Born: 1976 (Hargeisa, Somaliland)
Sada Mire (born July 1976) is a Swedish-Somali archaeologist, art historian, and presenter. She currently serves as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. Mire is a public intellectual and heritage activist who has argued that cultural heritage is a basic human need in her 2014 TEDxEuston talk. In 2017, she was selected as one of the 30 international thinkers and writers by the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts.
Mire became the Director of Antiquities of Somaliland in 2007. Raised in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, she fled the country at the start of the civil war when she was 15 years old. After escaping Somalia, Mire sought asylum in Sweden, where she later returned to the Horn of Africa as an archaeologist.
Sada Mire was born in Hargeisa, Somaliland, in 1976. Her family later moved to Mogadishu, where her father, a police official, died during the early stages of the collapse of the Somali state when she was 12. In 1991, at the age of 15, Mire and her mother and siblings fled Somalia during the Somali Civil War. They escaped on a relative’s lorry and eventually sought asylum in Sweden. Mire and her identical twin sister, Sohur, later moved to the United Kingdom to pursue their studies.
Mire studied Scandinavian pre-history and archaeozoology at Lund University in Sweden. She then completed a BA degree in the History of Art/Archaeology of Africa and Asia at SOAS, University of London in 2005. Subsequently, she obtained an MA in African Archaeology in 2006 and a PhD degree in Archaeology in 2009 at University College London.
Throughout her career, Mire has conducted extensive field research in Somaliland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Egypt. She has worked for the United Nations Development Program and has served on the editorial boards of various publications, including the African Archaeological Review.
Motivated to learn the history of Somaliland, her homeland which was once a colonial country in Africa, Mire took up a fellowship under the Department of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. She also became the head of the Department of Antiquities in Somaliland. In 2007, she launched an ambitious program of archaeological explorations.
Leading a team of 50 helpers, Mire has made significant archaeological discoveries in Somaliland. She has found prehistoric rock art in almost 100 sites, with at least 10 of them likely to receive World Heritage status. One notable site is Dhambalin, located approximately 40 miles (64 km) from the Red Sea. The site contains rock art in sandstone shelters that are estimated to be around 5,000 years old. The art depicts horned cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as giraffes, which no longer exist in the region.
Sada Mire’s work as an archaeologist and heritage activist has been instrumental in uncovering and preserving Somaliland’s rich cultural history. She has dedicated her career to shedding light on the ancient civilizations and archaeological sites of the Horn of Africa. Through her research and advocacy, she has made significant contributions to our understanding of the region’s past. Her work serves as a testament to the importance of cultural heritage and its role in shaping our collective identities.