The Flavors of Buraanbur – Somali Poetry & Dance Style

Buraanbur is the ultimate Somali women poetry and dance style. It is also one of my favorite exercise activities, it is a great way to burn calories while having fun. This post is all about Buraanbur, how it is performed, where it is performed, and the various ways in which Somali woman use this style of poetry and dance. This post focuses on learning the basic Buraanbur moves and the creative flavors that different dancers add to the Buraanbur, so that you can rock the Buraanbur dance floor next time you are invited to your cousin’s wedding, your friend’s wedding, or your Somali neighbor’s wedding

Buraanbur is sang and danced by Somali women across the Somali peninsula and by the Somali diaspora across the globe, with each region and each dancer adding their own flavors to the lyrics, to the drumming, and to the dancing. Somali women sing and dance Buraanbur for many different reasons from celebrating, to bonding with each other, to giving each other advice, to encouraging the community, to making political statements, to conflict resolution, to expressing their emotions, and in my case, to exercise.

Buraanbur is composed of four groups of people, namely, the poet(s) or singer(s), the drummer(s), the dancer(s), and the clappers. The poet, typically a woman, sings either an original poem or a well know Somali Buraanbur poem. The drummer beats the drums while the poet is singing and while the dancers are dancing. She is usually the hype woman, with a sense of humor and incredible ability to make hilarious sound effects. She controls the pace of the dance and is well versed in the different Buraanbur flavors providing each dancer with the beat for their chosen Buraanbur style.

The shape of the dance floor depends on the venue, function, and the audience. Somali women typically form a circle, called goob, which could be from the word goob meaning spot/location or from the word goobaab/goobo meaning circle. The poet typically starts singing a prayer poem to make dua (prayer) to Allah for protection and for blessings. This poem is often followed by and sometimes preceded by a greeting poem to say hello to the audience or to the Somali community in general. It is sometimes followed by a poem about herself, her poetic abilities, how important the function is to her, or to express the unique challenges that she had to overcame to get to the function. She then starts singing poems specific to the function and ends her singing with another dua and/or a greeting poem.

After each poem, one woman jumps into the dance floor or multiple women jump into the dance floor synchronizing their dancing to the beat of the drum(s). Jumping into the dance floor with another women that you cannot synchronize with is a dangerous game to play at Somali weddings, word of advice, don’t do it! You will hear the drummer, the poet, and/or the clappers saying, “Islama ciyaari taqaaniin!” in frustration, meaning you do not know how to synchronize with each other. If it is a family or a friend function that you want to dance with your family and friends, practice dancing together at home or at least watch each other dance first and try to synchronize.

Each dancer adds her own flavor to the Buraanbur dance, however, there are three main parts of the body that are moved while dancing Buraanbur. The legs/feet, the hands/arms, and the head/shoulders. The dancer usually uses one leg as a support and taps the other foot on the ground while moving forward, backward, sideways, or in circles to the beat of the drum. The arm movements are usually free style, however, the basic style is to raise the elbows up and away from the body with your palms facing down and bring the fingers close together forming a pentagon with your chest and arms. The dancers sometimes move their shoulders up and down and sometimes focus the movement more on the arms and/or the head depending on the flavor they want.

The Buraanbur dance is typically composed of two rounds of dancing each with start, middle, and end movements. The start of the dance is to jump into the dance floor and set your dance style. The middle portion of  the Buraanbur dance is a continues tapping of one foot on the ground. This is the most difficult part of the Buraanbur dance, as you have to learn how to tap one foot continuously while also moving around the dance floor. Some women resort to a lighter tapping of one foot or walk around the dance floor while doing the rest of Buraanbur dance movements. If you are tapping lighter with one leg or walking, watch the duration of your dancing. It is not polite and it is boring to dance or walk I should say longer than normal. Match the durations of the other dancers who are doing the higher intensity cardio dance. Each round should not take more than thirty seconds to a minute.

Styles for jumping into the Goob and starting the Buraanbur dance:

There are number of different ways to jump into the goob to start the Buraanbur dance. Somali women often free style and get creative with this step. There is however the basic style of just jumping into the dance floor and continuing to the middle portion of the Buranabur dance. Along with three other common styles that are used to start the dance, which I call the Hello Everyone style, the Here I come style, and the Salaam Neighbor style.

1. Hello Everyone Style:

There is two versions of the Hello Everyone style, the first version is to mark your territory and the second version is to start the Buraanbur dance. When there are a lot of woman that want to dance, it can be hard to get a window on the dance floor to jump the Buraanbur. This issue is resolved by walking in circles around the dance floor as if walking by everyone  to say hello while the poet is still singing. The goob is usually empty while the poet is singing, with the exception of women occasionally running into the goob when their family member, friend, tribe, or someone they know is mentioned. Going into the goob while the poet is singing makes it very clear to all the dancers that it is your turn to dance.

The second version of the Hello Everyone style is when the dancer jumps once the poet finishes singing and dances around the goob in circle. The basic move is done by tapping one foot on the ground twice and stepping with the other foot, usually the dominant leg, which is also used as a support. Dancers typically add their own flavors to this movement, the video below shows the Hello Everyone style of marking your territory and starting the Buraanbur dance, skip to 2:08 and watch the lady wearing the black and gold scarf with the gold dirac. She combines both versions of the Hello Everyone.

2. Here I Come Style:

The dancer (s) typically jogs into the dance floor and jumps. This is sometimes repeated two to three times before proceeding to the  middle portion of the Buraanbur dance. Dancers add their own style to this movement.  The video below shows the Here I Come style of starting the Buraanbur dance. Watch the feet of the first two dancers.

3. Salaam Neighbor Style:

The Salaam Neighbor is when the dancer jumps into the dance floor and jumps from left to right (or vice versa) several times before continuing to the middle portion of the buraanbur dance. There is also a version of the Salaam Neighbor style where the dance turns left and then right. The videos below shows the Salaam Neighbor style of starting the Buraanbur dance.

The middle portion of the Buraanbur:

The basic movement is using one foot as a support while continuously tapping the other foot on the floor and moving around the dance floor. This is usually the longest and the most difficult part of the Buraanbur dance. Like any part of the buraanbur dance, dancers usually add their own flavor to it based on their skill level, fitness, circumstances, or simply their preference. The videos below show the middle portion of the Buraanbur dance aka the continuous tapping. Watch the feet of the different dancers, do you notice how each one is tapping her foot in her own unique way? The first dancer is showing the traditional way of tapping the foot.

Styles for ending the Buraanbur Dance:

Like any part of the Buraanbur, the dancers have a lot of room to get creative with how they end the Buraanbur dance. The most common ways to end the Buraanbur dance are the simple single jump to end it and  what I call the Jogging Out in Style and Dropping the Wilisaqo Beat.

1. Jogging Out in Style:

This is the most common way of ending the buraanbur dance. This style is similar to the Here I Come style for starting the Buraanbur where the dancer jogs into the dance floor to the beat of the drums and jumps before continuing the Buraanbur dance. The only difference between the Here I Come Style and Jogging Out in Style is where they occur in the Buraanbur dance. Watch how the first two Buraanbur dancers end their dance. This is the same video from the Here I Come style of starting the Buraanbur dance.

2. Dropping the Wilisaqo Beat:

This style of ending the Buraanbur dance is influenced by the  traditional Somali dance known as the Wilisaqo as the moves to end the Buraanbur dance mimic that of the Wilisaqo dance. This is not unique to the Wilisaqo dance, Buraanbur dancers often add flavors of different Somali traditional dances to their Buraanbur dance from Jaandheer, to Saar, to Sadexley, to Shirib, and so on. This is one of the things that adds the unique regional flavors to the  Buraanbur dance. Different regions in the Somali peninsula play different traditional dances. If you pay close attention to Buraanbur dance from differnet regions and in the videos shared in this post, you will see flavors of Wilisaqo, Jaandheer, Shirbib and other traditional Somali dances in the Buraanbur dances. In Dropping the Wilisaqo Beat to end the Buraanbur dance, the  Buraanbur dancers tap one foot on the ground several times and moves their arms up and down similar to the Wilisaqo dance. The video below shows Buraanbur dancers ending the Buraanbur dance with  Dropping the Wilisaqo Beat style. This is one of my favorite ways of ending the Buraanbur dance.

Each dancer and each region from the Peninsula to the diaspora adds their own flavor to the Buraanbur dance both in  lyrics and in the dancing. This makes the Buraanbur dance beautiful. There is no single right way to do Buraanbur and there is no right flavor, all flavors and styles are beautiful and mazing in their own way. I try to learn doing Buraanbur with all the different flavors. There is a lot of room for creativity in Buraanbur, you can even display your physical fitness by doing cartwheels while you dance Buraanbur as long as you stay with the beat and cover the basics. The basics being starting the dance in your chosen flavor, doing the continues tapping with one leg (or modified version of it) somewhere in the middle, and ending the dance in your chosen style. Buraanbur dance is all about confidence, bring your confidence and indha adeeg as Somali people say. Buraanbur dance floor is one of the places where fake it till you make it truly works as you have a lot of room to be creative, there are so many different flavors to choose from, and can turn up without fully knowing how to dance it. But most importantly, enjoying yourself and don’t worry about what anyone says. There is no other way to learn Buraanbur other than getting on that dance floor and practicing.

Below are videos of Buraanbur poems and dances from different functions.

Buraanbur at Weddings:

Somali weddings are the most common places where Buraanbur is played. Somali weddings are incomplete and extremely boring without Buraanbur, unless other traditional Somali dances are being played. Somali women dress to impress for Somali weddings, it is an unspoken beauty pageant. Somali women typically wear beautiful set of clothes that consist of a dress called dirac, stylish skirt called googarad, and a gorgeous  scarf called garbasaar or shalmad. The Somalis in the diaspora adopted an unhealthy norm of not wearing the same set of clothes to more than one wedding. Probably the work of a creative Somali women in the business of selling diracyo, googarado, and garbasaaro. But we are creative creatures, so we mix and match and switch with our friends and family. The featured image is a picture of me wearing the typical attire that Somali women wear to weddings.

While Buranabur dances at weddings sometimes takes the form of tribal talent show (especially if the groom and the bride are from two different tribes), it has traditionally been more about praising the newlyweds, congratulating the newlyweds, making dua for the newlyweds, giving advice to the newlyweds on how to make their relationship work and overcome potential obstacles, and praising the families of the newlyweds. It was also used to give advice to the single women in the audience on how to choose a husband, how to keep a husband, and how to run her home once she gets married. Below are several vides showing Buraanbur dance from various Somali weddings.

Buraanbur for Political Statements:

Somali women use Buraanbur to convey their political stand, to call for conflict resolutions, to convince the community on why particular leader should lead, to call for unity, and to celebrate different leaders assuming various leadership positions.

In the video shown below, Shukri sings a patriotic Somali Buraanbur narrating how amazing Somalia used to be before the Somali civil war, the current state of Somalia, and calls for the unity of Somali people to stop the civil war, to put down the weapons, to stop the tribal conflicts, and to re-build Somalia. She also narrates some of the challenges that Somali people have faced in the diaspora and her hopes for Somalia. This is one of my favorite Somali Buraanburo.

The video below shows Somali women from the Ogaden Region also known as Somali Galbeed and Somali State/Region showing their support for ONLF (JWXO), a political movements that fought for the independence of the Somali Region from Ethiopia.

Buraanbur to express feelings:

My mom often sends us audio of her singing  Buraabur that she has composed for me and my siblings. They are usually dua poems or prayers poems to Allah to give us all the good things in life, like a loving partner, kind and obedient children, wealth, health, and most importantly Jannah (heaven) in the hereafter. Buraanbur is her way of expressing her love for me and for my siblings.

Somali women use Buraanbur to express different emotions from love, to anger, to feeling hurt, to feeling happy and so on. The video shown below is a love Buraanbur by Shamsa Boodhari, one of the most famous Buraanbur singers in Minnesota. She is expressing how much she loves her partner, the fears that she has about their relationship, the challenges that she has faced because of their love, what she expects from him, and how she wants him to treat her.

So, what is your favorite Buraanbur and Buraanbur style? What flavors do you add to your Buraanbur? Do you think there should exercise videos of Buraanbur and other traditional Somali cultural dances? If so, which dances would you recommend? Let us know in the comments section.

Disclaimer (Afeef):

The videos used in this post are for educational purposes and do not belong to me. All rights are reserved for the original owners of the videos.

This post has number of videos that mention the names of several Somali tribes. The intent of this post is for educational purposes only. It is to share basic information about Buraanbur, how Buraanbur is performed, where Buraanbur is performed, and how Somali women use Buraanbur at different functions. The intent of this post is not to make any statement(s) about any particular tribe (mentioned in the videos or not mentioned in the videos) and not to make any political statement(s).