Yahya Birt
| Date | Event |
| 25 May 1903 | City of Bradford Exhibition Committee proposes having an Ashanti Village as part of the Exhibition. Butler Wood, the City Treasurer, had seen them at Crystal Palace |
| 16 Oct 1903 | Besides the Ashanti Village, an agreement is reached that the impresario Victor Bamberger will provide three additional attractions – the Water Chute, Palace of Illusions and the Crystal Maze. City Corporation insists on taking 25% of the gross on Bamberger’s attractions |
| Late December 1903/early January 1904 | Bamberger forms British & Continental Enterprises Ltd, in London to handle his ethnographic tours |
| Early January 1904 | Bamberger travels with translator Captain Charles Holland Hastings to Aden, then on to Somaliland to recruit a replacement Somali troupe, as the Ashantis have dropped out for reasons unknown |
| 3 Feb 1904 | W.H. Knight, Secretary to the Exhibition, writes to Bamberger “to define the boundaries, and details of construction of the Ashantee Village” |
| 23 Feb 1904 | The Somali troupe (57 men, women and children) arrive with Bamberger and Hastings on the SS Polynesian at Marseille, where they undergo medical checks. Then travel to Nice for the Bataille de Fleurs on 25th February |
| March 1904 | Troupe in Nice. Details of their time there are scant |
| 3 April 1904 | Troupe on display in the Chateau-des-Fleurs (Rond-Point de Prado) gardens in Marseilles. While over 20,000 visited during Easter Weekend, Bamberger later claimed to have incurred losses. |
| 1 May 1904 | Depart for Bradford by train to Dieppe, then by ferry to Newhaven, then by train via London |
| 3 May 1904 | Arrive in Bradford in the afternoon. Troupe greated by the Lord Mayor at the Bradford Interchange Station |
| 4 May 1904 | The Somalis witness the opening of the Exhibition by the Prince and Princess of Wales |
| 11 May 1904 | Concerns raised then dismissed in council that the Somalis were unprotected from the cold weather |
| 17 May 1904 | A Somali woman has fallen ill in the Village (most likely Halimo Abdi Badal) and is attended by Dr Burnie |
| 20 May 1904 | Friday sermon and prayer receives a full report from Bradford Weekly Telegraph. The Somalis take advantage to preach the fundamentals of Islam and its similarities and differences with Christianity |
| 26 May 1904 | A marital dispute between Mr. Omar Ali and Mrs. Fatima Mohamed leads to the husband escaping the Village before being returned by the police. |
| 1 June 1904 | The troupe introduces a new sham fight in negotiation with Bamberger’s management team on the ground to maintain visitor numbers. |
| 8 June 1904 | In an interview, troupe leader Sultan Ali speaks with admiration of the anti-colonial leader, Muhammad Abdille Hassan, as “a very big and powerful man, and a great fighter”, agreeing with amusement that he had “been the cause of a great deal of trouble to England”. |
| Second and third weeks of June 1904 | The troupe suffers from unseasonably cold weather |
| 30 June 1904 | A couple in the Village are divorced by the Sultan and the Mullah. A villager, badly injured by a flying spearhead during an accident at the blacksmith’s forge, is taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary for treatment. |
| 9 July 1904 | The Somalis join a procession through Bradford by the local Cyclist’s Union to promote ticket sales |
| July and August 1904 | The Somali boys play cricket against employees of Messrs Brayshay School and take part in races (as do the Somali men) |
| 20 August 1904 | Sultan Ali visits St George’s Hall to watch a film of the Exhibition, including footage of the Village |
| 30 August 1904 | The New Century Animated Picture Company shows footage of the Village and some Somali boys racing at St Georges Hall |
| 30 August 1904 | A fire breaks out in the village. Four huts burn down, two of which contain the valuables of Sultan Ali and the troupe |
| 9 September 1904 | Halimo Abdi Badal dies of tuberculosis in the early hours after a long illness and confinement in the Village from May to September, and is buried that evening in Scholemoor Cemetery with full Islamic rites |
| 16 September 1904 | Hadija “Yorkshire”, a girl, is born in the Village to great fanfare. Advance handbills are distributed announcing the birth, which is greeted with a 16-gun salute |
| 19 September 1904 | Some of the Somalis are invited to dinner and entertained by Mr. J.A. Godwin at his mansion in Manningham |
| 10 October 1904 | The Fire Brigade Committee report clears the service of any dereliction of duty concerning the Village fire |
| 14 October 1904 | A Somali woman jumps into the adjoining lake for fun. Sultan Ali and Charles Hastings are invited to tea by the Bradford Stipendiary and Mrs. Skidmore |
| 29 October 1904 | The Village closes with the Exhibition. The men go to Halimo’s grave to pay their last respects. |
| 31 October 1904 | The Somalis unsuccessfully picket the Town Hall for lack of compensation over losses incurred in the fire. Depart for Hull on a special train, seen off by a crowd and the Lord Mayor |
| 3 November 1904 | The troupe take the SS Kanzler on the German East Africa Line from Rotterdam to Aden |
| 25 November 1904 | The materials forming the Somali Village and other temporary Exhibition buildings like the Industrial Hall are sold off at auction |
| 1905 | Exhibition Manager’s Report shows Somali Village to have been the most profitable of the “Entertainments”. |
| 1905-6, 1907 | The troupe undertakes further tours of Germany with Sultan Ali under Victor Bamberger’s employ |
| Up to 1914 | Some members of the troupe undertake other tours in Europe, and a few even do so in North America. |
Somali Village 