struggle with tinges of Islamic extremism and anarchy, Somaliland enjoys stability and peace, something which is quite unusual in this region of the Horn of Africa.

The Journey

The documentary tells the story of Hayat’s exciting and, at the same time, emotional journey.

From the moment she boards the plane and travels into the unknown, Hayat will be thinking about her life in Spain and how it would have been different had she grown up in Africa.

This huge culture shock — the status of women, the veil that she does not know how to wear correctly, or the Somali language that is completely unknown to her despite the fact that, ethnically speaking, she belongs to this community — will make her journey a way to better understand where she comes from.

I follow the tracks of my first steps in life and I try to imagine how I managed to survive the bombings, how I got to that refugee camp, and what my life would have been like if I hadn’t got out of there. But what I really want to know is what’s left of me in the place I come from. HAYAT TRASPAS