We in the West are used to thinking of music mainly as entertainment. On occasion, it can fulfill a religious function, or be deployed to argue one political point or another. But for Sahra Halgan, the purpose of her music is to bring recognition to Somaliland, a self-declared state unrecognized by the international community.

"When you flee to another country, you feel guilty," Halgan tells The Japan Times via phone while on tour in France. "And then when I had a chance to help my people I felt I had to show what's going on in Somaliland."

Now 46, Halgan escaped civil war in Somalia in 1993, becoming a refugee in France. People in the north part of what was then Somalia had rebelled against the brutal dictatorship of Siad Barre, splitting off to form what is now Somaliland in 1991.