# Halima Godane (Xaliimo Godane)

> Halima Godane (1935-1994): Somali Youth League poet who recited an ode to the Somali flag in 1954.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/halima-godane/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who was she?

Halima Mohamed Yusuf, better known as Halima Godane ("the stooped one"), was a Somali poet and activist who lived from 1935 to 1994 ([Wikipedia, Halima Godane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halima_Godane)). She was born in Kismayo and married at the age of nine (same source).

## The independence movement

She moved to Mogadishu in the late 1940s and joined the Somali Youth League ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halima_Godane)). In the early 1950s she was elected to the party's women's committee (same source). She recited buraanbur poetry on national occasions and at party meetings (same source). On 12 October 1954 she first recited her best-known work, an ode to the flag of Somalia (same source).

## Later politics

In 1958 she supported Haaji Mahammad Husseen in forming the Greater Somalia League, and that year she was elected to Mogadishu's city council ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halima_Godane)). In 1967 she joined the Workers' Socialist Party (same source). In 1974 the government of [Siad Barre](/en/people/siad-barre/) gave her an award and a lifetime pension (same source). She held to socialist views and to the goal of a united Somalia until her death (same source).

## In short

A Kismayo-born poet of the independence movement, remembered for her 1954 ode to the Somali flag.

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