Media & Broadcasting

Alongside the academic work, a large part of Dr. Kapchits’ professional life was spent in broadcasting — and much of what he wrote about Somalia was addressed not to scholars but to listeners. This page gathers what belongs to that side of the record.

Radio

Somali service of Radio Moscow, 1967–1994. Twenty-seven years of daily work in Somali, as announcer and translator, for an audience that would have noticed any carelessness at once. The section was closed in 1994.

The listeners were not only an audience. Many of the proverbs in the collections arrived by post from people who had heard the broadcasts — a habit of correspondence that outlived the radio service itself and continues today.

Voice of Russia, from 1994. Commentator, after the closure of the Somali section.

The Somali journey of May 2009

In May 2009 Dr. Kapchits returned to Somalia after twenty years, as interpreter and consultant to a Russian television crew led by Vladimir Sinelnikov, with cameraman Alexander Kublitsky. The journey covered all three parts of the former Somali Democratic Republic: Somalia, Somaliland and Puntland.

Four travel essays came out of it, published by Voice of Russia. They are the most readable thing in this whole archive — Mogadishu twenty years on, the pirate town of Eyl, the prison at Bosaso, and three portraits of old friends. They are published here in Russian:

• Сомали: «страна поэтов и пиратов» — 26 May 2009
• Могадишо. 20 лет спустя — 28 May 2009
• Пираты 21 века — 10 June 2009
• Очерки о Сомали. Встречи — 17 July 2009

An overview of the cycle: Очерки о Сомали (2009).

Photographs from this journey — Mogadishu, Eyl, Bosaso, the caravan roads of Puntland — are gathered on the Photographs page.

Recorded interviews

There is no recorded series of video lectures. What does exist is a number of interviews filmed by Somali and Russian broadcasters over the years, held on third-party channels. They are listed here for reference; the recordings remain the property of those who made them.

• «Уникальный эксперт по Сомали» — a long conversation in Russian, 1 hour 13 minutes, on the channel Evgeniya Extravaganza. YouTube supplies automatically generated Russian subtitles. Watch
• Waraysi Dr. Georgi Kapchits — an interview in Somali recorded in 2007, interviewer A. Jaahweyn, Somali TV of Minnesota, 10 minutes. Watch
• Dr Georgi Kapchits iyo maahmaahaha Soomaalida — on Somali proverbs, in Somali, 17 minutes, channel Tixraac. Watch
• LEARN SOMALI MAAHMAAH by Georgi Kapchits — a short piece, 4 minutes, channel Bartamaha. Watch
• Georgi Kapchits oo ka sheekeynaya sidii uu ku bartay afka Soomaaliga — on how he came to the language, in Somali, channel NM24. Watch

Audio

Interview with Dmitry Bykov, City FM radio, 2009. A conversation about Somalia, the Somali language and its proverbs, broadcast in four parts. All four recordings survive in the archive of the old site and are published here.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4