About

This is the personal webpage of Robert Kluijver (born in Cyprus, 1968). I use it to publish blogs, articles that have appeared in the press (with link) or not, and reviews. In the top menu are links to other sites I have made and publications.

My profile as researcher at Sciences Po’s Center for International Studies (CERI) in Paris, in English and in French (updated 2026). Zie hier voor Nederlands (okt 2018)

A box of Pakistani sweets I bought in Kandahar in April 2002, showing how popular Osama Ben Laden was at that time

I studied international relations in Amsterdam and Paris (PhD obtained in January 2023). I worked and undertook academic research in Central Asia (1997-2000), Afghanistan (2000-2007 and 2023-2024), the Middle East (2007-2015) and the Horn of Africa (2015 to now). I worked for the United Nations, the Open Society Institute, NGOs (MSF and INSO), donor organizations and a variety of other organizations (EU, World Bank, research institutes). I currently live in The Hague. I specialize in research and analysis of conflict and post-conflict situations with a focus on artistic and cultural development.

Since January 2025 I’ve been setting up a business called 2Mages to import sustainably produced and fairly traded frankincense and myrrh from Somaliland/Northern Somalia and sell them online as resins, essential oils and cosmetic products.

In the field of the arts I produced the first Pavilion of Afghanistan at the Venice Biennale (2005), and curated contemporary art exhibitions in the Netherlands, Paris, Berlin, Kabul, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and India.

From 2010 to 2016 I taught the courses ‘Contemporary Art and Geopolitics in the Arab World’ and ‘Lessons (not) Learnt in Afghanistan’ at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po master program). From September 2016 to October 2022 I worked on my PhD ‘The State in Somalia: Between Self-Governance and International Order‘. Since my successful defense I am continuing my academic research, publishing and lecturing activities, associated with the Paris-based Center for International Studies (CERI) and as visiting scholar at Leiden University.

Simultaneously I work as a consultant for international organizations; recently I have worked in Sudan and Somalia as a consultant on cultural development, assisting donors in supporting the creative sector, without creating imbalances or dependency.

CV of a maverick

Yearly highlight of professional activities undertaken, location and positions held

1996: My university degree interests no-one, but my job fixing cars in the streets of Vallecas (a suburb of Madrid) appeals to recruiters of Doctors Without Borders and kickstarts my international career. Jack of all trades surviving in Spain

1997: Loading two old Soviet ZIL trucks with medicine and sanitation construction materials in Osh, Kirghizia, and accompanying them on a 700 km night drive through the Pamir mountains. Admin-log on a mission of MSF France in Khorog, Tajikistan

1998: Browsing outdoor bookstores in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, for my thesis on historiography in the newly independent republic. Master program in post-Soviet Studies, Sciences Po Paris

1999: Interview with a police investigator in Osh, Kirghizia about narcotics abuse among local youth. Freelancing researcher for the Observatoire Géopolitique des Drogues, Paris

2000: Hiding with my driver from Taliban guards as we visit the caves around the Buddhas of Bamiyan, which I document with a camera and a notebook shortly before their destruction. Program director in Kabul of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage

2001: I see 9/11 happen on one of the only TVs connected to international news channels in Afghanistan, in the UN guesthouse in Kabul, with journalists covering the trial of US missionaries by the Taliban. Civil affairs officer of the UN Special Mission to Afghanistan

2002: The governor of Uruzgan breaks down the door of our guesthouse with his massive body to let us in, impatient with the absence of the key. I have come by road with a senior Afghan delegation trying to convince him to allow Afghanistan’s first post-Taliban elections to take place in his province. Political affairs officer of the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan

2003: Grand opening of Kabul’s first cultural centre in a historic building downtown, open to all public, with an intense program of social and cultural activities. Executive director of the Foundation for Culture and Civil Society (FCCS)

2004: In Mazar-e Sharif to supervise the organization of the city’s first music festival to celebrate Nawroz: more than 50 musical performances and events in four locations during three days. FCCS executive director

2005: Meeting with George Soros in New York; he’s interested in what I can tell him about the situation in the country and supports my projects to bring the Theatre du Soleil to Kabul and set up the first Afghan pavilion in the Venice Biennale. Country Director OSI in Afghanistan

2006: Visiting community elders in Istalif (North of Kabul), discussing a project to improve livelihoods in this famous potters’ village. Consultant, Turquoise Mountain Foundation.

2007: Identifying two car wrecks from the attack on Al Mutanabbi street book market in war-torn Baghdad and exporting them for a series of events in the Netherlands, including my first major exhibition ‘Green Zone/Red Zone’ with contemporary Iraqi artists. Consultant, IKV Pax Christi.

2008: Organizing a conference involving Palestinian and Israeli architects and urban planners about the city of Jerusalem in Gemak, the art centre I have established downtown The Hague. Curator, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

2009: Working on Afghan elections and candidate awareness and realizing Afghans have lost hope in democracy and that the country is becoming unsafe for people like me. Consultant, National Democratic Institute, Kabul

2010: Visit to the harrowing Red Prison of Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, as part of a program to establish an arts and culture network in Iraq. Consultant for Hivos, Netherlands

2011: Convening a workshop in post-revolution Cairo for Arts Collaboratory, a network of artist-led cultural organizations from around the world. Consultant, Dutch Mondriaan Foundation & Stichting Doen

2012: Curating an exhibition in Jeddah, chairing a terrorist conference in Berlin, launch of the Gulf Art Guide, assistant curator of the first Kochi Biennale in India. Independent curator

2013: Pitching my idea to the Minister of Interior in Sanaa for a TV series (designed with input from local civil society and musicians) to set new role models for the police.Expert hired by France Expertise Internationale for an EU-funded Security Sector Reform mission in Yemen

2014: Visit to the historic ruins of Bahrain with young Arab artists to investigate possible links between pre-Islamic heritage and contemporary socio-cultural change in the Gulf through art. Fellow of New York University Abu Dhabi with the research project ‘Searching for Ancient Arabia’.

2015: Accompanying the Minister for Women’s Affairs in Rojava, Syrian Kurdistan on a 3-day tour of the liberated stateless area; I give a lecture at a woman’s university in Amuda about political theories of the State. Invited by Jonas Staal as a curator/author

2016: Role-play with students of the course ‘Lessons Not Learnt in Afghanistan’ that I teach at Sciences Po, Paris: we simulate peace negotiations in Raqqa, Syria, more than a year before similar negotiations really take place. Lecturer at the Paris School of International Affairs

2017: Meeting with elders in Taleeh, Somaliland, who during a visit of the ruined fort of the ‘Mad Mullah’ tell me I am the first white person to visit in two years. Head Analysis of the International NGO Safety Organisation in Somalia

2018: Exchanging information with members of the UN Panel of Experts on Somalia during evening meetings in beautiful locations around Nairobi. PhD research on the State in Somalia

2019: After shaking off mandatory police escorts I drive to Bur’o in Somaliland to interview one of the founders of Al Shabaab. On the way back I retrieve two of seven ancient Somali statues I acquired a year ago, but that went missing, in a pile of junk in the port of Berbera. PhD research

2020: Tricky visit to Beled Weyne, Central Somalia, to assess the impact of Al Shabaab on the cultural/creative sector in this town. The insurgents seem to be following us, nobody speaks freely. On our way out I am nearly arrested by AMISOM soldiers who believe I must be working with the terrorists. Lead consultant with Aleph Strategies on a baseline survey for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the cultural sector in Somali regions of the Horn of Africa

2021: Tour of Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, with the Somali imam of a neighbourhood; evening talk and Q&A with his students learning English, sitting on wooden benches in the courtyard of his mosque. Lead consultant with Aleph Strategies for SDC

2022: Meetings at the self-governing Omdurman cultural center in Khartoum. The youth I meet are articulate, efficient, driven and no longer believe in the principle of political representation – only in direct participation. I fall in love with the Sudanese revolution. Consultant for the Cultural Relations Platform on a creative sector support program of the EU delegation in Sudan

2023: Visit to a fair of Afghan women entrepreneurs in Kabul. I’m not allowed in, being a man, so I spend an hour drinking tea and discussing women’s employment with the senior Taliban officials who have organized the fair. Senior strategic advisor for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Afghanistan

2024: Travel through Northern Afghanistan with the Afghan filmmaker Barmak Akram to document how Afghan farmers adapt to climate change; later we make a six-minute teaser for the documentary we hope to make. The off-camera interview with the head of our Taliban escort is the most interesting part. Head of communications, strategy and resource mobilization for FAO Afghanistan

2025: Visit to Sheffield, UK, to meet the Somali counterpart of what will be my new business: Amina Souleiman of Beeyo Maal women’s cooperative introduces me to the wonderful world of frankincense and myrrh. Independent entrepreneur, founder of 2Mages.

Featured Post

Al Shabaab Governance – peer-reviewed paper published

Posted on 07/09/2025 by robertk

How does the insurgent Somali Islamist movement Al Shabaab govern the populations it controls, and what are the implications for Somalia and the international intervention there? This is the subject of my article published by the Canadian Journal of African … Continue reading →

Looking for Arawelo’s Palace

Posted on 21/10/2026 by robertk

Erigabo/Ceerigaabo, 14 August 2026

Arawelo is a mythical Somali queen. She is the guardian spirit of my frankincense and myrrh essential oils company 2Mages. I heard there was a place supposed to be her palace near Erigabo (Ceerigaabo in Somali) and have long wanted to see it. Today, Friday, I had a day off, and I went to see it. I was curious if I could find any archaeological evidence that her palace really was here.

Locals know about this place and my driver could find it without a problem. We diverged from the road between Erigabo and Maydh after the Karin checkpoint and drove along a stony path through the brush, up to an altitude of 2080m. We stopped next to a pile of stones along the roadside: this was supposedly her palace. Men throw stones on it, making the pile higher, and women put ‘flowers’ (meaning anything green ripped from a nearby tree or bush) because Arawelo is remembered differently by both genders. Women remember a magnificent, wise queen who empowered women, while men remember a queen who castrated male prisoners and whose grudge against all men, including her husband, grew during her reign. Today an overtly assertive Somali girl is called ‘an Arawelo’.

Did Arawelo really live? I assume most legends have a basis in reality, when they are told as historic stories – not for example stories of the Gods. Moreover, increasing evidence is emerging that the Northern Somali coast along the Gulf of Aden shared in the prosperity of the early Southern Yemeni and Ethiopian kingdoms, roughly from 1000 B.C.E. to 500 C.E. Historic evidence that the resin trade flourished in that period is abundant; why would frankincense and myrrh only have come from ancient Yemen, as is often supposed? The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, written by Greek sailors in the 1^st century C.E, gives accurate descriptions of ports along the Somali coast that were already in use for a long time. The Al Madow mountains that stretch from Northern Sanaag to North East Bosaso, and the Al Miskad mountains in Puntland further towards the tip of the Horn of Africa, have always been prime production areas for both resins. If one removes the racist bias in Euro-centred historiography (‘Black Africans cannot have had high levels of culture in the past’) then there’s no reason to doubt that the northern Somali coast participated in the wealth of that period. Archaeological evidence, such as Sabaean (ancient Yemeni) or ancient Hebrew inscriptions and the presence of stone towns in this mountain range, increasingly supports this view.

A trip in the 15^th Century BCE to ‘the Land of Punt’ to obtain frankincense, myrrh, ivory and other valuables is documented on the walls of the palace of the Egyptian Queen Hatsheput. There is ample reason to believe that Puntland is meant, despite the mentioned racist bias among Western archaeologists. A King and a Queen with their two sons and daughter are depicted greeting the Egyptian expedition leader on the coast of the Land of Punt. Going further back, the rock art at Laas Geel in Somaliland (3000 BCE) suggests that this region used to be much greener, and had a more varied fauna than today, besides showing high levels of abstract artistry. In an even more remote past, DNA research suggests that genes associated with the Cushitic people may have their origin, some 26,000 years ago, in this same northern coastal region of Somalia – now Eastern Somaliland and Puntland.

For a description and analysis of pre-colonial Somali history, see chapter 2 of my PhD.

The headdress contains little depressions which may have been filled with (gem)stones in the past, suggesting an aristocratic lady – perhaps Queen Arawelo?

I have earlier described some statues presented to me, supposedly found in the Somaliland province of Saahil, that must date from the pre-Islamic period. This all leads me to believe that Arawelo is likely a historic queen from the first millennium before Christ. The Somali archaeologist Sada Mire told me that Arawelo is simply the Somali version of the Queen of Sheba, called Bilqis by the Arabians, just like Makeda is the Ethiopian version. The Queen of Sheba would have reigned around 1000 BCE, in the times of King Solomon/Suleiman. What is very likely, in any case, is that the source of Arawelo’s mythical wealth and power would have been frankincense and myrrh, traded at that time with ancient Egypt, Persia, the Phoenicians and probably already China and other locations along the later Silk Route.

Somalis are curiously reticent to consider that there was anything of value in their culture before they were touched by the light of Islam, equivalent to divine grace. All Somali clans trace their ancestry to the family of the Prophet Muhammad; before that, they believe, there was nothing in Somalia but some dark-skinned ‘Dir’ people whose women intermarried with the prophet’s male descendants, thus forming the Somali people. They have incorporated the very racist view Arabs historically have of black Africans, seen as natural slaves that may be redeemed by Islam, as the story of Bilal suggests. Valuing Somalia’s pre-Islamic past is tantamount to idolatry, in this religious view. If one unearths a finely executed statue of that past, many Somalis consider it should be quickly destroyed.

The historic evidence Somali historians, anthropologists and archaeologists uncover about pre-Islamic Somalia is thus largely ignored, or at least not integrated into the national narrative. Just like in Gulf States. However, as Professor Hussein Bulhan points out in a book documenting the ‘social amnesia and triple heritage of the Somali people’, the ancient Somali folk beliefs live on in the Somali unconscious despite the double repression by Islam and Western rationalism. This explains why men throw stones at the supposed remains of Arawelo’s palace while women lay flowers – they still respond to this ancient identity.

This heap of stones is supposed to mark the location of Queen Arawelo’s palace

The 2-man police escort, driver and drone operator accompanying me dutifully threw a couple of stones to scorn this evil queen who would not submit to men. I had wanted to bring flowers, but could find none in Erigabo. So I did like the locals, and composed a bouquet of broken off branches and a few flowering plants, and laid it on the pile of stones. My travel mates did not make fun of this womanly behaviour, but their presence didn’t allow me to sit in meditation, as I desired; I did a very quick one, trying to connect to the spirit of the place.

We then used the drone to scout around the area. I sought to know in which direction I should start exploring the site. There seemed to be heaps of stone and puzzling straight stone lines everywhere and the drone couldn’t read the elevation or slope of places; so I started wandering around the forest, even managing at one point to escape my escort, who resorted to the drone (unsuccessfully) to find me.

I walked around quite a bit in the forest surrounding the palace. I was misled by finding what I first thought were the remnants of ancient walls. Later I understood they were quite recent constructions by Somali environmental organizations to stop soil erosion. Still, the site reminded me of the ruins of ancient towns, partially because of the ubiquitous presence of chipped stones – the same ones used to build the soil erosion retention walls – and partially because the site is perfect for a town. It overlooks the fertile plain to the South, is nestled just beyond the ridge of the escarpment that leads down to the Gulf of Aden to the North, and commands a strategic view over what is still the main road threading its way down this escarpment to the natural harbours of Xiis and Maydh. The former is easily identifiable as Mundu in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The gentle slopes of this entire stretch of forest would have been a magnificent site for the construction of a large town.

As the Google Earth image above shows, the site is also exceptionally green to Somali standards, and pleasantly high up in the mountains, escaping the unbearable heat along the coast. It is not surprising that the British built a colonial residence near the escarpment edge (in olive green in the image above). The British presence here makes it less likely that there were any remains of a town here. They would have noticed. The British were keen amateur archaeologists, and in the 1930s a colonial cartographer described the ruins of stone towns he had discovered in British Somaliland; no mention was made of a town here. On the other hand, dense vegetation does obliterate all signs of human activity above ground after 3,000 years, and no excavations have been attempted.

Whether there was a palace here for Queen Arawelo or not, one should be built here, as a testament to the strength of Somali women. And next to it, 2Mages will build a distillery for the resins of the frankincense and myrrh trees that are endemic to this coastal mountain range – fully operated by women, such as those from the cooperative Beeyo Maal from whom 2Mages buys its resins.

Politics and Art from the Edge

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CV of a maverick

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Al Shabaab Governance – peer-reviewed paper published

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Looking for Arawelo’s Palace

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