Royale Somalia

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Massacre at Lafoole

2010-08-31T23:22:00.000-07:00

By Daud Jimale

''With government approval, Cecchi prepared for an expedition into the interior. By November 25, he was ready to move; his caravan consisted of seventy askaris, Commander Ferdinando Maffei of the Staffetta, Commander Franscesco Mongiardini of the Volturno, and fourteen other Italians, for the most part members of the crews of the two ships. That very night their encampment at Lafolé, some twelve miles inland, was attacked. In the early morning hours, as the caravan once more got under way, it was attacked again. By eight-thirty in the morning of November 26, all but three sailors were dead or dying.''
''First Adowa, then Lafole; the future of Italian colonialism in the Horn of Africa looked very unpromising at thend of 1896''[1]

The above event sparked one of the longest resistance struggles in Southern Somalia (Benadir) against Italian penetration and occupation of Somalia. This long resistance is only second to the heroic great struggle of Sayyid Muhammed Abdulle Hassan and his darawish army.What happened on that day of November 25-26th of 1896? Who was this Cecchi guy? Who were these mysterious warriors that swiftly defeated this first Italian colonial penetration of the hinterland of Benadir? Why is this event put in the same line as the humiliating defeat of the Italians by Ethiopians in Adowa? And last but not least, what were the consequences of this event in Lafole?

This episode in Somali history is perhaps the least known, although it had crucial impact on the future of Somalia. Most Somalis are not aware of this event while the Italians had built a monument for Antonio Cecchi in Lafole which still stands in the bush unvisited; while throughout the Banaadir 1896 was remembered in the count of the years as Axad Shiiki, the ‘Sunday Year of Cecchi’.

To present an elaborate account of this event, we need to start with the context. The historic setting in which it occurred, for example the conditions in Banadir region and the main groups in that region. The backgrounds of Italian colonial interest in Somalia and the role Antonio Cecchi played in this. Lastly, the consequences of the Lafole event are crucial for understanding the long resistance struggle waged by Somali groups in Banadir region against the Italian colonial penetration.

In this piece we’ll present the complete story, and will show the importance of this event and the shockwave it sent throughout Benadir and Southern Somalia.

1: Backrgound on Benadir region.

Benadir region consisted of the four Benadir ports of: Warsheekh, Mogadishu, Merca and Baraawe. These four port-cities were inhabited by Somali groups along with Arabs and people with mixed origins and traders from the Indian Ocean. The authority of Mogadishu for example was nominally under Omani rule, but the city had two real administrations, one in Xamarweyne and the other in Shangaani. These four Benadir ports were the linkages between the hinterlands of Somalia and the Indian Ocean trade. Caravan trade flourished in the hinterlands, connecting trade centres of Harar and Ogadeniya to Benadir ports, through the trade towns of Lugh, Baardheere and Geledi.
In the hinterland of Benadir diverse groups existed, like Geledi, Hintire, Wacdaan, Biyamaal, Murusade, Shidle etc.

The relevant groups in this event of “Axad Shiiki” are: Geledi Sultanate, Wacdaan, Biyamaal and Murusade.

The Geledi Sultanate

The Geledi Sultanate was a sultanate that came into existence when the clans of Geledi and Wacdaan made an alliance against the Silcis group who then ruled the Shabelle Valley[2]. After this successful revolt, the two clans lived together and linked their future which gradually led to the formation of the Geledi Sultanate. For two centuries or so the Geledi and their Wacdaan allies had formed a small independent state that prospered by trade, which they attempted to control, and had for a time held together a much wider clan ‘empire’. Virginia Luling says the following in her book titled: Somali Sultanate, The Geledy City-State over 150 years (2002):

In spite of the differences between them in way of life, language and traditions, Geledi and Wacdaan formed a close and lasting alliance. They were joined later – sometime early in the 19^th century – by a section of another Hawiye clan, the Murusade. They were granted land northeast of Geledi town, where they established four villages.

The Wacdaan

The Wacdaan is a Mudulood group that settled in Lower Shabelle as early as the 18th century. They were allied with Geledi and Murursade, and lived between Afgoye and the coast region around Mogadishu. Their deegaan (communal land) is described by Lee V. Cassanelli in his book titled: The Shaping of Somali Society, reconstructing the history of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900, as:

‘Between Afgoye and Muqdisho lay about twenty-five kilometres of thick brush and scrub grass. In the late nineteenth century, the area was inhabited by the camel-keeping Wacdaan clan, who had been close allies of the Geledi for the preceding hundred years’ (Lee V. Cassanneli, 1982, p.215)

The Biyamaal

The Biyamaal arrived in the Lower Shabelle around the end of 17th century and established control over Merca and the hinterlands. The Biyamaal were in constant war with the Geledi Sultanate, and even killed 2 Sultans of Geledi through out the war. The Biyamaal are perhaps the best known example of southern Somali resistance. Lee V. Cassanneli sheds light on the prowess of this clan:

‘Yet there is little question that the resistance in Marka district was the fiercest and most prolonged in the Benaadir. This is not surprising in light of the earlier history of the Biyamaal; their continual struggle against many enemies had given them a cohesiveness and military organization far tighter than that of the most other southern Somali clans.’ (Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.22

The Murursade

The Murursade joined the alliance between Wacdaan and Geledi and was granted land northeast of Geledi town, where they established four villages.

2: Italian expansion into Benadir/Somalia

the Italian expansion into Somalia.

At the middle of the 19^th century Italy was eager to join the leagues of other European imperialist nations like Britain, France and Germany. To achieve this end they set their eyes on East Africa, and made their first incursion into Eritrea in which they acquired Massawa port.

Italian expansion in Somalia began in 1885, when Antonio Cecchi, an explorer led an Italian expedition into the lower Juba region and concluded a commercial treaty with the sultan of Zanzibar. In the beginning exploration missions were the only tangible signs of Italian successes in the Somali peninsula. Many negotiations with the Sultan of Zanzibar, who had shadowy sovereignty over the Benadir ports, failed. Robert L. Hess narrates of these failures, and the consequent frustrations the Italians experienced in their quest to exploit Somali lands, in his book titled: Italian Colonialism in Somalia (1966):

The Italians might well have become discouraged in their search for colonies in East Africa had not a sudden impetus come from a most unexpected quarter – northeastern Somalia. On December 12, 1888, a delegation from Yusuf Ali, sultan of Obbia, arrived in Zanzibar and requested the protection of Italy. (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.24-25)

In 1889, Italy established protectorates over the eastern territories then under the nominal rule of the sultans of Obbia and of Alula;

‘At the end of January Filonardi left for Obbia to arrange for the protectorate. On February 8, Yusuf Ali placed his sultanate under Italian protection in return for an annual subsidy of 1,200 Maria thalers. (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p25)

''The choice of Cecchi to head the mission was logical, for he had been active in the exploration of northeast Africa. In 1876 he had led an expedition from Zeila to the frontiers of Kaffa in southern Ethiopia. From that time he was an ardent partisan of Italian expansion into the horn. Cecchi was probably the first to succeed in directing Italian attention toward the Somali coast’’ (Robert L Hess, 1966, p.15)

A few years later Italy succeeded to lease the Banadir region from the sultan of Zanzibar, with Britain facilitating the negotiations between the two.

Antonio Cecchi's role in Italian expansion into the Horn:

As it already became clear, Antonio Cecchi spearheaded the Italian expansion into Somalia. He was chosen to lead the mission because of his past and reputation of being a supporter of Italian expansion into East Africa.

After he returned from the Lower Jubba region he became obsessed with Italian expansion into Somalia.

On the basis of his explorations and his often unfounded enthusiasm for the area, he insisted on the importance of the Juba River as the key to a much larger colonial program:..Once we acquire with certainty the knowledge that the Juba is navigable…then it is certain that it will become the most natural artery for the exportation of the abundant coffee harvest of Kaffa and the surrounding regions…Now that our Italy has established itself at Massawa…it is possible for Italy to extend its possessions toward the south…The Juba would thus mark the extreme southern boundary of our possessions. (Robert Hess, 1966)

Italy succeeded through negotiations with the Sultan of Zanzibar to sign commercial treaties with Zanzibar, which allowed Italy to trade with the Banadir region. This initial success was followed by long negotiations in which the Italians wanted to lease the Benadir region. After a while they succeeded in this too, and set up a commercial enterprise named after the Italian trader in East Africa Filonardi. Filonardi Company was lead by Filonardi himself and received some support from Italy in order to penetrate the Benadir and Somalia economically.

From 1893 to 1896, the Italian presence was limited to a small garrison of soldiers at Luuq on the upper Jubba River, and a few traders along the coast. The Italian outpost at Luuq had been established in 1895 to gather information on Somali trade in the region and to protect Italian interests in the face of Ethiopian claims to the area. ( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.201)

This insignificant presence of Italian commercial interests in Benadir can hardly be called ‘colonization’. There were a few Italian residents, and the police (askaris) were still Arab who did not go further than their garrisons. Because of this situation, most Somali groups were not pressed to fight this initial penetration since the intentions of Italians were still vague.

''Perhaps because of the Filonardi Company’s limited intervention in Somali affaires, there was only one notable incident of Somali hostility between 1893 and 1896. That occurred on 11 October 1893, the day the Italian flag was first raised over the Garesa in Marka. A Somali attacked and killed an Italian soldier; he in turn was killed with three shots from a ‘Wetterly’’ gun.’’ ( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.202)

This was the setting in Somalia and Benadir, before Cecchi became dominant in convincing the Italian government to penetrate further into Somalia as he returned to Italy.

''On his return to Italy, however, Cecchi continued to pressure the government to tap the ‘’rich commercial resources’’ of Somalia (Cecchi, Pesaro, to foreign Minister C.F Nicolis di Robilant, August 27, 1886)

Antonio Cecchi was an ardent expansionist who for some time had been urging the Italian government to take over the Benaadir concessions. In seeking to promote his own version of Italian power in Somalia, Cecchi upset the fragile commercial arrangements that Filonardi had constructed. He replaced Filonardi’s influential Hadrami interpreter with Arabs of his own choosing, returned an unpopular Italian resident to Marka, and sent soldiers to the lower Jubba area to try to force Somali caravaneers to unload their wares at Baraawe rather than at the British-held ports of Kismaanyo and Goobweyn. (Lee V. Cassanelli)

Cecchi’s presence also resurrected Somali fears of territorial dispossession. Thus it did not escape public attention when a cousin of Cecchi visited the Benaadir in 1895 to investigate the possibilities for commercial agriculture. There soon followed talk of growing cotton on Italian plantations along the Shabeelle. This cousin was Giorgio Mylius, a wealthy Milanese industrialist. The Industrialist was particularly interested in the possibility of growing cotton in Somalia. Finally, Cecchi appeared to symbolize colonial aggressiveness in the distant interior

3: The Somali response to Italian expansion

The Somali groups described in part 1 responded differently to the Italians who were expanding slowly but steadily into Benadir coast, and would inevitably venture into the hinterlands.

To start with the Geledi Sultanate was in decline throughout the 19th century. The Sultanate was in the shadow of its former splendid and power. The Geledi confederation headed by the Gobroon shaykhs of Afgooye had lost much of its cohesiveness as the nineteenth century drew to a close. The succession of Osman Ahmed in the 1880s brought to the Geledi sultanate a man of lesser ambitions and more limited political skills than his illustrious forebears. Osman, for example, did nothing to punish the Biyamaal when they blocked a branch of the Shabeelle River and thus caused severe hardship to Geledi´s agricultural allies downriver. ( Lee V. Cassanelli)

Despite these setbacks, Osman inherited baraka (grace) as a member of the Gobroon lineage was still respected by many ordinary Somalis in the region. In the mid 1890s Osman´s army had still been strong enough to defeat their traditional Hintire rivals down the river. What was the view of the Sultan of the Italian expansion? First of all what was the general mood in Geledi?
Most people were suspicious of the Italian encroachments and as described earlier people were whispering about Italians taking over the land and their farms. When the Italians came, The Geledis were divided on the issue to resist the penetration of Italians of Benadir coast or accommodate. While the people wanted to resist, the attitude of the Sultan and those in authority was cautiously accommodating the Italian presence in Benadir Coast. The Geledi-Wacdaan alliance came under strain at this time, for many of the Wacdaan were opposed to any compromise with the foreigners.

The Sultan started to accommodate the Italians and he started to establish friendly relationships with the Italian governors in Mogadishu. Cecchi apparently felt that Osman remained a force to be reckoned with, for the ill-fated Lafoole expedition had originated with Cecchi´s scheme for an Italian-Geledi alliance ( Lee V. Cassanelli)

The Wacdaan

The Wacdaan were mainly pastoralist, with a small group turning to farming throughout the centuries of their alliance with the Geledi clan who were mainly agriculturalists. As said above, the Wacdaan were opposed to any compromise with the foreigners. This fierce anti-foreign stance was persistent in the culture of Wacdaan and in the very place of Lafoole. The place has been called Lafoole because apparently the Wacdaan defeated the Gaalo Madoow when they migrated to the Lower Shabelle around the 18th century, hence the translation of Lafoole which is: Bones. ( Lee V. Cassanelli)

Because the Sultan of Geledi seemed hesitant to resist the Italian expansion into Benadir coast, the alliance was cooled off. Apart from the weakening of their bonds with the Geledi, the drought of the 1890s which lead to a large population of Wacdaan abandoning their homelands, the Italians posed the greatest threat to the group. They were, moreover, the first inland Somalis whose territory was actually invaded by colonial soldiers at the time of the Cecchi expedition.

On of the most influential leaders among the Wacdaan was the leader Shaykh Ahmed Haji Mahhadi. He was not a Wacdaan but became the sheikh of the Wacdaan. He was born in Mogadishu and hailed from a lineage of Mogadishu (Abgal). He had lived there most of his life, teaching alongside such renowned Muslims scholars as Shaykh Sufi and Shaykh Mukhdaar. Like the latter, he found coexistence in a town which housed infidels intolerable, and he chose to retire to the small coastal enclave of Nimow, a little south of Mogadishu. There he set up a small jamaaca which attracted several of the local inhabitants. When Nimow was shelled by an Italian warship in retaliation for the Cecchi ambush, Ahmed Haji fled to Day Suufi (in the heart of Wacdaan territory) where he intensified his preaching against the infidels. As late as 1907, the acting Italian governor considered him ‘the most listened-to propagandist' in this area of the Shabeelle. Even the Geledi turned to him rather than to their sultan for religious counsel. ( Lee V. Cassanelli)

One of the Wacdaan leaders apparently influenced by Ahmed Haji was Hassan Hussein, titular head of the largest subsection of the Wacdaan clan, the Abubakar Moldheere. The Abubakar Moldheeres were the most numerous and hence the most militarily powerful section of the Wacdaan in the late nineteenth century. Hassan Hussein is remembered as one of the first Wacdaan to oppose the Italians: warriors from his lineage were prominent among the forces that attacked Cecchi at Lafoole. Likewise, his lineage was spokesmen for the Abubakar Moldheere who most strenuously urged the blockade of caravan routes to Mogadishu (economic sanctions).

The Biyamaal

This group is the best known group in the southern Somali resistance. Like the other groups in Benadir, the Biyamaal too were wary of Italian expansion into the Benadir coast. In the beginning the Biyamaal were following the actions of the Italians very carefully, while trying to accommodate them if they posed no threat. Yet there is little question that the resistance in Merca district was the fiercest and most prolonged in the Benadir. This is not surprising in light of the earlier history of the Biyamaal: their continual struggle against many enemies had given them a cohesiveness and a military organization far tighter than that of most other southern Somali clans ( Lee V. Cassanelli).Throughout the nineteenth century the Biyamaal had stood together to defend their territory and their independence against encroachments by the powerful sultans of Geledi: both Yusuf Muhammad and his son Ahmed Yusuf lost their lives in battle against the Biyamaal. These proud nomads had also firmly resisted the sultan of Zanzibar´s growing influence in Merca by ambushing the governor of that town together with forty askaris in 1876 ( Lee V. Cassanelli).

Not only by sheer force were the Biyamaal able to resist the influence of the sultan of Zanzibar but they could also assure their influence on Merca by placing economic sanctions on the city. When occasional differences arose between the Biyamaal leadership in the interior and the old Arab and Somali families of Merca – who were always more interested than Biyamaal in establishing relations with foreign powers – the Biyamaal would hold up food supplies to the townsmen and divert their exports to smaller outlets along the coast. These boycotts proved extremely effective in assuring Biyamaal influence in urban politics, as the Italians would learn in 1904.

The Biyamaal consisted of four territorial sections spread along the coastal dunes between Jesiira and Mungiya and extending inland to the farmlands along the Shabelle. Each of these sections was represented by a number of religious authorities known generally as macaallimiin and by a number of politico-military figures known as malaakhs and amaanduule. In times of crises, the leaders from all four sections would gather in shir to work out a common policy of action.

With the arrival of the Italians at the coast in 1890, Biyamaal leaders were almost in constant shir to coordinate their plans for the inevitable showdown between Italian expansion and their resistance. The Italian government always viewed them as its most determined opponent; colonial policy was geared towards the dividing of the Biyamaal leadership and thus to weaken the opposition. Remarkably the Biyamaal have presented a united front even when they were eventually defeated in 1908.

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The setting of 'Axad Shiiki' is complete; it is time to discuss that very day of 25th November of 1896 and the morning of 26th November of 1896.

What happened on those two days? Who attacked and annihilated the Italian expedition force? And how did this event spark the fire of resistance in the whole of Banadir which would last till 1908?

4. The spark that lit the Resistance: Lafoole 25-26th of November 1896

Lafoole as explained earlier was within Wacdaan territory. It lay in an area with thick brush and scrub grass, a suitable spot for a well-prepared ambush. The Wacdaan were waiting for this moment, as Cecchi was despised by all Somali groups in the Benadir, since he embodied colonial aggressiveness which became evident by his plans to ‘tap into the rich resources of Somalia’.

Also, the Wacdaan were from the beginning fiercely opposed to any compromise with the 'infidels'. This attitude was persistent in the culture of Wacdaan as explained earlier. Another impulse to this fierce anti-infidel attitude was the coming of Sheik Axmed Xaaji, the sheikh that found it intolerable to coexist with the 'infidels' in Mogadishu (see previous chapter). He lived among the Wacdaan, set up a jamaaca (religious school) and became the sheikh of the Wacdaan (religious leader). His ideas have apparently influenced the leader of the largest subgroup of Wacdaan (Abubakar Moldheere): Hassan Hussein.

Hassan Hussein, together with Sheikh Axmed Xaaji, was instrumental in articulating the opposition to the Italian presence in Benadir. As already explained this too had its consequences for the political geography in Benadir, mainly the cooling of the alliance between Geledi and Wacdaan. Within the Geledi, the people wanted to resist the Italian expansion but the Sultan and the ones with authority choose for accommodation. In this the Wacdaan were slowly moving away from Geledi, and moving towards the Biyamaal, their erstwhile enemy.

The clash at Lafoole:

On 25th of November in 1896, the moment arrived in which the Italian government gave the approval to venture into the interior, thus effectively leaving the garrisons in Mogadishu. Cecchi too was waiting for this moment since he was eager to sign treaties with the Sultan of Geledi, which he still thought was powerful enough to be instrumental in the Italian plans for Somalia. What he didn’t know however was that the Sultan did not represent the feelings of the people, who were fiercely opposed to Italian expansion. Cecchi and the others in the expedition would find out too late about this fierce anti-infidel attitude of the Somalis.

This expedition consisted of Antonio Cecchi, Commander Ferdinando Maffei of the Staffetta, Commander Franscesco Mongiardini of the Volturno, and fourteen other Italians. In the evening when the expedition force set their camp at Lafoole, they were attacked in which a fierce fight followed. Apparently, this attack was not decisive enough to finish off the expedition. The next morning a renewed attack followed which successfully finished off the expedition, with only 3 survivors to tell the story.

''With government approval, Cecchi prepared for an expedition into the interior. By November 25, he was ready to move; his caravan consisted of seventy askaris, Commander Ferdinando Maffei of the Staffetta, Commander Franscesco Mongiardini of the Volturno, and fourteen other Italians, for the most part members of the crews of the two ships. That very night their encampment at Lafolé, some twelve miles inland, was attacked. In the early morning hours, as the caravan once more got under way, it was attacked again. By eight-thirty in the morning of November 26, all but three sailors were dead or dying.'' (Robert. L Hess, 1966, p.63)

Who were these groups that attacked the Italian expedition?

In the Shaping of Somali Society, (Lee V. Cassanelli) it becomes clear that the group that attacked the Italians were of mainly Wacdaan warriors, accompanied by Murusade and Geledi warriors.

''In November 1896, he and a score of Arab askaris set out to meet with the presumably influential sultan of Geledi. It was the first colonial attempt to penetrate the interior with a military contingent, and it ended disastrously for the Italians. Cecchi’s expedition was besieged and most of it destroyed at a place called Lafoole, along the Muqdisho-Afgooye road by Somali warriors of the Wacdaan clan. (Lee V. Cassanneli, 1982, p.203-204)''

In another passage the author reveals more about the composition:

''Geledi’s long-time allies the Wacdaan had apparently acted independently at Lafoole; and they had been assisted by a handful of warriors from the Murusade, also Geledi allies (Lee V. Cassanneli, 1982, p/209-210)''

Virginia Luling instead talks about Wacdaan and others, which thus means Murusade and Geledi warriors, since the alliance consisted of these three groups:

''…Antonio Cecchi, famous as an explorer and one of the most enthusiastic and influential advocates of Italian colonisation, set out from Muqdisho for Geledi with a party of soldiers in November 1896, intending to negotiate with Sultan Cusmaan Axmed. They were surprised and attacked while camping in Wacdaan territory, at Laafoole at the edge of the deex, where the white earth meets the black, and the thorny bush gives way to more open country. Out of the seventeen Italians, only three survived.The assailants were from the Wacdaan and perhaps other clans. (Virginia Lulling, 2002, p.30)''

Virginia Luling further sheds light on the location of Laafoole:

''It must be a particularly suitable place for surprise attacks, for fourteen years earlier, Révoil’s caravan had been attacked by Wacdaan at the same spot, and its name ‘place of bones’, comes from a much earlier slaughter, supposedly of the ‘gaalo madow’. (Virginia Lulling, 2002, p.30)''

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Reactions to the clash:

The ‘Lafoole Massacre’ as the Italian press called it, came less than a year after the humiliating Italian defeat at Adowa in Ethiopia. It was a severe physiological damage to Italian colonial ambitions.

For Somalis, it was a great day, which sent a shockwave throughout the Benadir region. The 'Lafoole Massacre' which already severely shocked the Italian colonialists, was immediately followed by sporadic incidents along the whole Benadir coast.

In Mogadishu 100 or more Italians were wounded in a general uprising. In Merca, a young Somali, Omar Hassan Yusuf, assassinated the Italian resident, Giacomo Trevis. According to local accounts, Omar emerged after praying in the small mosque of Shaykh Osman ‘Marka-yaalle’ and knifed the ‘infidel’ Trevis as he walked along the beach. Giacomo Trevis was a hated man in Merca for a lot of reasons, besides being an unwanted colonialist; he was also hated for his policy of compulsory labour. In Warsheekh, a government askari was confronted as he stepped outside the garrison. In Baraawe, the well-known and influential Haji Shaykh Abbas railed against his Somali compatriots and called them ‘woman’ for allowing the Italians free movement there. (Lee V. Cassanelli).

The Italians in Benadir were shocked, and when the news reached Rome, the foreign minister immediately appointed Commander Giorgio Sorrentino as royal commissioner extraordinary for the Benadir. Initially, the Italians thought that Lafoole was an Ethiopian ambush since Ethiopians were besieging Lugh at that time and since there were rumours of an Ethiopian invasion of Benadir. When Sorrentino landed in Mogadishu, on 26th of January 1897, he immediately started the investigation of Lafole.

''Within ten days he had determined that Lafolé was neither the precursor of a general uprising against the Italians nor an Ethiopian ambush but an isolated case of action by Wacdaan tribesmen and the tribes of Geledi; who had been spurred to the act by two Arabs from Mogadishu’’ (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.65)

This was a gross understatement of the Lafoole incident, and the attitude of the Benadir groups to the Italian presence.

Throughout the Benadir, from Warsheekh to well south of Marka, 1896-97 is remembered as Axad Shiiki (the ‘Sunday year of Cecchi’). The Biyamaal date the beginning of their twelve-year resistance at Axad Shiiki.

‘Like the Italians, the Somalis viewed the Lafoole incident as a watershed in the history of the relationship between the two countries. Throughout the Benaadir, from Warsheikh to well south of Merca, 1896-97 is remembered as Axad Shekki (the ‘Sunday year of Cecchi’). The Biyamaal date the beginning of their twelve-year resistance at Axad Shekki. (Lee V. Cassanneli, 1982, p.207).

The clash at Lafoole is immortalized by this shirib (saying):

Shiin digow Sheikh Axmed Xaaji; Shiiki sheydaan mooho?

Translation: Writer of (the Koranic verse) shiin, Sheikh Axmed Xaaji ;Is not Cecchi a devil?

Sheikh Axmed Xaaji is the well-known religious leader of the Wacdaan who had established the jamaaca to teach Quran, religion etc

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As became apparent earlier, The Italians misinterpreted the signs of the coming storm which would engulf the Benadir region.

In the coming part, we will shed light on the immediate consequences of the clash at Lafoole. How the Italians reacted to the 'Lafoole Massacre' and how the different Somali groups in Benadir reacted to the event and the wider issue of Italian presence in Benadir coast. Slowly, from there on, we will arrive at the heroic struggle of the Biyamaal and their allies, amongst which their erstwhile enemy Wacdaan, against the Italian expansion.

''Obituary: Antonio Cecchi
The Geographical Journal, Vol. 9, No. 2. (Feb., 1897), p. 230.
Jstor
Antonio Cecchi.
The well-known Italian explorer, Antonio Cecchi, has, together with various officers and men of the Italian gunboats Volturno and Stafletta, lately fallen a victim to the treachery of the Somalis of the Benadir coast, of which he was administrator. During a trip towards the Webi Shebeli, the party was suddenly attacked by night, and, after expending most of its ammunition, was obliged to beat a retreat, amidst renewed attacks by the Somalis. All the officers lost their lives,and only three men succeeded in reaching Mogdishu. Cecchi was best known for his journey to Abyssinia and the Galla countries between the years 1877 and 1882. The expedition, as at first constituted, was nominally under the command of the Marquis Antinori, Cecchi being entrusted with the astronomical and meteorological observations ; but of the five Europeans who took part in it, only Cecchi and Dr. Chiarini proceeded beyond Shoa, the latter subsequently dying of fever,while the former spent several years as a prisoner in the southern Galla countries before returning to the coast. The results of this journey were published in two octavo volumes at Rome in 1886, followed in 1887 by a third dealing with thetopographical surveys. Cecchi was afterwards for some years Italian consul at Aden, and since 1890 had held a similar post at Zanzibar, where he was universally respected and beloved.

The Italian expansion which culminated in their first expedition into the interior of Banadir was successfully halted a mere 12 miles out of the city and lead to the death of the man who spearheaded Italian expansion into Somalia. In the coming instalments we'll show how the Somali groups in Banadir first viewed the slow Italian encroachment on the Benadir coast and how the Lafole event sparked the fire of a long resistance in Banadir and Southern Somalia.


	SOMALIS TO BE PUNISHED. ___________ For the Murder of Italians at Magadoxo, Africa. Rome, Dec. 3.—In the chamber of Deputies today the Marquis Visconti Venosti, Minister of Foreign Affaires, confirmed the reports from Zanzibar of the murder of the Italian Consul, Signor Cecchi, the Captains, and a number of officers of the Italian warships Volturno and Staffeta, and the wounding of 100 or more other Italians by Somalis at Magadoxo. The men had fallen into an ambuscade and were attacked without warning. The Government , the Minister said, would take energetic measures to punish the Somalis who were guilty of the outrage. The Marquis said that the confirmatory reports showed that fourteen Italians had been killed, together with a number of the escorts of the Italians whose caravan was attacked during the night. Twenty-seven bodies were recovered by a rescue party when hurried to the scene from Magadoxo when the news of fighting reached there. The rescuers arrested a number of the Somalis who participated in the massacre and punished them appropriately. Many of the Somalis tribesmen were also killed by the Italians in the fight that followed the attack on the caravan. The New York Times Published: December 4, 1986 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.h ... 94679ED7CF

5:The Storm of the Resistance gathers strength

As became clear from the NY times report (see table above) on the ‘Lafole Massacre’, the Italian minister of Foreign Affairs commented on the ‘Lafole Massacre’ that the Italian government would take ‘energetic measures’ to punish the Somalis who were 'guilty of the outrage'.
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Now let us discuss these ‘energetic measures’ the Italian government wanted to take, and see whether they could had stemmed the coming tide of the monsoon storm of resistance headed towards the Benadir coast region. As mentioned in part 4, the Italian foreign minister immediately appointed Commander Giorgio Sorrentino as royal commissioner extraordinary for the Benadir. His mission was as Robert L. Hess writes in his book ‘Italian colonialism in Somalia’:

''Sorrentino was instructed 'above all to provide for the security and tranquillity of the region’ After a complete investigation of the causes of the attack at Lafole, he was to take whatever steps should appear indispensable for our dignity and for the security of the colony’’

This investigation would be completed within ten days which was around February 1897 (see part 4).
The conclusion Sorrentino drew was that the guilty ones were Wacdaan tribesmen and the tribes of Geledi, which meant that these tribesmen would be punished as the Italian foreign minister said in the NY Times report. Also Sorrentino believed that these tribesmen have been spurred to the act by two Arabs from Mogadishu. These Arabs were Abu Bakr Bin Awod, Filonardi’s interpreter and a certain Islam bin Muhammed.
The first thing, Sorrentino did was arresting Abu Bakr, while Islam bin Muhammed disappeared from the Benadir coast. The second thing, Sorrentino did was to plan a punitive expedition against the Somalis who were 'guilty of the outrage'. For this he had ordered two companies of Eritrean askaris. In the meantime, Sorrentino researched the conditions prevailing in the Benadir, where he discovered the widespread practice of slavery and domestic servitude. But he could not do something about it, since obviously this meant disturbing the whole plantation economy of the South.

''Under the circumstances-the already difficult relations with the interior tribes- Neither Dulio nor Sorrentino could act immediately against slavery. Such action would have committed the Italians to a costly undertaking of doubtful outcome, a risk that Sorrentino had been ordered not to take.’’ (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.65)

Sorrentino and Dulio, the Benadir Company's commissioner, had to content themselves with the expected punitive expedition against the tribes in the interior. Sorrentino was pleased at the prospect of this punitive expedition as he thought of the Somalis as: ‘liars, thieves, and murderers’ A clear grudge from the ‘Lafole massacre’
He wrote in his book Ricordi del Benadir:

‘We’ve got a nasty cat to skin! May God protect us’ (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.66)

In March the reinforcements of the two companies of Eritrean askaris finally arrived, and the Italians completed their plans for the punitive expedition against the Wacdaan and Geledi.
On April 20, almost 5 months after the Lafole attack, Sorrentino led his expedition inland and burned first Lafole and then several other villages associated with the Geledi and Murusade clan. The religious settlement of Nimow from where Sheekh Axmed Xaaji preached his religious message, was also bombarded by an Italian warship.

''The Italian bombardment of the small coastal village of Nimow in retaliation for Cecchi’s death marked the first such colonial action against a Somali civilian population.’’( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.208).

The Italians were joyful about these ‘energetic measures’ against the Somalis who were found guilty. Surprisingly, the Italians thought that these measures would solve everything and concluded that the Sorrentino expedition was a success:

''With Abu Bakr arrested, the Ethiopians in voluntary retreat, Lafole avenged, and leaders of Somali opposition deported, Sorrentino had virtually accomplished his mission by the end of April’’ (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.66)

The deported leaders were Hussein Dera of Mogadishu and other Somalis for collaboration with the Ethiopians and instigation of Somali attacks on trading caravans between Lugh and the Coastal towns. Although these punitive expeditions looked impressive, they had no lasting effect, as it further antagonized the Wacdaan and Geledi clans. Also, it became clear that the two Arabs had no influence whatsoever on the clans of the interior, and thus were not the source of opposition to the Italian presence.

''The impression made by the punitive expedition after Lafolé could hardly have been called lasting'' (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.76)

This seems to be the case, since the Italians retreated to the coastal cities after the expedition.

''In the decade following the Lafoole incident, the Italians remained at the coast, their colonial policy marked by uncertainty and indecision. Their only major venture into the interior was the establishment of a garrison of Arab soldiers at Baardheere in 1902’’ ( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.204).

Also, in the book 'Italian colonialism in Somalia' of Robert L Hess, it becomes clear that the punitive expedition to avenge the Lafole attack was not followed by other expeditions into the interior.

''We make no expeditions against tribes guilty (of hostilities) but arrest individuals of that tribe who happen to be in town; (this policy) has persuaded the Bimal and the Somali of Mogadishu that we are not strong'' (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.76)

It thus becomes clear that the Italians retreated back to the Coast, and only were visible in the cities of Merca, Mogadishu, Barawe and Warsheekh.

In Somali Sultanate, Virginia Luling also talks about the consequences of Lafole attack, in which she writes:

''On the Italian side, though the repercussions of the disaster delayed by three years the formation of the Benadir Company, in the long run it reinforced the conviction that it was necessary to take military control of the hinterland. (Virginia Lulling, 2002, p.31)’’

What made the punitive expedition not effective on the long run? Why did the Italians retreat to the Coast?
To answer these questions we need to know how the different Somali groups in Benadir responded to the Lafole attack.

''It is clear from colonial reports and from Somali oral recollections that Lafoole precipated a response from all the districts of the hinterland'' ( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.208).

-------------

-To start with the Geledi Sultanate
The Sultan of Geledi, Sultan Osman, as already discussed in the previous parts, wanted to accomodate the Italian presence on the Benadir coast. Cecchi apparently went to conclude a treaty with the Sultan, in order to penetrate the interior of the Benadir region. The Lafole episode came suddenly, and the Italians mounted their revenge expedition. As a consequence, Sultan Osman quickly succumbed to the Italian pressure and signed a treaty of peace with the Italians.

''The encounter with the Italians subdued the sultan of Geledi, who quickly signed a treaty of peace and pledged obedience to the Italian government'' (Robert L. Hess, 1966, p.66).

This however did not mean that the Geledi people supported the Italian penetration of the Benadir coast, or accepted the Sultan's treaty with the Italians.
The young people of Geledi were fiercely opposed to the Italians and also played a role in the Lafoole attack.

''Acting-Governor Dulio felt that the young men of Geledi were fiercely opposed to the Italian presence, whereas their elders wanted some sort of accommodation'' ( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.209).

Besides the young men, the uncle of Sultan Osman, and others felt that if the sultan wavered in his resistance, Gobroon authority would be weakened for good. This was true, since many from Adawiin lineage, whose religious prestige among the Geledi was second only to the Gobroon, preached a policy of non-accommodation.
The reasons why the Sultan of Geledi succumbed to the Italians were varied. One of them was that Sultan Osman himself considered the possibility of shoring up his waning power through an alliance with the Italians.

The only articulated fierce opposition to the Italians from the Geledi was from the leader of a jamaaca (religious settlement) of the Ahmediya. This leader was Shaykh Abiker Ali Jelle, a member of the sultan’s own Gobroon lineage.

''When Abiker began to preach outright opposition to the colonials sitting threateningly on the coast, he was forced by the Geledi elders to leave the district’’( Lee V. Cassanelli).

This shows on which side the elders stood, and how they along with the Sultan were hesitant to join the resistance and thought accommodation was the best option for the group’s interest. We will see in later instalments whether this actually was the case.

-The Wacdaan response

As already discussed in the previous parts, the Wacdaan were from the beginning fiercely opposed to the Italian penetration of the Benadir. This fierce opposition culminated in the attack of Lafole, in which mainly Wacdaan warriors along with a few Murusade and Geledi warriors, attacked the Cecchi expedition and killed all but three men.
The Italians directed their anger and revenge on mainly this group, by burning Lafole to the ground and bombarding the coastal village of Nimow from the sea. The Sorrentino expedition, with the Italian troops already based in Benadir port-cities and the reinforcements of the two Eritrean Askari companies, was also mainly directed at punishing the Wacdaan and their allies.

These punitive measures however did not subdue the Wacdaan. Instead the Wacdaan remained harassing Italian presence on the Benadir coast by attacking caravans to the Benadir port-cities, organising blockades of the caravan routes that went through their territory to Mogadishu.

''Now the Wacdaan were beginning to blockade the caravan routes that ran through their territory to the coast'' ( Lee V. Cassanelli).

The Italians sought to divide the Wacdaan and persuade sections of the group to submit peacefully. As said earlier the most numerous and militarily strongest section of Wacdaan, the Abubakar (Abukar?) Moldheere were lead by the famous Hassan Hussein, the fierce anti-‘infidel’ leader who along with Sheekh Axmed Xaaji articulated the opposition to the Italian penetration of the Benadir coast. This section of Wacdaan could not be persuaded, and continued to fight the Italians to the bitter end. The other section, the Mahad Moldheere, began slowly to depart from the rest of Wacdaan. They too participated in the Lafole attack, but started to move to the side of the Geledi. This was not suprising since they inhabited the territory contiguous to Afgooye and the fertile lands around Adadleh.

''Their interests coincided more with those of the agricultural Geledi. However, their smaller numbers gave them less influence in Wacdaan clan councils, which came to assume greater importance for policymakers as the Wacdaan began to act independently of the Geledi. While the Mahad Moldheere apparently cooperated in the Lafoole siege, their leader Abiker Ahmed Hassan subsequently struck an independent diplomatic stance.’’ ( Lee V. Cassanelli).

When in 1899 the Italians demanded forty hostages to be surrendered to the authorities in Muqdisho as a sign of Wacdaan submission, only the Mahad Moldheere responded. Their leader Abiker became a stipended official, which enhanced his standing among those of pacific persuasion.
The Abubakar Moldheere refused to send the twenty representatives demanded of them and for some years remained openly defiant of Italian authority.

''They continued to attack caravans and occasionally to boycott the market of Muqdisho. There is some evidence to suggest that feuding within the Wacdaan increased after this rift between the two major lineages’( Lee V. Cassanelli).

The Biyamaal response

The Biyamaal were one of the first group to express their support for the Wacdaan in the lafole attack. They boycotted the markets of Merca, and the northern Biyamaal even collaborated with Hassan Husein of the Wacdaan. This collaboration led to the Biyamaal becoming also a target of punitive expeditions.

''After the Lafoole episode, several Biimaal sections boycotted the market of Marka to express their support for the Wacdaan action. The northern Biimaal collaborated with Hassan Hussein of Lafoole in cutting off land communications between Muqdisho and Marka.'' ( Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982, p.224).

The Italians also targeted the Biyamaal for their support to the Wacdaan. In this they seized Jeziira, 13 miles south of Mogadishu.

These were the immediate responses of the Italian colonialists and the different Somali groups to the Lafole battle.

These actions and reactions would accelerate in the coming years, as the Italians were determined to colonize Benadir coast as the springboard for the eventual colonization of the rest of Southern Somalia. In this, the Italians would target the two fiercest resistance groups in the Benadir: the Wacdaan and Biyamaal, who were already, allied in their economic sanctions and operations to disturb the lines of supplies and communication of the Italians in Mogadishu.

References:

- Italian colonialism in Somalia, Robert Hess, 1966
- The Shaping of Somali Society, Reconstructing the history of a Pastoral people, 1600-1900, Lee V. Cassanelli, 1982

[1] Italian Colonialism in Somalia, Robert L. Hess 1966.

[2] Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society, reconstructing the history of a pastoral people, 1600-1900. 1982

"Waiting the plague"

2010-08-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

By Abdulkadir Mohamed (Ato Shaair)

I took the license to interprete K’naan’s waving flag in a different way to reflect upon the painful reality of the ongoing Somali tragedy.

Without a doubt, K’naan’s song is inspirational and redeeming that would forever last in our hearts for its soulful and marleysque lyrics. It is a song that so beautifully and poetically reflects on the trials and tribulations many poor children go through in war torn countries like ours but refuses to surrender. It gives hope and calls for freedom. Waving flag is protest anthem against all the societal ills and betrayals. No wonder why it resonates through the conscience of so many people of different background.And who can forget that historical day, at the opening ceremony of the world cup in South Africa when K’naan, as our shining star, stood up and waved our celestial flag, giving us Somalis a spark of new sense of nationalism.

Upfront, it is suffice to say that I have done grave injustice to the gifted brother whom I am so proud of. I hope he understands the depressing feelings many of us have about our once beautiful Somalia and forgive me for my transgression here.

The rendition of K’naan’s “waving flag” below is neither a parody nor apology. It is neither a piracy nor appropriation of the original song or in other words and in the Somali sense, "Bililiqeeysi" It is a telling of tragedy that began two decades ago in Somalia and a terror that continues to this day in its burned capital.

Somalia’s self destruction didn’t start overnight and it might not end soon. In the beginning, the plague of the clan infected the hearts of many of it is people. That curse, in so many ways, helped to wreak havoc and pave the way for hell to descend upon Somalia and Somalis who ironically are homogeneous people that share ethnicity, culture, language and religion. An uncivil war began. Famine followed. Millions perished and thousand fled to every corner of the world. The world abandoned Somalia to destroy itself beyond recognition and dubbed it the emblematic and problematic “failed state” it was done deal. Neglected and thrown to warlord beasts, death and destruction became the destiny of Somalia.

However, hope came close when warlords were overthrown in 2006. For six months we saw a glimpse of peace despite the impatience of extremist elements within the forces that defeated the awful warlords. We felt it was all possible; that one day Somalis will come back to their senses and start reconciling and rebuilding. We came to believe that Somalia still possessed some selfless revolutionary sons and daughters. We sought salvation and comfort in the religion and those we thought were well-versed in it.

Sadly that dream did not materialize due to the short-sightedness of some of the leaders of the time and the narrow views of fanatics. Our hope was also dashed by the over-stretched hands of Uncle Sam who rightly and wrongly sensed threat of terror coming from Somalia. Bush contracted Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian butcher to neutralize the menace of Mogadishu. After enduring murder and mayhem, so-called Somali insurgents forced the Ethiopian proxy soldiers out of Mogadishu.

But again, we were fooled and letdown when the same insurgents who drove the invaders away began to terrorize the already suffering mothers and children of Somalia. Out of the cruelty of the Somali bloodbath, was born a group of satanic boys led by sadistic men of terror and tyranny. They said they were the youth. In reality, they are nothing but indoctrinated child soldiers trained to commit suicide bombings and to hunt down every Somali that is suspected to pose a threat to the wicked and evil ideology Osama and company are exporting to Somalia. The brainwashed boys bomb doctors, kill journalists, chase civil society, stone young girls to death, cut limbs, ban music and sports and perpetuate the worst kind of violence and terror.

Many of Somalia’s educated and privileged sons and daughters fled the carnage and found refuge in places like Toronto, Canada where K’naan now calls home. Many of them are getting older, weaker and tired with pain and shame. Lost is their dignity and pride. They became dependent and weary. They gave up of the idea of ever returning to their homeland. They feel they are losing the children they brought with them to strange and alien culture. They feel abandoned and snubbed. They know they can't go back to the bloody boys of Al-Shabaab. After soul searching, deep down, they feel responsible of creating this monster in the first place and for that they are remorseful.

Thus, the rendition is all about that and worse. I know no one would enjoy such agonizing interpretation but here it is. Once again, my apologies for ugly-ing K’naan’s amazing song.

When I get older, I will be weaker

They call me fiefdom

Just like a raving plague

And then it goes whack, and then it goes whack,

And then it goes whack

Born to a clan, weaker than a foam

But silent condone, more people blown

But it’s the swarm all I have known

Where I got thrown, beasts we would crown

But out of the carcass, warlords own the harvest

Among the corpses, as a rival

Turn to obsolete, it can be sick

Expect no food, doctors no treat

So we killing, fighting too bloody

We wondering when we will agree

So we blindly bait, for that faithful prey

It’s half away, so reap what we sow

so forth how we decay

When I get older, I will be weaker

They call me fiefdom

Just like a waiting plague

And then it goes whack, then it goes dark,

then it goes stark.

So many ignores, getting loses

Bringing us demises, leaving us alone

Save each other, that is what they say

But look how the boys beat us, make us all flee

He might choke on pretzels, Bush greases Meles

Try to patrol us, they couldn’t hold us

Cause we just move forward like sea pirates

So we killing, fighting too greedy

We wandering when we will agree

So we patiently prey, for that faithful boy

He is half awake, so bad how we employ

When I get older, I will be weaker

They call me fiefdom

Just like a waving black flag

just like a waiting plague

And then it goes whack, And then it gets locked

And then it is lacked

Going out with Xaliimo

2010-08-27T09:10:00.000-07:00

By: Ato Shaair

Galabta I am feeling all good for two sabab: reasonka hore is I am taking Xaliimo out to balan and that involves to maqaayad and to Shaneemo. I don’t know which one aan Horumariyo. Should we first go to the shaneemadda and ka dib dinner or the other way around. Eating late night waa laga fiican yahay unless you gonna be up habeenkoo dhan which could be the case since we maryooleey are like night owls or like baranbaro mugdiga soo baxdo. Laakiin I just xasuustay that beri is Saturday and Xaliimo wants to go to that Saturday night aroos. She has to be in bed for saacado to get her beauty sleep; waa sideey hadalka u dhigtee. She doesn’t want to go there iyadoo indho-fiiqan and gooman dhaadheer. Midda kale, I can’t have another night of dhafar and partying. I was up xalay oo dhan chewing qaat and smoking Shisha. So it is got to be an early movie, then casho, then coming back to xaafad and getting some deserved hurdo. A good qorsho or plan right?

Xaliimo and I had a brief hadal over the phone. This was markii ugu horeeysay I talk to her over teleefanka. I wasn’t nervous rack like markii hore that she was here at our guri. Mida kale her sexy cod was soothing and macaan. We discussed waxaan sameeyn doono and how it is going to be heer sare to be all kaligeen. But to my qalbi-jab, she wants Faadumo Gaab to come with us. I first said maya! I had to totally diid sheekadan raqiista ah. Who I am dating here? Xaliimo Xuural Ceyn or Gaabeey Madax-Burjiko, the notorious gaanjibo and gang-leader in the Xaafad? No way Jose! Yaa la caarifaa? I want this balan to be all kaligeey with Xaliimo and to have waqti fiican with her kaliya and not a whole bunch of gaanjibayaalka Xaafadda.

I protested and expressed my ka-soo-horjeed of this but Xaliimo suggested that I should bring one of my saaxiibayaal to fix with Gaabo? Are you kaftanning me ? who , in his right maskax will go with gaabo? Xaliimo gave me kama danbeeyn, If gaabo is not coming, no balan, no movie or no casho aadoow! I tried to reason with Xaliimo but to no guul. These Somali chicks are madax adeegyaa walaahi. What a dilemma! I had to aqbal this lame soo-jeedin and I said waayahay like baari wax jecel. I told her inaan pick -up gareenaayo at maqribka in front of gurigeeda.

Well, I had to get my hommie, Cali-Atoore. He is the coolest xariif in the xaafad who will never disappoint you and mar kasta gets your back when aad u baahato. Atoore said yes to being a double date. He is into shorties and since Faadumo Gaabo is a thick shorty, I think he is gonna have a blast with her. Besides, when it comes to indho-adeegnimo and being cool-cat, he is raggeedii. I had to codsi this from him to keep Gaabo mashquul and to not outsmart me or inuu isku dayo to be funnier or cooler than me. I have to impress Xaliimo and be the man! Atoore assures me that wax kasta will be OK. Man, is this guy a friend la isku haleeyn karo or what?

Now that I took care of this, my next move was to get a nice gaari or Baabuur. My Qanax Geo Prism has muffler qaylo badan plus it only has labo albaab and it is too duq. Xaliimo drives a nice Camry cusub but since I am taking her out, I can’t ask her to isticmaal her car. So I phoned my other saaxiib Wiil Belaayo who works at BudgetCar Rentals. He can hook me up with a luxury car. When I called Wiil Belaayo , he told me that all luxury cars in la ijaartay for the weekend but he could hook me up with a full size Ford Expedition. This ma wanaagsana. Sababta hore, SUVs consume a lot of gas and I am qaac, broke-a$$ and ma awoodo to fill it up. Secondly, it is is tus-tus and an invitation for a carjacking. With all the madoow iyo mexican waalan in our ghetto xaafad, it is not safe be driving gaari noocaas ah habeenkii. I had to settle for a mercury iska dhexdhexaad ah.

Caawa is the night. I have casual labis , so is my saaxiib Cali Atoore. I called Xaliimo and she is running late. She is mashquul with something as usual but tells me she will be done soon in shan iyo toban daqiiqo which means about hour and half in the Somali time. It is all cool. I pray fast maqrib and ask Allah to make this balan go smooth. As I started my salaat, a loud music comes from Fadhiga. My sister Asli is now listening to Somali hees with Cali Atoore whom she had a crush before Hooyo found out and suggested she will be arranged to marry him just si looga nixiyo. She used to listen R&B and Rap but since this new reer came from Kenya, she is into Somali songs hadda. In a way, that is good but not now aan tukanaayo and not that hees of Maryan Mursal: “balantii aan dhiganaba waligaa ha beeneeyn, barashadii kalgacalkana bilaash yaaneey kula noqon” damn, I am in the middle of my salaat and I am following the lyrics of the hees my younger sister is listening to? Wiswaas fooqul wiswaas! And why it has to be balan and barasho? Not like that Magool song she was listening while ago: " Nin lagu seexdoow ha seexan" which my sister thinks is all about a naag telling her husband not to sleep and do his job at the sariirta, if you know what I mean? I am doomed. This could be a bad omen. I ka bax salaat and go to fadhi and shut the whole CD-Player. “ naga dami heesahaaga waalan” I shouted at Asli. I came back to my qol and xirtay another Salaat. I prayed degdeg and asked allah again to make this balan go smooth.

As soon as aan salaama noqsaday, I can hear Cali Atoore telling my sister our balan and double date. I don’t faham why this dude is a loud mouth? I knew inuu hadal badan yahay and I know he is trying to impress my sis. Asli ma ku faraxasana sheekaddan. She likes Xaliimo but just hates Gaabo just like me.

Intuusan sheegin the whole 411, i have to intervene. I summoned Ali Atoore to my room si dhaqso ah to make sure we are on the same page. “War caadi iska dhig saaxiiboow” was his answer. After half an hour, I get a call from Xaliimo. Waxeey ii sheegtay ineey ready tahay. Xaafadeeda is not that far. This is it. I and Cali Atoore are officially or si rasmi ah going to a date with Xaliimo and Faadumo Gaabo.

Continued

Ebony Iman Dallas empowers artistis through Afrikanation

2010-08-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

“Abahay's Eyes” - Mixed Media 2009

This piece is dedicated to my father, Siciid Ibrahim Osman who was murdered in Oklahoma prior to my birth. The title, “Abahay’s Eye’s,” was given because his eyes, the most important feature in a face, were hidden behind large, dark glasses in the photos I’ve seen of him. I have often been told that my eyes and nose match his, so I picked up a mirror in one hand with a pencil in the other and used drawing as a tool to uncover his face for the first time. And this is how my father looks to me.

The surrounding text contains my apology to him for anger I kept for 25 years of my life, until learning that his “suicide” was in fact murder. It contains my vow to keep his memory alive and find the truth while honoring him for his strength, loyalty, soft heart, hot temper, independent spirit and the love he had for his family and would have had for me.

Artist Biography

Ebony Iman Dallas is an artist, designer and community organizer born and raised in Oklahoma City, OK. Ebony is for her mother Viola Dallas from Oklahoma, Iman for her biological father Said Ibrahim Osman, originally from Somalia who passed away prior to her birth and Dallas is for her father Wayne Dallas, also from Oklahoma who raised her as his own. EID comes together to shape the woman and artist she is today.In 2003, Ebony earned a BA Advertising degree with a minor in Art and Certificate in Emerging Technologies from the University of Central Oklahoma. Upon graduation, she moved to Oakland, California to pursue a career in advertising. This move not only benefited her career wise as she went on to become an art director, it also led her to meet the family of her deceased father, Said, whom she spent her life searching for. When Ebony was just three years old, her mother and the family of her father lost contact due to a series of uncontrollable reasons. After meeting Hakim Guleid, who knew her entire family and that they were also searching for her, she began a journey of discovery. To discover the truth of who her father was and she is.

“As an artist and as a person, I have grown a lot in the last six years. I’ve learned to take risks and trust God and His plans for me. Had I remained in Oklahoma for a sense of comfort, I never would have met my family and begun the journey I’m on today.

In 2006, while searching through a crowded market place in Nairobi, Kenya with her newfound aunt, they spotted the perfect painting to send to her uncle after hours of searching.

“We came to the artist, whose name was Patrick, and we told him we had just visited the gallery downstairs. We were ready to praise and thank him for ending our long search but he cut us off and said, ‘Please do not tell the lady at the gallery we are up here selling our artwork.’ Apparently, the owner of the gallery made an agreement with the mall that no one was to sell artwork, particularly paintings, accept though her.”

This incident raised many questions in her mind regarding an artist’s right to equal treatment and fair trade, and they never left it. Another issue, which caused her deep concern, was the disproportionate number of people infected by HIV/AIDS in Africa, as well as within the African-American population in the United States.

In 2007, after a lot of soul-searching and prayer, Ebony decided to pursue sustainable solutions to these problems, and entered California College of the Arts as a full-time MFA Interaction Design student. At CCA, her final thesis focused on bridging the social and communication divisions among diverse populations in the African diaspora in the US through art and design for community activism. This was an effort to establish mutual understanding and join minds to create solutions to common social, educational and health related challenges though art. She went on to organize artistic collaborations and interviews, create community art events and fundraisers and also concept an online network that allows artist collaborations while promoting offline interactions and community events.

After graduating in 2009, Ebony went on to found the Afrikanation Artists Organization in Hargeysa, Somaliland/Somalia. Afrikanation is a non-governmental, non-profit organization designed to empower artists and their communities under the belief that art has the power to create positive change in the lives of artists, society and the world. Afrikanation’s focus is on creating sustainable economic development initiatives, arts education programs and create awareness around social, educational and health related challenges in this region through art. In April 2010, Afrikanation held their first official event, “A Celebration of Art and Culture” in Hargeysa. A mixture of music, paintings, poetry, fashion design and youth arts station made it memorable night suitable for the whole family.

Ebony’s artwork sums up the whole of her experience. She combines fiery hues with whimsical forms in order to express the strong will and restless spirit in her subjects. Each piece takes form organically, as every line and shape determines the outcome of the next as our decisions do in life. This process has revealed results that were unexpected yet true on a subconscious and spiritual level. Sometimes the original purpose and meaning of a painting is even altered mid-way.

Her latest body of work pays homage sheros and heroes who have selflessly given their lives in order to improve the lives of others. This series includes well-known trailblazers such as Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley, but also includes the stories often untold such as the mother depicted in “Nabad iyo Caano,” who does everything in her power to shield her son from the daily realities of war in Mogadishu and Keonna Tinsley, a 15-year-old girl who raised her 4 siblings alone, managed to marry and have a son of her own all by the age of 25, then died unexpectedly in her sleep.

“I realize now that I am a storyteller. I love to tell people’s stories and create awareness around issues that affect them. I do this through my artwork as well as through Afrikanation Artists Organization, which is a dream come true. I believe this is a part of my purpose on this earth.”

“Contemplation” - 2007 Mixed Media

Dedicated to the legendary Bob Marley, this painting depicts the man deep in thought, ready to use the power of music as a tool to inform the world that those who live with few worldly possessions and lack money, deserve the same rights and opportunities as those who write them. Through music, Bob Marley inspired millions to keep their heads up, backs straight and feet planted firmly in order to fight for the rights they deserve - even when a situation has seemed to reach its lowest point.

My mother, Viola Dallas, also raised her voice and fist during uncertain times in the United States for African-Americans. She and my father Wayne Dallas instilled pride in my siblings and I, even as society argued its validity. Bob Marley taught this same lesson by using his mind as a weapon and words like bullets to pierce hearts and souls without bloodshed in order to create peaceful, positive change. He was an inspirational warrior and dedicated his life to see that the people of Jamaica, his home, and those throughout the world gain equal rights and opportunities and live together in love in harmony.

“Nabad iyo Caano” – 2010 Acrylic

This painting is dedicated to all the mothers, women and children in Somalia who have lost their lives, been victims of rape and other forms of abuse during the war.

A new mother in Mogadishu holds her newborn son, completely consumed by her thoughts and silent prayers while looking into the distance. This mother, like any new mother, wants the best for her child: A good education, peaceful upbringing and the opportunity grow up to make a positive contribution to society someday.

But for this new mother, who gave birth to screams mixed with gunfire, it is an extra challenging vision to keep. There are mixtures of symbols surrounding her to represent her wide range of thoughts. There is a symbol of a woman holding her child without fear, completely consumed by their love for each other, a book representing his education and the words “Nabad iyo Caano” flow silently into the piece.

The gold layer surrounding her represents God’s protection while the image of a woman being welcomed into Heaven with an outstretched arm, represents her constant fear of being unable to raise her son. In the top right corner is a symbol of a man holding a bomb as her son turns his back to him. Behind nearly every war since the beginning of time has been a rich, influential man who holds keys of war and prey on the young and poverty-stricken. All done to selfishly convince others to fight their battles and fulfill often secret, personal goals. In the end of ther vision, her son turns his back and says no.

“Keonna Angel” - Acrylic on Wood 2008

Keonna Tinsley was a smart, energetic, no-nonsense kind of girl who encompassed the meaning of unconditional love. At the age of 15-years old, her mother suddenly died and Keonna watched as her and her five siblings faced the threat of being split among family. Keonna decided that this was not an option so she kept the house that they grew up in and for ten years she did everything she could to ensure the success of her siblings, with the youngest only one-year old. She gave up a full-scholarship for college but her true pride and joy was in seeing the success of her siblings. Keonna lived to see the second eldest child, Monkeith go off to college and she married and gave birth to her one and only son. One night, God decided she had given all she could and that her time on this earth was complete. He accepted her into Heaven peacefully in her sleep at the young age of 25. Doctors concluded that she died of an enlarged heart.

This painting is my humble way of paying homage to this great woman who left such a powerful legacy in her short time on earth. She taught all of us who knew her and those who have heard her story, a real lesson in what unconditional love and sacrifice really mean. Words flow throughout the painting in order to quickly share her story with those who come into contact with it, and hopefully leaves them with something to think about long after they’ve gone.

Keonna and her siblings Monkeith, Sunnaye, Krystal and Farquan worked hard to keep things together, and they did.

To You Keona

"Lubna's Vision of Peace" – Acrylic 2010

This painting is dedicated to Lubna Hussein, a brave Sudanese journalist who stood up to her government in a battle for women's rights. In July 2009, Ms. Hussein was arrested and charged with Indecency for wearing pants in public. Standing trial she faced a punishment of 40 lashes and one month in prison. This could have easily been avoided due to immunity granted by her UN employer, however she decided to quit her job to be sentenced alongside the 12 other women arrested that day for the same “crime.”

This painting uses a diverse mix of symbols; some religious, some cultural and some historical, but all united as one peaceful flow without clashing. The red color that cuts through the painting represents the blood that women have spilled as a result of this brutal law and desire to to live in a society free of intimidation at their own free will.

Lubna sits at the top like a queen wearing the ankh, a symbol of life and strength, as this is what she represents to women across the globe. For her bravery, sacrifice and dedication to the cause. To Lubna.

"Source of My Strength" - Acrylic 2008

Everyone has a secret weapon. Here is mine that is no longer a secret. Everything I do, everywhere I am I carry it with me for strength to move, courage to dream and wisdom to understand the path to take when it comes. It is how I get by and why I can now say this life is a beautiful adventure and not a constant reminder of dreams too far to reach.

The woman bows her head silently in prayer and is completely surrounded by words exchanged that are only understood between her and God.

Dreams can be reached but you must forget about yourself and your limitations and trust in God. He will provide you with everything you need at the right time but you must pray for guidance and trust it when it comes. Stepping out into an unfamiliar path may leave you anxious and nervous at times, but over time you will learn that trusting in God beats the tears, stress and constant fear over things you cannot change. He will provide you with everything you need, when you need it, which fortunately isn’t always when we think we do.

Ebony's Work in Somaliland in pictures

Ebony's Page

Info about Afrikanation - http://www.eidart.com/afrikanation.html

Creating the divide between Americans and American Muslims

2010-08-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

by Leyla Bile - Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 4:01pm

Watching the news media in the past few weeks I have felt exceedingly alienated with each day. I didn't realize what effect all this negative propaganda had on me till I was sitting at work and a news item about the Cordoba center came on. I suddenly found myself feeling self conscious and I looked around at the people sitting at the tables. I tried to catch their eyes and read their thoughts. To see if they regarded me as an 'other' and all I was met with were eyes that looked passive. I steeled my heart because I realized that all over America people might be watching the same channel, and perhaps their eyes were as passive as the ones around me.On 9/11, I was on campus drinking my coffee and catching up on notes when I saw the first images of the towers going down. It was shocking and I remember saying a quick prayer to God for mercy on all the souls that were going to be touched by this tragedy. The next day I got text messages about not coming to school because of fear. I remember my mother asking me to stay home but I was so sure of this country, my country. Apart from some odd stares here and there I didn't feel any fear at all. So tell me why the other day as I was driving with my window down and listening to Quran I felt fear creep in my heart when I stopped at a red light. I noticed an eerie silence and I chanced a look to my left. A man was staring intently at me. I smiled at him and he didn't return the smile and kept staring daggers at me. I looked back to the road and tried to shake the creepy feeling off me.

My tale is not singular in essence. The illusion of the 'other' in American history has led to certain minorities being persecuted i.e. Japanese, Jews, Blacks. The foolhardy, short sighted plan of the political candidates as well as cultural leaders is slowly unfurling the very fabric of the pluralistic and tolerant society that is United States. Scapegoating Muslims and Islam for political capital has long lasting effects that feeds off the fear of some Americans. I am as American as the next person. My religion is a personal choice that is protected by the constitution. Do not marginalize the American Muslims, who are contributing members of society, for the sins of the few. Division in society has never led to prosperity, and I should know, for Somalia has been mired in war for 20+ years due to divisions.

This is not only about the Cordoba Center anymore, this is about standing up for values that are intrinsically American; freedom, democracy, religion, acceptance, diversity, loyalty etc. As a society that shares these common beliefs, I implore you to live out the motto "E Pluribus Unum" {Out of Many One}.

THE LAND OF THE GODS - A brief study of Somali Etymology and its historio-linguistic potential

2010-08-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

By Abukar Ali

St. Paul, Minnesota, United States

I. INTRODUCTION

When the author first began the present study of Somali etymology way back in 1982, it was more in the form of a hobby than anything serious. As a matter of fact, the author had neither the academic training nor the resources to embark on the study of a subject as complex as Somali etymology without even the benefit of a precedent. However, his success with the first set of words was an inspiration and convinced him that Somali was an indeed antiquated medium with a rich potential for historio-linguistic study.In the course of the present limited study, the author not only had to enrich his somewhat rudimentary knowledge of Arabic and Oromo but also found it prudent to study Egyptology, Islam and Christianity – subjects he thought of potential value to the study.

For the purpose of the present study, the author carefully selected scores of important cultural words to work on. Occasionally, he had to ponder and sit on a single word for days, weeks or even months before he could split a word and understand its components. Naturally, the first word that topped the list was intriguing and often misinterpreted name of both the language and its speakers – Somali.

The present study is by no means conclusive. A lot more needs to be done to realize the full historio-linguistic potential of Somali. As an amateur linguist, the author hopes to stimulate interest among linguists, historians and archeologists and provide them with a fresh perspective of the country known as ‘The land of gods’. Its people and their language. If it succeeds in this endeavor, then it would have served its purpose.

II. THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Somalis are a homogenous race of mainly nomads and occupy a vast but sparsely populated territory between Djibouti on the red Sea and Tana River in the north-eastern Kenya. Believed a member of the Eastern Cushitic group, which also includes the Afar, Oromo, Rendille and others, Somali are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi sect. Though generally fanatic in defence of Islam, Somalis tend to be rather liberal in practice. Companions of the Prophet Muhammad reportedly migrated to the Horn of Africa only a few years after Islam’s appearance in its birth-place of Mecca. To this day, however, the faith is yet to make a significant impact on the lives of these hardy nomads and appears to blend well with some age-old pagan traditions.

Historically, very little was known about the Somali people’s pre-Islamic past. Despite recent fossil and genetic evidence which strongly advocate the theory that mankind originated in Africa, and East Africa in particular, there was relatively little archeological study of the Somali peninsula. Most archeologists and paleontologists tended to concentrate their search on the more hospitable and tourist-friendly countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. The logically more potential and geologically older terrain of Somalia was somehow ignored. The inhabitants of the Somali coasts were known to have contact and trade relations with the two known oldest civilizations of the world, namely ancient Egypt and Sumaria. Unlike ancient Egypt where scholars were able to uncover and translate numerous writings and records, our knowledge of Sumaria remained relatively scant and inadequate. The author, however, thought it of interest that Sumarian huts which were made of woven reed were an exact replica of a Somali nomad’s collapsible hut. Also strangely enough, the most important Sumarian deity, MARDUK, literally meant in Somali ‘The one who was once buried’.

Perhaps the earliest and most detailed historical record of Somalia was that of the famous Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut’s voyage to the Land of Punt in 1500 BC. On arrival there, however, the king and queen of Punt enquired of her why she came after her ancestors forsook them for a long time. Apparently, contact between the two countries did not begin with the queen’s visit but existed much earlier.

HATSHEPSUT'S TEMPLE, LUXOR

Ancient Egyptian records narrate how would-be Pharaohs were ritually required to go on a pilgrimage to ‘The Land of the Gods’ prior to their ascent to the throne. The name ‘The Land of the Gods’ and this ritual were apparently lost to historians who failed to appreciate the fact that the country was an important centre of religion and the cradle of idol worship.

DEPICTED ON THE WALLS OF HATSHEPSUT'S TEMPLE

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- GOLD COLLECTED FROM LAND OF PUNT

Sadly, Egyptologists often worked on the premise that the ancient Egyptian civilization began along the fertile Nile Valley where farming and other so-called pre-requisites for civilizations were possible. Without disputing the fact that this civilization made tremendous development and reached its zenith along the Nile Valley, its humble beginnings could have originated elsewhere where time and conditions obliterated any visible signs of its existence. With its huge obelisks, gigantic pyramids, ruined cities and other priceless archaeological treasures, Egypt no doubt provided everything scholars ever dreamed of and much more – and they never looked beyond since.

While the mysterious ‘Punt’ was probably the ancestor of the Somali speaking people (? The Biblical Phut in Genesis), it was mainly ‘The Land of the Gods’ which captured the imagination of the author. It was an indisputable fact that, in ancient civilizations, religion dominated the lives of people and formed the pillars of their culture. Little wonder that most of ancient Egypt’s gods as well as the most important components of their culture came from the country they knew as ‘The Land of the Gods’.

Paintings of their gods show at least six held the common Somali nomad’s HANGOOL – a handy stuff hook-shaped at one end and a V-shaped at the other traditionally used for handling thorn bushes. Another three gods held the slender Somali spear. Ancient Egyptian traditional dresses, the Royal scarf worn around the waist as well as the (Ivory) headrest all reminds one of the present day Somalia. Curiously enough, the beautifully decorated scarf to this day remained part of a Somali nomad girl’s ceremonial attire and was called BOQOR. The word BOQOR was also the only Somali word for king. While the method of burying the dead with their belongings was also a pre-Islamic Somali tradition, there where the persistent reports of the existence of man-made hills in north-east Somalia- a probable predecessor to ancient Egypt’s geometrical pyramids.

Apart from the ancient Egyptian records, the only detailed mention of pre-Islamic Somalia was that by the Greek geographers and travelers Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy and cosmos Indicopleustas who visited the Red Sea coast between the first and fifth century A.D. According to their records, Somalia was then called Barbaria and its people were Barbars. The name Berber was apparently a corruption of Barbar and, therefore, Barbaria must have been the original homeland of the North African Berbers.

In all probability, the Red Sea Port city of Berbera was Barbara, the most important town in Barbaria. Perhaps it would be of interest to note here that the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyph was also called BARBA. Incidentally, BARBA in Somali meant ‘teach to write’ and was still in use in the old quarter of Mogadishu. BAR in Somali means ‘teach’ and BA was the first letter of the Hieroglyph as well as the Somali orthography. While the word Barbarism and Barbaric found its way into some European dictionaries in their correct spelling, they obviously referred to the hostile and ‘savage’ conduct of the North Africans who then were the only Barbars in contact with Europe.

Another unexpected source which the author found valuable was the two Holy Books of the two main monotheistic religions, namely the Bible and Qur’an. In the opinion of the author, the age of the two books and their reference to historical events renders them a valuable source which could not simply be ignored or dismissed. As a matter of fact, the two books provided some useful hints which added to the mounting etymological evidence at hand. For instance, the Biblical YAHWE (later turned Yehova and Jehova) was evidently the same as the Somali YAHU – traditionally invoked to ward off evil or danger. While the Cananite god ‘Pal’ was still present in Somalia in the same sense in one or two words, the ancient Aramaic name for the almighty, EBBE, was to this day the most commonly used names for God besides the Islamic ‘Allah’. The Biblical TUBAN-CAIN, whose profession was to make instruments (Genesis 4:22) was obviously a Greek mispronunciation of TUMAL, the Somali iron-monger.

According to the earliest interpretations of the Quran, the place where Cain slew his brother, Abel, was ‘GERIYAT’ which reportedly meant ‘The place of Death’. Incidentally, the hottest most desolate piece of desert in North-Western Somalia was called and thus also meant in Somali. GERIYAT (GEERIYAAD) lies about 25km south of the historical Red Sea Port of Zeila (probably the Biblical Zillah, the mother of TUBAL-CAIN). Also according to the Holy Quran, WAD (the ancient Hamite god) was one of the five idol-gods worshipped during the time of Prophet Noah. There was now etymological evidence that WAD was a Somali deity as also was HOBAL and several of ancient Egypt’s gods.

III. THE LAND OF THE GODS

Linguistically, Somali was classified as a member of the Eastern Cushitic sub-group of the Cushitic branch of the Hamito-Semitic family. Languages that belong to the Hamito-Semitic family were usually sub-divided into branches that represented dialects of the original parent language. These were Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic and Chadic.

While some linguists rejected the existence of a genetic affinity between the Chadic and other branches of the Hamito-Semitic, others accepted it Similarly, on the basis of the low percentage of vocabulary items shared between the West Cushitic languages and other members of the Cushitic branch, some scholars classified West Cushitic as a separate branch of the Hamito-Semitic known as Omotic. Still others connect Omotic with the Chadic group.

In view of such considerable differences of opinion among linguists as to which language belonged to which group and the criteria to be applied in identifying a language, it would in the view of the author, be wise to expand the scope of the criteria to be applied. Just as new genetic evidence points to the fact that all human beings came from the same family of man and woman, available linguistic evidence also points to the same genetic origin of all languages. Obviously, the present criterion for classifying languages on the basis of the common origin of the most ancient vocabulary and word elements used to express grammatical relations were clearly inadequate and the cause of such difference of opinion. Consequently, a study of a language’s etymology would not only add to our knowledge of a people’s ancient history and culture but could also help in determining the age of a language as well as its relationship with other languages. However, the study of the word formation of a language was a rather complex subject and could only be attempted by a native with a fairly large reservoir of vocabulary, an inner feeling for the cultural circumstances in which a word formed as well as a working knowledge of other sister languages. Studying a language as a foreign medium was, in the opinion of the author, hardly enough to comprehend variations of the words of an ancient yet living language such as Somali.

Unfortunately, the present study raises more questions than it provides answers in a discipline already beset with conflicting theories and arguments. However, whatever linguistic characteristics Somali seems to share with other languages of the Cushitic group, the presence of a fairly large number of ancient objects of worship as well as names of God clearly separates it from the group and calls for a more comprehensive study of the language.

(P.S. For the purpose of clarity, gods of Somali origin identified in the study as well as Somali words used are rendered in the new Somali orthography.)

Contrary to the accepted traditional classification and the recent claim by Prof. M. Nuh (PhD UCLA 1981) that Somali separated from parent Cushitic some 3000 to 3500 years ago, it was evident from the study the language could well belong to the ancient stage of the Hamito-Semitic if not earlier. The fact that it survived almost intact over several millennia could probably be due to its speakers’ unchanged pastoralist way of life and their almost geographical isolation in the North-Eastern corner of the Horn of Africa.

Probably the most important word in the Somali language is its name, i.e. SOMALI. Often misunderstood and occasionally misinterpreted by Somali and foreign scholars alike, the author thought it befitting that the study should begin with it. Contrary to all erroneous theories advanced and meanings attributed to it, the name was a simple Somali noun describing the profession of its speakers, namely SOMAAL. In old Somali, so’ meant meat – now replaced by the modern word HILIB. Among speakers of MAI dialect, however, SO’ was still very much in use and was the only word for meat. The suffix MAAL means to live on or to make gain from. Hence SO’MAAL literally means ‘one who lives on meat’ – in other words a pastoralist.

Apparently, in ancient times, Somalis were more efficiently divided along professional lines as opposed to the present cumbersome system of lineage. The TUMAAL was the iron-monger, BAAJIMAAL was the potter and BIYOMAAL (literally the one who lives on or makes gain from water) was either a cultivator or a fisher. Presently, a sub-clan of the main Dir clan-family is called BIYOMAAL and live along the lower parts of the Shabelle river – though they practice both farming and pastoralism. To this day, however, the SO’MAAL, TUMAAL and BAAJIMAAL live true to their old professions. In line with similar words in the language, the difficult-to-pronounce Hamzah (’) in SO’MAAL was later dropped and replaced by the long vowel SOOMAAL.

The only other Somali word with the suffix MAAL was DUMAAL which meant ‘one who gained from death’. DUMAAL was the word commonly used for wife-inheritance. In Somali tradition, a man is expected to inherit the wife of his deceased brother. Similarly, in the event of death of one’s wife, her younger sister is usually given to him in marriage to take the place of her deceased elder sister. Therefore, in Somali, a sister-in-law was a DUMAASHI (which should have basically been DUMAAL-SHI).

WAD’AAD (now WADAAD), evidently the pre-Islamic word for priest (man of religion) was still commonly used and contained the ancient ‘Hamitic’ god WAD. Hence WAD’AAD, or more recently WADAAD, meant the attendant of WAD. In modern Somali, WAD meant ‘death’. Similarly, DAR’AAD (currently GARAAD) meant ‘an expert in law’ – probably the clan advocate. In modern Somali, however, GARAAD today means prince or Sultan of a clan.

Another supposedly ‘ancient Hamitic god’, HOBAL, also was evidently of Somali origin. HOOBAL – alternatively HOOYAL – was probably the best known of all Somali gods and continues to dominate Somali poetry and traditional folklore songs. Pagan Arabia’s most important god, HUBAL, was none other than the Somali HUBAL, co-opted and given an Arabised sound. In modern Somali today, HOBAL, was understood to mean ‘Artiste’. The ancient god was probably the patron-god of Somali literature.

Undoubtedly the most important aspect of the present study was the Somali-Egyptian relationship. Present linguistic evidence showed at least five of ancient Egypt’s gods came from or had obvious links with the country they at times called ‘The Land of the Gods’. For instance, the supreme sun god, RA’ (also alternatively called RA and RE) occurs as a component of a number of culturally-important Somali words. The all-important ritual word for slaughter, GOWRAC, clearly indicates the sun god was as old as the language itself. GOWRAC literally meant ‘cut for RAC’. The Oromo word for the same ritual was GORA’ with a Hamzah substituted for the more difficult to pronounce C (’). RA was the only god Somali shared with other Eastern Cushitic branch with the exception of Waq which it also shares with the Oromo. Other Somali words which also contained the supreme sun god GARAC (an illegitimate child), ARRAWEELO (AR-RA-WEELO), the legendary pagan queen who castrated a whole generation of the Somali menfolk. ARRAWEELO literally meant ‘The one who obeyed RA’. The Somali word for ‘wrong’ was GURRAC (GUR-RAC). GUR meant ‘the left hand’, which in most languages stood for ‘wrong’.

The two words GARRE (GAR-RE) and BARRE (BAR-RE) incorporated the third alias of the sun god, RE. Consequently, GARRE meant the same as GARAC – both meaning an illegitimate child. Hence the saying “GARRE GARAC MALE” – meaning the GARRE (a clan in the south) have no illegitimate child. It was an accepted tradition to this day among the clan that a newly-wed bride was immediately taken away by young herdsmen and could not be returned to her husband until she was pregnant. BARRE (BAR-RE) meant god’s rain. BAR means rain drops as in BARWAAQO (BAR-WAQ).

HOROUS, the second most important of ancient Egypt’s gods, also appears to have originated in the ‘Land of the gods’. The dark falcon deity (Somali ABOODI) still remains a much feared bird. It was believed to be particularly dangerous to newly-born babies and nursing mothers. A piece of the bird’s bones or its claw was traditionally tied around the infant as a protection against its harmful spells. In North-Eastern Somalia in particular, the male name HORUSE was given to a child of dark complexion. To protect themselves against the falcon’s evil eye, nursing mothers often carry a knife or a short stick of the WAGAR tree. Incidentally, the Egyptian pharaohs reportedly carried the same WAGAR stuff to the battlefield to ensure victory against the enemy.

OSIRIS, another of ancient Egypt’s gods who reportedly ruled the underworld after being killed by SET (Ed. Somali SED), was evidently a Greek distortion of ISIR and WASIIR in Somali. Today, Somalis sometimes refer to AB and ISIR in their denial of an accusation that was culturally horrendous. One usually says "I have neither AB nor ISIR for such an act" – meaning I have neither the genetic probability nor the cultural or religious orientation to commit such a horrendous act.

The pair WALCAN and WASIIR, now on their way to oblivion, were also used in a similar but slightly varying context. In modern Somali, however, ISIR was commonly used as a female name.

NEPHDEYS and BES, two less prominent ancient Egyptian gods, also appear to have some affinity with the Somali language. While NAF in Somali meant ‘soul’, NEF meant ‘breath’. Hence NEPHDEYS literally would mean ‘The one who releases breath – a function more or less attributed to the ancient god. BES in Somali meant ‘One who was in his or her deathbed’ – also a function the latter god was associated with.

The ancient Cananite god, PAL, was still alive in Somali in the same sense but probably in only two words – UUR-KU-BAALE-LE and YABAAL. The rarely used UUR-KU-BAAL-LE meant ‘One who has BAL in him’. One would usually ask: “How do you expect me to know your intentions? Do you think I have BAAL in me?” In essence, this meant only one who had BAAL in him could foretell the hidden or the unknown. YABAAL, possibly an alternative name for BAAL, was usually associated with the voice, of an invisible being that told one what to do or not to do in time of crisis in the wilderness.

Finally, the ancient Mayan Sea god, MANYA, simply meant sea in the Somali dialect spoken in the old quarters of Mogadishu.

IV. CONCLUSION

The above brief study of Somali etymology does not attempt to re-classify the language nor does it set its probable age. But the evident fact that Somali contains the two most ancient ‘Hamitic’ gods, WAD and HOBAL, at least five of ancient Egypt’s most prominent deities as well as two Semitic and one Cananite ancient names of god clearly calls for a thorough review of this medium hitherto classified as Eastern Cushitic.

True to its old name ‘The Land of the gods’, Somalia was probably a very important center of religion in ancient times and the probable cradle of idol-worship for both sides of the Red Sea and farther afield. The fact that the Horn of Africa was the oldest settlement that combined both Hamites and Semites also lends more credibility to the current popular theory that human species originated in the East African region.

Without any attempt to draw any conclusions, the present brief study merely seeks to shed some light on our knowledge of the Somali language and its mainly pastoralist speakers who until now attracted comparatively little attention from scholars. It was evident further study was needed not only to re-classify the language and assess its probable age but also to realize its full historio-linguistic potential.

The author of this piece can be reached at: abukarali@usfamily.net

Of Marriage and Dating

2010-08-21T18:18:00.000-07:00

By Salma Hussein

“Abaayo all I’m looking for is a good brother who is family oriented, does not party, and who is going to school, is that seriously too much to ask for?”Or “Saaxiib, I want a nice sister who is educated, cultured and religious and wants a family, I am not asking that much.”These are questions asked by both guys and girls alike. It had me thinking, if everyone is out looking for the right Halima and Farah what seems to be the problem?The problem is of several things. To begin with, most downplay seeking someone who is far too perfect but reality is different and the opposite. We live in a society where we are always looking outward. I want this flawless person followed by a list of dos as well as the don’ts. What we fail to include in this naive fantasy is if we are compatible for this ideally perfect individual we are seeking? How can one expect to attract someone with qualities they themselves do not possess? As young people we need to be honest with ourselves and look for someone who compliments us. That is not to say you cannot want someone who is good if you are striving to better yourself. However, we need to be more realistic and reasonable.

This moves us to our second problem, where we have developed a generation that tends to find excuse for just about anything. We all know that the ultimate goal of dating is for it to lead to marriage, thus we must go into the relationship for the right reasons.

To my sisters we have to stop playing hard to get. What this means is that we have to stop making it hard for our brothers to be themselves. We are not out to burn holes in the pockets of our brothers. It is the 21st century and we all know life is all about sharing and working together. For all the sisters out there who are in relationships, try to understand that money does not grow on trees and aside from spending the few pennies your boo makes, try for once making your own dee. As for the brothers, I ask that you respect the sister, and realize that this girl you are courting is someone’s sister, daughter, cousin and aunt just as the women in your own family. How you treat sisters will ultimately reflect how much respect you have for your own sister, mother, daughter, aunt, grandma and so on.

Thirdly, we need to understand some perceptions within our community when it comes to relationships and dating: “what it should be like” (Islam), “what has been the way” (old school Somalis) and “what is going on right now” (modern day Somalis). All have their influences and effects. The first one, nobody disagrees with what it should be like. For the most part, people differ on the approach they take to find the significant other. Whatever the approach an individual's choices is dictated by the environment that nurtured that individual (religious, good parents and so on).

Most people fail to understand why the youth do what they do? I think we should sympathize with the young people “doing it wrong” and try to help them make sense of their situation while directing them to the right way.

Marriage is mystifying and imposing thing in our culture and most of the young people are expected to marry. Thus, many believe to take their time to know the person before they commit to marry them. No matter how much you get to know a person you can never know the real person or what is in the heart. So forget the whole talk about you should know your significant other fully before you get married to them.

Finally, in your searching days, try to stay away from anything that could lead to the displeasure of GOD. I think of the process of courting and dating like this: you graduated and you NEED a career; you got an interview with the company of your DREAM; you LOVE the job so much that you want to WORK there for the rest of your life. The biggest part of you accomplishing that goal is not to offend your employer at the interview let alone when you are hired. So if you want GOD to bless your marriage and your life, then you should seize from all that could lead to his anger.

Somali Culture of Weddings

2010-08-19T22:20:00.000-07:00

By Abdulkarim Jimale

Engulfed by decades of civil strife, Somalia, located in the heart of Horn of African, has seen almost half of its seven million population scattered across the globe with most ending up in the western world. Somalis are Muslims and most of their culture comes from their religion. Traditional weddings are part of their lives but the trends on how they conduct the ceremonies have changed.

“Weddings are very important occasions for Somali communities where ever they are in the world” Gedi Mohamed an elder in Nairobi told The Star.

Somali wedding continuous for seven days sequence, the first day is for the wedding and the next three days called “Sadexda” (means in English the third) are for dancing and celebrating in the bride’s house and the last three days is dancing and celebrating in the grooms’ house which is called “Toddobada” (the seventh).

In the Somali culture, these nights, women and men do not mix or celebrate together; they do their celebrations separately. The celebrations start at the afternoon and carries on up to midnight.

There is a particular party called “Baraambur” (meaning in English to praise the bride and the bride groom)

Somali Women Dancing in Somali Traditional wedding in Nairobi

Traditionally bride, bride groom and their families arrange for a plentiful feast for their guests at the reception. Different traditional types of foods are usually served for the guests to enjoy as they carry on with the festivities.

Relatives from the both sides and the guests exchange gifts in the occasion.

The exchange of gifts can also include showering of praises and congratulations to the bride and groom.

Traditional Somalis have one best man party and one best lady.

Somali Women elders are tasked to get the bride ready for her new home and making sure the couple has a comfortable home at least for the first few weeks called “Bisha Malabka” (Honeymoon).

Wedding Gifts

Traditionally “Sooryo” (means in English weddings gift) is been given to the present relatives from the both side and the guests at the time of“Nikah” engagement.

The amount of money is divided amongst themselves and also other important people in the family.

Nowadays modern Somali weddings in western or America left this culture.

Price Bride

The engagement “Meher” usually takes place a few days or a month before the wedding, and sometimes on the same day. It’s a common theme for all Somali weddings to be based in an Islamic rule because almost all of them are Muslims.

Somalis old traditional weddings men used to give 100 camels as pride gift known as her Meher. But nowadays in Somalia only it’s an amount of money and gold but the old culture still is working in some parts of the country.

The importance of Meher cannot be underestimated – without it the wedding cannot take place, so the lady needs to be clear as to what she wants for her Meher and the man is obliged to pay it

Abroad Somalis in Meher Occasion, the couples exchange rings they are supposed to keep for the rest of their lives and a symbol of their unity. This is another new culture aped from Western.

Somali traditional dance in Nairobi

Another new thing is and common these days in abroad Somalis weddings organized in different countries like Kenya and USA, the pride and groom are in different countries.

The families

arrange lunch at same time in the two countries and the Meher will be done through on the mobile phone the modern technology. The love of Somalis for travel has facilitated the exchange of images of the parties.

The parents of the bride and bride groom enjoy watching the wedding ceremony in VCR or DVD until they are satisfied that the necessary social requirements were performed. This has also the effect of all young girls aspiring to the standards of former weddings.

Prayers changed to Music

On Somalis weddings while guests and hosts are celebrating for the wedding traditionally used to pray for the groom and bride Allah to make their marriage which stay forever and never let down until they die.

Clerics were attending the ceremony they pray for the new couples “Wiil iyo Caano, Gabar iyo Caano” “Boy with Milk, Girl with Milk”

As the poet, Cabdullahi Faarax Warsame (Lecture) stated in one of his poems; Waa gob iyo caadkeed, Aroos inay gangaamaan, Guri ay yagleelaan, Gelbiska iyo shallaadkiyo, Gole lagu kulmaayoo, Giringiro ciyaartii, Dadku gaaf ka boodaan, Wa gob iyo caadkeed.

In English It is of Nobles and their custom, To coordinate a splendid wedding, And construct a house, The Gelbis and the chanting, At the places of gathering, Where the dance take place, And the masses leap at the Gaaf, It is of Nobles and their custom.

Somali wedding in Kenya

But nowadays inside Somalia’s main cities and some other Somali regions in Kenya and Ethiopia, this changed to songs of Somali professionals singers. But still they retain the cultural traditional songs and poems for the weeding.

Modern Somali weddings in USA, Europe, Asia and some parts of Africa the prayers changed to music of famous American and western singers such as 50-cent, Puff Daddy, Celina Dion and others.

“There are no prayers for the groom and bride, all they do is indulging in the culture of western songs with no traditional aspect, everything has changed, and we are surprised” Ahmed Sheikh Ali a Somali elder told The Star.

He adds there is no Buraanbur which we used to praise and pray for the bride and the groom.

Culture of dance changed

Traditional Somali weddings changed the way of dancing, old culture of dancing mostly foreign music was not allowed and some of the Somali songs, women and men were separated they celebrate in to two different places.

The bride and bride groom were not used to dance in front of the guests traditionally in Somali weddings, but nowadays during the ceremony of the big night, the bride and groom dance a little with the other guests, also the best men and best ladies dance together.

Traditionally, they used to dance the culture players such as, Buraambur, Wilisiqo, Gaaf and others.

But nowadays they rent big halls where men and women dance together in one place, the western type.

Sheikh Mohamed Jamaa told THE STAR “most of the Somalis abroad returned with another culture aped from western and American people.”

Its new thing the couples kissing in front of the guests also four best ladies and four best men, who also kiss in front of the audience.

Sheikh Jamaa said “this is new culture, and it is prohibited in our religion”

Dress Style

Most Somali weddings vary depending with the economic status of the brides or the bridegroom’s family. The main dress codes for traditional Somali ladies include a Guntino or Dirac, a garbasaar covering for the head as well as a googaro that is worn under the dress. Men are supposed to dress in Somali wear or Islamic wear like Khamis but the traditions has changed and you will now find that they wear modern three piece suits.

Unlike in the old days when traditional Somali women used herbal cleansing methods to clean and beautify their body, modernized western technology, the salon has become the one stop shop that does all this for them.

Somali women are decorated with black henna that is attractive in different shapes and patterns on both hands and legs.

Somali weddings are normally videotaped so that those who were not able to attend it can get to watch what passed them on the big day.

Costly wedding

For Somalis who have moved to western countries, US, Asia and Africa countries, the situation has changed. They have adopted the western way of doing things.

A modern Somali weddings held in Europe or USA, the couple spend almost $500,000 US Dollars. Nowadays, the trend also has penetrated those residing in African countries.

A former Somali Prime minister is said to have spent half a million US dollars at his son’s weeding which was held in Kenya.

A number of other wealth businesspersons and Somalis in the Diaspora do the same.

Source: beforeitsnews.com

"Ashraff"

2010-08-14T00:26:00.000-07:00

"Asharaff"

by Abdullahi Bashir

Since I turned the age of 14, my life has been filled with tragedies. If that is what fate had in store for me, then I humbly accept it. Nevertheless, God has bestowed us humans with the ability and the will to make choices - whether they are right or wrong- and these choices eventually leads to our fate. I have made some bad choices in my life. Some were irreversible fatal choices and now I ask for forgiveness. I am in a state of repentance. This story, my story will be told not for pity sake. However, as you might know or might not know, acceptance is a one way street towards forgiveness. With acceptance, comes forgiveness and that shall ease the pain that regret have trapped me in.Thus, I whole heartily will narrate my tale to you, in order to fulfill that first step. If my tragedies influence you in a positive manner, then to God I pray, may he bless you in that right path.FLASH BACK -One Month ago- Scene --- I am in a jewelry store. The store owner has a shotgun pointed smack down the middle of my forehead with intent to kill. See, I had walked in that store not as a customer; my plot was to commit a robbery. I was strapped with a 45 caliber, a property of the gang that I had intended on joining. This robbery, this mission was a test, - it was my right of passage - upon its success, I would officially be admitted in this gang. I had chosen to adopt this life style after the death of my heart.

FLASHBACK - 6 months ago-- Scene --- I am sitting at the edge of my mother's deathbed. Whatever life that is left in her - whatever breath that is left in her - she had stored them in order to give me a farewell speech. She calls me by my name - Ashraff - but I am numb- unable to utter a word. My body shivers and uncontrolled tears drain from my eyes. She repeats "Ashraff," and I replied "hoyo." She states, "son, I am dying and I would like you to hear me out…." She then recites to me -her words--her poem-- At the end, I nod my head, so that my mother, my heart, realizes that I am listening. While I pray to God that he takes my life instead. As though my mother hard my prayers, she states, "Son, it is better that I die before you, no mother can bear the death of her child. For this I am grateful to God. “After a few moments, she resumes "Ashraff, Son, do you know the meaning of your name?" I nodded NO" While awaiting her reply, (SILENCE)……….. I refused to look up. The flow of my heart changed its rhythm, this was sufficient evidence that she has passed away. I proceeded to pray for her for hours and hours and hours.

Flashback - back to the jewelry store - scene. My 45 caliber is still aimed at the store owners head. His shotgun, still in the same position, unwavering. I knew then, that death was lurking. It was either his turn or my turn to go. By now, you wonder why I had intended to join this gang. Well, after the death of my mother, I was lost. I had lost the will to think, I had lost the heart to care, I had lost the footsteps to guide me in the right direction and I had lost a place to fit in. This gang had promised to fill that void in my life. I was yearning for a place of my own and a people of my own. At this very moment, in this store, I was in too deep. I knew the inside scoop of the gang and there was no way out. But I had never taken a life before. "ASHARAFF!!!!! Screamed the driver (a careless lunatic who recently got admitted to this gang). "I hear sirens" get this shit over with." I felt my fingers pulling on the trigger. "Asharaf," son do you know the meaning of your name? Said the store owner. Upon hearing that, I release my grip and nodded no. And he replied, "it means more distinguished, more noble, and more honorable. Whoever bestowed you with that name had great hopes for you son." I went numb, unable to utter a word. My body was shivering and uncontrollable tears drain from my eyes…………. WHY HAD I NOT ABIDE BY MY MOTHER'S WORDS, HER POEM… SHE HAD STATED__________
Son, life is anything but ordinary
It is full of surprises and misery, but on the contrary
Happiness, is what you should pursue
Grab life by the throat, make it crumble, it true
It's the survival of the fittest, but my blood runs through your veins
If you hesitate, life would crash you and drive you insane
So, hold your ground, find your purpose, fight for what your believe
Family is your number one priority, they ain't never gonna leave
Be conscious of those around you, choose your friends wisely
Education is vital to your existence, live life to the fullest, nicely
Be you, be true, hope, dream, smile even when in pain
Rise as you fall, and remember to attain
Freedom within, shape your own identity
Your country awaits you, Islam in its simplicity
Is a way of life, be the gatekeeper of your domain
Treat women as your equal, the main
Point is, that they are all queens, be a good father,
Son, husband, and friend, can't be perfect, but rather
Be the best, in everything that you do,

And remember to always think twice before making a choice…. Always think twice…….

………………………………………………………….

…. Now….

THE FLOW OF MY HEART REVERSED TO ITS ORIGINAL RHTYM. I placed the gun on the counter and proceeded to walk away. Within a matter of seconds, the driver walks in, he catches the store owner off guard and shoots him! And death came to collect his debt. The driver stares at me, picks up the gun from the counter, and he informs me that this gun is "dirty." As in it has a history of unsolved homicide. My ears were ringing from the gun shot and the shock that my mind was in. I am now an associate of a murderer, of a gang with a history of murders. This crime carries a life in prison. Unable to processes my thoughts, I preceded to run and I ran. Two other gun shots fired by the driver, a person whom I considered a brother. This time one of the bullet went through my back and into my spine. It fractured it. The other one went through my skull and left me brain dead.

Scene…. In this present moment…..the bullets paralyzed my entire body indefinitely. Now, not only am I unable to walk or move, I am unable to eat, a tube is inserted through my mouth, in order to nourish me. The doctors offered me a choice of ending my own life, I declined it and now officials are contemplating whether I should be awaiting a trial. Nevertheless, as I stated before, the choices that we make, whether right or wrong determine our fate. So, what choices have you made today?

[caption id="attachment_845" align="alignleft" width="200" caption=" (c) 2010 mohamud mumin"][/caption]

Name: Abdullahi Shariff Bashir

Born and raised in East Africa.

Graduated from The University of Minnesota. with a Masters in English Education.
He is currently in the teaching field.

Co-founder of Ka Joog Non-profit Organization...an organization serving the Youth in Minnesota.

Photo (c) 2010 mohamud mumin

Abdi Farah: The Next Great Artist

2010-08-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

Abdi Farah, 22, of Dover, Pennsylvania is the winner of Bravo's "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist" season 1.
As the winner, Abdi gets a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and a cash prize of $100,000.

Abdi said he is going to give his mom the full $100,000 and let her give him some money when he needs it. He was the youngest artist on the show and kept a positive attitude the whole time. The art world could do a lot worse than this talented and inspiring kid. You could check Abdi Farah's portfolio at his website

Bio of Abdi

At the young age of 23, Abdi is making waves in the art world. A recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he was one of four students in the nation to be awarded the Scholastics Art and Writing Gold Portfolio and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, granting him an audience with the President of the United States. In 2008, the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art selected Abdi into their program, and the following year he spent time studying abroad in Southern France. Primarily a painter, he has a passion for sculpture and printmaking. With a supportive family behind him, an infectious smile, and the drive to succeed, Abdi’s career has only just begun.

Samatar gets Lifetime Achievement Award

2010-08-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

By: Ato Shaair

Published August 8,2010

Minneapolis, Minnesota - Hassan Aden Samatar, the legendary Somali singer and one of the most famous Somali entertainers, received a lifetime achievement award from the Somali community in Minnesota in a tribute dinner and gala party held Saturday night in Minneapolis.

The award was presented to Samatar by Eagle Media and leaders of the Community.

Abdirahman Kahin of Eagle Media who organized the successful gala said to award Samatar was long overdue. "Eagle Media wanted to do it years ago but we were just waiting Hassan Aden Samatar to return to Minnesota," Said Kahin.

Adar Kahin- no relation to Abdirahman Kahin - a contemporary of Samatar who acted with him in a play in the eighties, implored from the audience the reason Somali artists' work are not recognized. "We watch shows on TV here in North America where they award artists all the time and I tell you these are not as great as my beloved brother Samatar. Why not we Somalis do it and appreciate our legends?," wondered Adar.

Hassan Aden Samatar was born into an artistic family in Dinsoor in Bay Region, Somalia, on 1953. He began his primary and elementary schooling in the same city and continued his secondary schooling in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. After graduation at young age, Hassan wanted to go to Italy for college but the moment that changed his life happened when friends encouraged him to take part in the “Hirgilinta Heesaha” program, Somalia’s equivalent of American Idol. This was in 1971 and he won the contest and soon was inducted into the leading Somali troupe of Waaberi and became a leader in Somali music and theatre.

Hassan Aden sings in Somalia’s two dialects -Maay and Maxaay - with ease and passion. Hassan is regarded for his theatrical performance and powerful melodies and vocals. He acted in more than two dozen plays from melodramatic and socially conscious plays to romantic ones. Hassan Aden is equally celebrated by the young and the old because of his charisma and performance . Hassan credits his artistic achievement being exposed to Somali folklore and cultural festivals at young age. "As a young boy growing up in Diinsoor, I used to go to town center to watch dances and celebrations by townsfolk. these were mesmerizing and I think because of seeing all of that I always wanted to sing and perform," said Hassan. He encouraged Somali parents in the Diaspora to teach the rich Somali culture, specially songs and poems to their kids so that they will appreciate the beauty of their culture and be proud of it.

Hassan is humanitarian who participated in many concerts to raise funds for different causes such as building schools and clinics in Somalia and raising money for those displaced by violence.

Samatar now lives in Toronto, Canada and usually comes to Minnesota to hold concerts and to sing at Somali events.

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Midnimo Football Club: The Champions of MSSU

2010-07-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

Midnimo Football Club won Friday’s final game of the Minnesota Somali Soccer United tournament. Midnimo beat the North Stars team by 2 to 1. The organizing committee presented all participating teams with awards and cups.

The teams that participated in the Minnesota Somali Soccer United tournament were Midnimo, Northern Stars, Cedar Stars, Gorgor, Higher Academy, TC, Rochester, Eden Prairie and FC Commonality.

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watch the slide for more photos of yesterday's final game. Slide is in Picasa - content is public and can be downloaded.

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The horrendous telltale of the Henna tattoo on my hand

2010-07-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

By Abdulkadir Mohamed (Ato)

" ... Beware! There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoiled the whole body gets spoiled and that is the heart..." Sahih Bukhari,... "

The henna tattoo on my right wrist (it says Allah & Mohammed in Arabic - pictured below) caused two men to almost exchange violent blows. It all started when one man commanded me to remove it and when I said no, the charlatan started to bully me and call me names to the point where he threatened me that he would have cut my hand off if I was in Somalia. I know this bearded bozo very well and thank god we are in America. He is a hypocritical chameleon who interchanges tribal chauvinism with religious fanaticism quite comfortably and at convenience. The other gentleman came to my defense and told the fanatical bully to get lost. Both men supposedly came from the same regional and ancestral background but one is civilized and the other is a drifting loony on drugs.Things got worse and it escalated until a religious figure that I respect (though influenced by Wahabbi dogma because of his long stay - almost three decades- in Saudi Arabia) had to intervene, calm both men down and take me aside for an extensive and mind-numbing lecture. A lecture about how impermissible and not-Islamic it is to have a tattoo on any part of mens body. I thought to myself while lazily listening to the Sheik's lecture maybe this is the only time Wahabbi’s give women some slack. The Sheik censured me for and about how I cannot go to the toilet with Allah’s name tattooed on any part of my body. I tried to tell him that Allah’s name is tattooed on my mind and soul permanently (symbolic allegory) and I go to the toilet, bathroom, and restroom; call it whatever daily. I tried to reduce the one on my wrist as just an outer manifestation. I faintly rationalized maybe to Allah this is just nothing and trivial. Why would Allah care if you have tattoo or a piercing on your body which is basically a shell that you would eventually shed after you expire physically? All God cares is what is in your heart, I reasoned. I asked the Sheik if he was aware of those Aborigines or Polynesians in the pacific where tattoos are said to have originated or those in sync with nature and environment, say in places like the Amazon or even places close to home like Ethiopia who got piercings tattoos, branding ( they do branding in parts of Somalia and some form of face painting in Djibouti ). He said he was. Then I asked what his version of Islam would do to these people. The Sheikh joked that Sufi version of Islam would have embraced and tolerated these pagan practices but his Wahabi version would have gradually eliminated all animistic body arts by any means. I asked if the ultimate goal of the Wahabbis is to create one culture where men wear beige Khamiises and women dark Burqas and all artistic and stylish cultural forms of dresses and body ornament is shunned. From that point on, our debate went unpleasant and heated. My inquiries got labeled blasphemous and heretic. I couldn’t reason with the Sheik and had to tolerate his overbearing religious tirade obediently just to end it since it was futile to continue it to exacerbation.

After constant lecturing and questioning, I gave in and finally covered the henna-tattoo with another formless drawing. This conforming didn’t help and did not stop the questioning and curiosity of people. Many wondered if the black thing on my wrist was a birth-mark; many asked what happened to my wrist? I had to be creative with some who didn’t have the intellectual capacity to think through the whole thing and be honest with others and recount the whole incident to further provoke more rational discussion on it. it was the same story all over again: the Does, the Don'ts, the death threats, the dogmas, being called a devil and other name callings. I was almost equated with that awful apostate Ayaan Hirsi by just trying to provoke to implore the reasons behind some rituals. My schooling here was blamed for allegedly brainwashing me.

I thought to myself “if I wrote this Henna thing in Chinese or some other script Somalis couldn't read or understand instead of the Arabic, would all of this commotion and craziness materialized?"

Many of you would wonder why on the first place I put the Henna on. Well it was an unplanned and spontaneous thing I did on multicultural event. One of my female friends was there to do Henna on people and I just happened to promote my magazine at a Kiosk near them. It wasn't that busy and we were bored to death.

If I had known the Henna on my wrist would have created all this commotion and curiosity, I would have dubbed it a social experiment and maybe recorded all the laughable reactions I was getting from people.

The whole fateful experience shows how our society has been influenced by alien culture that shuns personal freedom and thought. Likewise, it shows an alarming cultural evolution for the worse: the swift tendency to solve things through violence and the rejection of reason. One would easily kill you if you disagree on things that mean nothing. Human life is nothing and has no value nowadays. You will be dead if you don't conform to dogmas. There is no room for debate and different opinion. There is no compromise, no consultation. You question, you Kaput! It is my way or the death way. The religious fanatics have got all the influences and their vision is by leading in fanaticism and ruling in violence. Many are indoctrinated and tamed that they became usable soldiers to commit crimes against their fellow brothers and sisters without giving second thought.This fearful phenomena of fanaticism amounts to sickness and mental imbalance. Majority of the people not only suffer of ignorance but psychological and mental traumas caused by two decades of senseless violence. Something needs to be done or this would be irreversible. We lost our culture of sanity and maybe we are losing our religion of peace.

The amazing life struggles of Fadumo: A Double Amputee Mother and College Student

2010-07-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

By: Farhan Abdi Suleiman (Oday)

It is hard to forget any achievement in one’s life, especially the people who manage to make a difference in their society, and who change and improve the lives of many others. Despite her young age, Fadumo Bihi, a double amputee, has achieved more than many others have done in a life time.

At the age of 6, Fadumo Bihi lost both of her legs to a landmine explosion at her Mandeeq Village in Hargeisa. Fadumo’s parents were thankful to almighty Allah for giving them the will and acceptance of their daughter’s disability but were worried about the worsening health condition of their daughter’s disability and misfortune. They took her in Somaliland Rehabilitation Center -The only place that provides disability services in town. But, unfortunately Fadumo’s case couldn’t be done in the center, therefore doctors advised to send her abroad to a medical facility with more advanced capability.In abroad, Fadumo was fitted with artificial limbs to walk as a normal person. Shortly after Fadumo was invited to participate in an international conference on mine elimination which was held at Switzerland in 1996. In that meeting, Fadumo was a real and living example of mine victims. She was asked what she likes to do by the United Nations; she answered bravely “I want to build a school at the same place where the mine exploded and caused me to lose both of my legs.”

To make that dream come true, the school was built by the United Nations and currently serves the educational needs of the community. Today, more than 1,200 students all of whom are from poor families are the beneficiaries of the Fadumo Bihi primary and intermediate school. The school has 13 teachers in both morning and afternoon shifts with limited office equipment and educational facilities. It has one latrine shared by all students. The school lacks recreational centers and other education enhancing facilities.

While 3 batches of students have so far graduated from upper primary school (grade eight), few of them have been able to join high school; and there is no record that shows any student from Fadumo Bihi’s school that is enrolled in a university.

Fadumo is perhaps one of the few from this area that was able to attend a university. She has received a generous scholarship to study at Lucy University College. She always attended social activities in her school and never lets herself left out from community functions. She is an active member of the Community Education Committees of her school.

Unfortunately, Fadumo lost both of her parents and lives with her aunt who also is a single mother and a head of house hold with eight children. Fadumo and her daughter live in the Mandeeq village in a hut made up of shabby wrappings and plastic sheets. The shack is at present in desperate condition - lacking all necessities for life. With tears in her eyes she mentioned that her aunt was the breadwinner for their family. Now, the children and the whole family have found themselves in a miserable condition with no food, clothes etc.

In spite of the challenges of having physical disability and living conditions, Fadumo manages to live a normal life, and continues to be productive and contribute to her society. She attends Lucy University College and is currently studying under the faculty of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). She has many friends, and is active in the student community. She believes that she will succeed in this field despite her condition.

Even after Fadumo got married and became the mother of one child; she continued to pursue her studies. In the morning and afternoon she looks after her child, and then starts her 4 kilometers walk to the University.

Put yourself in Fadumo’s position - a mother with a disability and student with meagre financial resources

Dear reader; what goes through your mind when you read this story? I challenge all those who read this piece who are lucky enough to be physically fit and have parents who support them financially to imagine what it feels like to be a double amputee, mother and student.

Fadumo Bihi is an amazingly optimistic individual, who had shinned in many aspects of her life despite her physical limitations. She is role model to ordinary people like us, proving that disability is not inability.

Farhan (oday) is a Social Worker, Researcher and Youth activist in Hargeisa. He holds a BA in Economics and Business Administration from the University in Hargeisa.

Somali-Minnesota Youth Soccer Tournament

2010-07-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

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THE TWO PIRACIES IN SOMALIA: WHY THE WORLD IGNORES THE OTHER?

2010-07-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

By Mohamed Abshir Waldo,

THE SHIPPING PIRACY & THE INVASION OF THE SOMALI SEAS

Much of the world’s attention is currently focused on the Somali sea lanes. The navies of big and small powers are converging on the Somali waters in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. The recent hijacking of the Saudi oil tanker and Ukrainian MV Faina, laden with arms for Kenya, off the coast of Somalia by Somali pirates captured world media attention. War has been rightly declared against this notorious new shipping piracy. But the older and mother of all piracies in Somalia - illegal foreign fishing piracy - in the Somali seas is ignored, underlining the international community’s misunderstanding and partiality of the underlying interdependent issues involved and the impracticality of the proposed actions to find ways to effectively resolve the piracy threat.

A chorus of calls for tougher international action resulted in multi-national and unilateral Naval stampede to invade and take control of the Somali territorial and EEZ waters. The UN Security Council, a number of whose members may have ulterior motives to indirectly protect their illegal fishing fleets in the Somali Seas, passed Resolutions 1816 and 1838, giving a license to any nation who wants a piece of the Somali marine cake. Both NATO and the EU issued Orders to the same effect and Russia, Japan, India, Malaysia, Egypt, Yemen and anyone else who could afford an armed boat and its crew on the sea for a few months joined the fray.For years, attempts made to address piracy in the world’s seas through UN resolutions have failed to pass largely because many of the member nations felt such resolutions would infringe greatly on their sovereignty and security and have been unwilling to give up control and patrol of their own waters. UN Resolutions 1816 and 1838, which were objected to by a number of West African, Caribbean and South American nations, was then tailored to apply to Somalia only, which had no strong enough Somali representation at the United Nations to demand amendments to protect its sovereignty. Also Somali civil society objections to the Draft Resolutions were ignored.

This massive “Global Armada” invasion is carried out on the pretext to protect the busy shipping trade routes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from Somali shipping piracy, which threatens to disrupt these international lifeline sea ways. While there are two equally nasty, criminal, inhuman and exploiting gangs of pirates in Somalia, only one of them is publicized by the western media: the Somali shipping pirates attacking merchant shipping in these sea lanes, where the illegal poachers are also actively operating.

THE ILLEGAL FISHING PIRACY

The other more damaging economically, environmentally and security-wise is the massive illegal foreign fishing piracy that have been poaching and destroying the Somali marine resources for the last 18 years following the collapse of the Somali regime in 1991. With its usual double standards when such matters concern Africa, the “international community” comes out in force to condemn and declare war against the Somali fishermen pirates while discreetly protecting the numerous Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing fleets there from Europe, Arabia and the Far East.

Biased UN resolutions, big power orders and news reports continue to condemn the hijackings of merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. If response to both piracy menaces was balanced and fair, these condemnations would have been justified. European Union (EU), Russia, Japan, India, Egypt and Yemen are all on this piracy campaign, mainly to cover up and protect their illegal fishing fleets in the Somali waters.

In all these piracy ballyhoo and campaigns, why is the other key IUUs fishing piracy ignored? Why are the UN Resolutions, NATO Orders and EU Decrees to invade the Somali seas fail to include the protection of the Somali marine resources from IUU violations in the same waters? Not only is this outrageous fishing piracy disregarded but the illegal foreign marine poachers are being encouraged to continue their loot by as none of the current Resolutions, Orders and Decrees apply to the IUUs, which can now freely fish in and violate the Somali seas. The Somali fishermen can no longer scare away the IUUs for fear of being labeled pirates and attacked by the foreign navies unlawfully controlling the Somali waters. Even the traditional Somali trading dhows are in panic of being mistaken for pirates.

a) The IUU Menace and Fish Laundering Practice

There is no doubt IUU is a serious global problem. According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), IUU does not respect national boundaries or sovereignty, puts unsustainable pressure on stocks, marine life and habitats, undermines labor standards and distorts markets. “IUU fishing is detrimental to the wider marine ecosystem because it flouts rules designed to protect the marine environment which includes restrictions to harvest Juveniles, closed spawning grounds and gear modification designed to minimize by-catch on non-target species….In so doing they steal an invaluable protein source from some of the world’s poorest people and ruin the livelihoods of some legitimate fishermen; incursions by trawlers into the inshore areas reserved for artisanal fishing can result in collision with local fishing boats, destruction of fishing gear and deaths of fishermen” says HSTF. In its report, Closing the Net: Stopping Illegal Fishing on the High Seas, HSTF puts worldwide value of IUU catches at $4 to $9 billion, large part of it from Sub-Sahara Africa, particularly Somalia.

IUUs practice fish catch laundering through mother ship factories, transshipment and re-supply at sea. “This means that vessels can remain at sea for months, refueling, re-supplying and rotating their crew. IUU fishing vessels never need to enter ports because they transfer their catches onto transport ships. Illegally caught fish are laundered by mixing with legally caught fish on board transport vessels”, writes HSTF. Apparently, fish laundering, which generates hundreds of millions dollars in the black market is not as criminal as money laundering! Countries used for Somali fish laundering include Seychelles, Mauritius and Maldives.

As EU closed much of its fishing waters for 5 to 15 years for fish regeneration, as Asia over fished its seas, as international demand increases for nutritious marine products and as the fear of worldwide food shortage grows, the rich, uncontrolled and unprotected Somali seas became the target of the fishing fleets of many nations. Surveys by UN, Russian and Spanish assessors just before the collapse of the Barre Regime in 1991 estimated that 200,000 tones of fish a year could be caught by both artisanal and industrial fisheries and this is the objective of the international fishing racket

There is no doubt that the actions of the shipping pirates are reprehensible and this paper does not seek to justify or explain their odious actions. They must be stopped. But the notorious shipping piracy is unlikely to be resolved without simultaneously attending to the fraudulent IUU piracy, too.

b) The Origin of the Somali Piracy War

The origin of the two piracies goes back to 1992 after the fall of the Gen. Siyad Barre regime and the disintegration of the Somali Navy and Police Coastguard services. Following severe draughts in 1974 and 1986, tens of thousands of nomads, whose livestock were wiped out by the draughts, were re-settled all along the villages on the long, 3300kms Somali coast. They developed into large fishing communities whose livelihood depended inshore fishing. From the beginnings of the civil war in Somalia (as early as 1991/1992) illegal fishing trawlers started to trespass and fish in Somali waters, including the 12-mile inshore artisanal fishing waters. The poaching vessels encroached on the local fishermen’s grounds, competing for the abundant rock-lobster and high value pelagic fish in the warm, up-swelling 60kms deep shelf along the tip of the Horn of Africa.

The piracy war between local fishermen and IUUs started here. Local fishermen documented cases of trawlers pouring boiling water on the fishermen in canoes, their nets cut or destroyed, smaller boats crushed, killing all the occupants, and other abuses suffered as they tried to protect their national fishing turf. Later, the fishermen armed themselves. In response, many of the foreign fishing vessels armed themselves with more sophisticated weapons and began to overpower the fishermen. It was only a matter of time before the local fishermen reviewed their tactics and modernized their hardware. This cycle of warfare has been going on from 1991 to the present. It is now developing into fully fledged, two-pronged illegal fishing and shipping piracy conflicts.

According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), there were over 800 IUUs fishing vessels in Somali waters at one time in 2005 taking advantage of Somalia’s inability to police and control its own waters and fishing grounds. The IUUs, which are estimated take out more than $450 million in fish value out of Somalia annually, neither compensate the local fishermen, pay tax, royalties nor do they respect any conservation and environmental regulations – norms associated with regulated fishing. It is believed that IUUs from the EU alone take out of the country more than five times the value of its aid to Somalia every year.

Illegal foreign fishing trawlers which have being fishing in Somalia since 1991 are mostly owned by EU and Asian fishing companies – Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Russia, Britain, Ukraine, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Yemen, Egypt and many others. Illegal vessels captured on the Somali coast by Somali fishermen during 1991 and 1999 included Taiwanese trawlers Yue Fa No. 3 and Chian Yuein No.232, FV Shuen Kuo No.11; MV Airone, MV De Giosa Giuseppe and MV Antonietta, all 3 Italian vessels registered in Italy; MV Bahari Hindi, Kenyan registered but owned and managed by Marship Co. of Mombasa. A number of Italian registered SHIFCO vessels, Korean and Ukrainian trawlers, Indian, Egyptian and Yemeni boats were also captured by fishermen and ransoms of different sizes paid for their release. Many Spanish seiners, frequent violators of the Somali fishing grounds, managed to evade capture at various times.

According to a report in the Daily Nation of October 14, 2004, even Kenyan registered fishing vessels are known to have participated in the rape of the Somali fishing grounds. In October 2004, Mr Andrew Mwangura, Kenya Coordinator of the Seafarers Assistance Program (SAP) asked the Kenya Government to help stop illegal fishing in Somalia. “Since Somalia has been without government for more than 11 years, Kenya trawlers have been illegally fishing along the country’s territorial waters contrary to the UNCLOS and the FAO instruments, he said. SAP further reported that 19 Kenyan registered fishing vessels also operated illegally in the Somalia waters.

In arrangements with Somali warlords, new companies were formed abroad for bogus fishing licensing purposes. Jointly owned mafia Somali-European companies set up in Europe and Arabia worked closely with Somali warlords who issued them fake fishing “licenses” to any foreign fishing pirate willing to plunder the Somali marine resources. UK and Italy based African and Middle East Trading Co. (AFMET), PALMERA and UAE based SAMICO companies were some of the corrupt vehicles issuing such counterfeit licenses as well as fronting for the warlords who shared the loot.

Among technical advisors to the Mafia companies – AFMET, PALMIRA & SAMICO - were supposedly reputable firms like MacAllister Elliot & Partners of the UK. Warlords Gen. Mohamed Farah Aidiid, Gen. Mohamed Hersi Morgan, Osman Atto and Ex-President Ali Mahdi Mohamed officially and in writing gave authority to AFMET to issue fishing “licenses”, which local fishermen and marine experts call it simply a “deal between thieves”. According to Africa Analysis of November 13, 1998, AFMET alone “licensed” 43 seiners (mostly Spanish, at $30,000 per 4-month season. Spanish Pesca Nova was “licensed” by AFMET while French Cobracaf group got theirs from SAMICO at a much discounted rate of $15,000 per season per vessel.

Not to be outdone, in October 1999 Puntland Administration, gave carte blanche to another Mafia group known as PIDC, registered in Oman to fish, issue licenses and to police the Puntland coast. PIDC in turn contracted Hart Group of the UK and together they pillaged the Somali fishing grounds with vengeance, making over $20 million profit within two years. The deal was to split the profits but PIDC failed to share the spoils with Puntland administration, resulting in revocation of their licenses. Having reneged on their part of the deal, PIDC/Hart quit the country with their handsomely won chips.

Somali Complaints and Appeals on Illegal Fishing & Hazardous Waste Dumping

Another major problem closely connected with the IUUs and illegal fishing is industrial, toxic and nuclear waste dumping in both off-shore and on-shore areas of Somalia. Somali authorities, local fishermen, civil society organizations and international organizations have reported and warned of the dangerous consequences of these criminal actions. In a Press Statement dated 16 Sept 1991, the SSDF, which then administered the Northeastern Regions of Somalia, sternly warned “all unauthorized and illegal foreign fishing vessels in the Somali waters are prohibited, with immediate effect, to undertake any further illegal fishing and to stay clear of the Somali waters”. In April 1992, SSDF Chairman, Gen. Mohamed Abshir Musse wrote to the then Italian Foreign Minister, Gianni De Michelis, drawing his attention to the robbery of the Somali marine resources and ecosystem destruction by unlicensed Italian trawlers.

In September 1995, leaders of all the Somali political factions of the day (12 of them) and two major Somali NGO Networks jointly wrote to the UN Secretary General, Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali, with copies to the EU, Arab League, OIC, OAU and to other involved parties, detailing the illegal fishing and hazardous material dumping crises in the Somali sea waters and requesting the UN to set up a body to manage and protect these waterways. They pointed out that since ICAO already manages the Somali airspace, so could IMO or a newly created organization run Somalia’s seas until an effective Somali national government is able to take control of it. Again, from 1998 to 2006, consecutive Ministers of Fisheries of Puntland State of Somalia have repeatedly appealed to the international community: UN, EC, African Union, Arab League and to individual nations, advising the members states of these organizations to help keep poaching vessels and crews from their countries out of the Somali waters. The Ministers also complained of oil spills, toxic and nuclear waste dumping in the Somali coast.

Somali fishermen in various regions of the country also complained to the international community about the illegal foreign fishing, stealing the livelihoods of poor fishermen, waste dumping and other ecological disasters, including the indiscriminate use of all prohibited methods of fishing: drift nets, under water explosives, killing all “endangered species” like sea-turtles, orca, sharks, baby whales, etc. as well as destroying reef, biomass and vital fish habitats in the sea (IRIN of March 9, 2006). Fishermen in Somalia have appealed to the United Nations and the international community to help them rid the country's shores of foreign ships engaged in illegal fishing. United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated 700 foreign-owned vessels were engaged in unlicensed fishing in Somali waters in 2005. However, FAO said it was "impossible to monitor their fishery production in general, let alone the state of the fishery resources they are exploiting….there is also strong suspicion of illegal dumping of industrial and nuclear wastes along the Somali coast", IRIN 09/03/06.

"They are not only taking and robbing us of our fish, but they are also trying to stop us from fishing," said Jeylani Shaykh Abdi, a fisherman in Merca, 100km south of Mogadishu. "They have rammed our boats and cut our nets", he added. Another Merca fisherman, Mohamed Hussein, said [Our] existence depends on the fish. He accused the international community of "talking only about the piracy problem in Somalia, but not about the destruction of our coast and our lives by these foreign ships." Jeylani noted that the number of foreign ships had increased over time. "It is now normal to see them on a daily basis, a few miles off our shores" (IRIN 09/03/06).

Describing the activity as "economic terrorism", Somali fishermen told IRIN that the poachers were not only plundering the fish but were also dumping rubbish and oil into the sea. They complained the Somali government was not strong enough to stop it. "We want the international agencies to help us deal with this problem," said Hussein. "If nothing is done about them, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters." Musse Gabobe Hassan and Mohamud Hassan Tako of the Mogadishu Maritime and Fisheries Institute accuse foreign ships of illegal fishing and dumping of hazardous waste in Somali waters. “Somalia’s coastal communities who eke their livelihood from the sea are appealing to the international community for help stop the illegal fishing fleets from both the developed and developing countries that are robbing our marine wealth and destroying its habitats”, they added.

Like the UN Security Council, Chatham House, an International Affairs Think-Tank, in a much publicized recent Paper on piracy in Somalia failed to present a balanced view of the issue and concentrated on the shipping piracy side of the coin. Roger Middleton, the author of the Paper, however, mentions in passing that European, Asian and African (Egypt and Kenya) illegally fish in the Somalia waters. In ignoring the principal IUU factor, the origin and the purpose of the shipping piracy, UN and Roger Middleton seem to be either misled or pressured to take this one-sided course by powerful interests who want to cover up and protect the profitable business of illegal fishing.

These crises of the illegal fishing, waste dumping, warlords/mafia deals and the loud complaints of the Somali fishermen and civil society have been known to UN agencies and international organizations all along. The UN Agencies and organizations, which have been fully aware of these crises, often expressed concern and lamentations but never took any positive action against these criminal activities. It appears as if they have also failed to inform the UN Security Council of this tragedy before it passed its resolutions 1816 and 1838 early this year.

Mr. Ould Abdalla, UN Secretary General Special Envoy for Somalia, who should know better, continued to condemn Somali shipping piracy in a number of press statements and rightly so though biased. In his latest Press Statement of 11/11/08 on the subject matter, he warmly welcomed the agreement by European Union member states to send ships to combat piracy off Somalia. “I am extremely pleased by the EU’s decision,” said Mr Ould-Abdallah. “Piracy off the Somali coast is posing a serious threat to the freedom of international navigation and regional security”. But he forgot to condemn fishing piracy, mention the Somali fishing communities’ livelihood security or to propose concrete actions to deal with the two inter-related piracies, which are like the two sides of the same coin.

An FAO study, Somalia’s Fishery Review by Frans Teutscher, Nov. 11, 2005, states, “In the absence of legal framework and/or for capacities for monitoring, control and surveillance, extensive illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) is taking place and considerable quantities of non-targeted by catch are discarded because they cannot presently be utilized”. The report said that the foreign IUUs maximize their catch by fishing throughout the year without regard to the wider marine ecosystem, not respecting fish and crustacean spawning periods or irreparable damage done by their massive drift nets and use of explosives or the loss of local fishermen’s livelihood.

In a letter to the SSDF dated January 1998, Mr. Dominic Langenbacher, UNDP Somalia Resident Representative, expressed his apprehension of the danger posed to the Somali marine resources and environment by foreign vessels. “The concern of the international community is that the threat of toxic waste dumping, pirate fishing by foreign vessels and over fishing of Somali stocks could adversely, and perhaps permanently, affect the ecosystem of the entire region” he said. “Furthermore, Somalia currently has no provision to deal with potential oil spills or other marine disasters and has no capability to monitor and control her coastal waters and, if necessary, provide sea search or rescue operations”, he added.

Dr Mustafa Tolba, former Executive Director of UNEP, confirmed that Italian companies were dumping lethal toxic waste in Somalia which might “contribute to the loss of life in the already devastated country”. Dr Tolba added that the shipment of the toxic wastes from Italy that could also aggravate the destruction of the ecosystem in Somalia “earned a company, which ships the waste, between 2 to 3 million dollars in profits”, (Sunday Nation, 06/09/92).

In a proposal for action to the UNDP for Somalia in early 1990s, Mr. John Laurence, a fishery consultant with PanOcena Resources Ltd, reports the catastrophic and heartbreaking illegal foreign exploitation of the Somali seas. “With regards to the controlled exploitation of the Somali deep sea fishing grounds by the huge foreign factory ships and vessels it is our opinion that the UN must get involved. This area is recognized as one of the 5 richest fishing zones of the world and previously unexploited. It is now being ravaged, unchecked by any authority, and if it continues to be fished at the level it is at present stocks are in danger of being depleted …. So, a world resource is under serious threat and the UN is sitting back doing nothing to prevent it”. “Secondly, the Somali people are being denied any income from this resource due to their inability to license and police the zone” and “ the UN is turning a blind eye to the activities of the fishing vessels whose operators are not paying their dues; which in any other circumstances would be enforced by any international court of law”, argues Laurence.

Surprisingly, the UN disregarded its own findings of the violations, ignored the Somali and international appeals to act on the continued ravaging of the Somali marine resources and dumping of hazardous wastes. Instead, the UN and the big powers, invoking Charter IIV of the UN Charter, decided to “enter the territorial waters of Somalia……and ..…use, within the territorial waters of Somalia ….all necessary means to identify, deter, prevent, and repress acts of piracy and armed robbery, including but not limited to boarding, searching, and seizing vessels engaged in or suspected of engaging in acts of piracy or armed robbery, and to apprehend persons engaged in such acts with a view to such persons being prosecuted” (Resolution 1816).

It should be noted that there is no mention of the illegal fishing piracy, hazardous waste dumping or the plight of the Somali fishermen in the UN Resolutions. Justice and fairness have been overlooked in these twin problems of FISHING PIRACY and SHIPPING PIRACY.

The Illegality and Impracticality of the actions of the UN, NATO and EU

This Global Armada is in the Somali waters illegally as it is not approved by the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP). It is also unlikely it will achieve its stated objectives to curb the shipping piracy as it is now conceived. The TFP and the members of the European Parliament rejected these UN and European decisions to police the Somali seas (both the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden) as both illegal and unworkable. At a Press Conference in Nairobi on October 18th 2008, the Deputy Speaker of the TFP, Mohamed Omar Dalha, termed the deployment of foreign warships to the country's coast to fight piracy as invasion of its sovereignty and asked the foreign warships to “move out of the Somali waters”. The Speaker questioned the intent of the deployment and suggested that the powers involved had a hidden agenda. He said if these powers were genuine in curbing the piracy they would have supported and empowered the Somali authorities, who would be more effective in stopping the menace. “If the millions of dollars given to the pirates or wasted in the warship policing there were given to us, we would have eliminated this curse”, he said.

Several EU members of parliament (MEPs) called the EU naval mission to be deployed against pirates off the coasts of Somalia as a "military nonsense," "morally wrong" and having "no international legal basis." German green MEP Angelika Beer underlined the lack of international law to sustain the proposed European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) mission. "There is no clarity to the limitations of this mandate. Will the EU be able to sink ships and arrest pirates?" she asked. Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Maria Gomes gave a fiery speech on the "moral problem" of the EU mission, which, in her opinion, is only about "protecting oil tankers." "Nobody gives a damn about the people in Somalia who die like flies," she said (EU Observer of 15th October 2008).

Conclusion

The EU, NATO and US Navies can, of course, Rambo and obliterate the fishermen pirates and their supporting coastal communities but that would be illegal, criminal act. Yet, it may temporarily reduce the intensity of the shipping piracy but it would not result in a long-term solution of the problem. The risk of loss of life of foreign crews and ecological impact of major oil spill would be a marine catastrophe of gigantic proportions for the whole coastal regions of East Africa and the Gulf of Aden. In their current operations, the Somali fishermen pirates genuinely believe that they are protecting their fishing grounds (both 12-mile territorial and EEZ waters). They also feel that they exacting justice and compensation for the marine resources stolen and the destroyed ecosystem by the IUUs. And their thinking is shared and fully supported by the coastal communities, whose protectors and providers they became.

The matter needs careful review and better understanding of the local environment. The piracy is based on local problems and it requires a number of comprehensive joint local and external partners approaches.

Firstly, practical and lasting solution lies in jointly addressing the twin problems of the shipping piracy and the illegal fishing piracy, the root cause of the crisis.

Secondly, the national institutional crisis should be reviewed along with the piracy issues.

Thirdly, local institutions should be involved and supported, particularly by helping to form coastguards, training and coastguard facilities. These may sound asking too much to donors and UN agencies. But we should ask what it meant those who paid tens of millions dollars of ransom and their loved ones held hostage for months.

Fourthly, a joint Somali and UN agency like the present ICAO for the Somali airspace should be considered.

By Mohamed Abshir Waldo,
Journalist/Consultant SANDI CONSULTING & ASSOCIATES
E-Mail:waldo@todays.co.ke

The Role of Hegemony and Race in Skin Bleaching Practices

2010-07-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

By Fadumo Tahlil

While skin bleaching may appear to be a new phenomenon it has actually been around for decades. This practice pose major health risks to those who take part in it.

The significance and repercussions of skin bleaching can be observed in race, gender, class and identity. Many are concerned about the social impact that it has on people of color as they try to have a lighter complexion and try to leave behind a darker one. With social impacts affecting race, class, gender, the perception of beauty and others, relevant questions arise on the topic of skin bleaching. Among them, what is the significance of skin color in societies and communities that bleach their skin? What are the stigmas attached to darker skinned individuals that would make them to bleach their skin, and how successful are they in detaching themselves from those stigmas? How does the perception of beauty influence skin bleaching practices across cultures? Does skin bleaching arise from self-hatred and if so, where does the self-hatred root from?Reflecting on the issue, one can find many reasons to answer the question as to why people bleach their skin. And after brief and cursive thought, someone may mention one simplistic reason such as: people bleach their skin for vanity's sake. But this answer does not seem plausible considering the social and historical factors that influence the standards of beauty which are essentially determined by dominant powers and cultures. People that bleach their skin are influenced by Western standards of beauty that say lighter or whiter skin is more beautiful. The thought that one bleaches their skin to become more beautiful indicates that they do not see themselves or consider their skin tone beautiful, and that the skin tone they desire is what is considered beautiful to them and their community. But who determines what is considered to be beautiful? Hegemonic powers establish this for their self-interest and spread their idea of beauty either through media or by treating people with lighter skin within the "colored community" better than those of darker skin. Also, they can use more aggressive means like discrimination and oppression. By doing this, they benefit from white privilege and exploit those that don’t fit with their standards of beauty. This relates to Antonio Gramsci’s perspective of social hegemony where the masses consent to adhere to the values of the dominant group or the bourgeoisie. Institutions, political and social practices as well as forms of consciousness of the civil society coincide with hegemony.

So when people are participating in the practice of skin bleaching for reasons that only include beauty and vanity and not to become white or to assimilate, they are unconscious of the dominating Eurocentric values they coincide with and that are instilled in them through different aspects of society. Thus, those who continue to follow this direction and emulate the Western characteristics, will tend to believe in a future where discrimination, classification, exploitation and oppression cease to exist. And that is because they will become fully involved in the illusion that they have assimilated with the dominant, white majority due to their lighter, whiter skin color. And, in actuality, this future does not seem likely to exist as hegemonic structures remain in power.

The perception and feeling of beauty is important to women regardless of race or skin color. In one case, it is important because it is a determinant for many things, especially marriage. Interestingly, besides the traditional western-style white wedding dress that is associated with weddings, it appears that a white skin tone has become an important determinant of the attractiveness and chances of marriage for many women. And that is explained when Ronald E. Hall states that “the internalization of light skin as a point of reference for attractiveness and marriage among African Americans and Hindu Indians reflects a trait of the dominant culture”. These values create and normalize standards of beauty for women of color around the world that portray being lighter as socially beneficial. These standards and perceptions influence the quality of life in many cases.

The practice of skin bleaching changes the skin tone of an individual to that of one lighter than the original state of their skin. Due to that, the topic of race becomes the main argument. Also, the idea that people who bleach their skin believe that they will become better people after bleaching is another contentious point. By becoming whiter or lighter, there is an association between being white and being better. Skin tone and skin color have historically been a topic of controversy because of the oppression and discrimination attached to these physical features. The white skin tone has and still is considered to be superior, desired and emulated because the hegemonic powers have perpetuated the idea of superiority being associated with their skin color. Individuals that bleach their skin, in many cases want to alter their skin tone, a practice that is becoming more possible thanks to science and new technology, to assimilate with the dominant or hegemonic race or to assimilate with their own community whose structure is influenced by the hegemonic Western white race.

Race politics have been a subject of controversy and skin bleaching has made it much more complicated. Historically, Western powers in their practice of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism have projected their white supremacist ideology onto the oppressed slaves and natives of foreign non-white nations. This ideology influenced these people, putting into question their color and their body image. In the past, people of color did not have the option to alter their skin tone to conform to the social standards that were established by Western powers. Because of technology and advancements in science, many people of color now take steps to conform to the same social standards that were established centuries ago.

In a speech given in 1962, Malcolm X asks an audience of Black women one probing question: who taught you to hate the color of your skin to such an extent that you bleach, to get like the white man? The issue of skin bleaching and self-hatred were vividly presented in the context of Malcolm X's question. That further exposed the historical relationship between whites and black in America as well as the double oppression or double burden that black women face in America. Through skin bleaching, Black women try to emulate whiteness, a characteristic that is seen by others as feminine and attractive. By extension, W.E.B. DuBois’ idea of double consciousness can be applied to people of color who bleach their skin around the world and it gives insight on the way in which race and identity perspectives apply to skin bleaching. It can be argued that people who bleach their skin have an image of themselves and an image of how others view them and are influenced greatly by the perspective of others.

Skin bleaching is affected by race and hegemonic values which in turn influence and perpetuate stigmas and social class status. Further, skin bleaching practices are present in many countries world-wide including countries with histories of colonialism, slavery and discrimination. Western values have undoubtedly been a dominant factor in skin bleaching practices through means such as advertisements. Skin bleaching is an important topic to discuss because it examines the complexities of race and provides an insight on the direction of future discourses about race, notably topics concerning the blurring of color lines.

Sitting down with the Somali king of stand-up comedy: AbdihakinBR

2010-07-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

AbdihakinBR is most likely the only standing-up Somali comedian in the Twin Cities. There was one or two Somali stand-up comedians who took a crack at comedy but somehow went off to other things. Being the lone comedian act in the town made AbdihakinBR to be motivated to improvise ways to make sure comedy doesn’t die.

BR, as he likes to be called, started performing Stand-up comedy 13 years ago and has been doing it ever since without too much bragging. He is an accomplished playwright, actor and writer. He has won many awards and was crowned as the best entertainer of the year for the past 3 years. He is a father and husband who puts family before acts. In this Interview with Mashriq Quarterly, AbdihakinBR talks about how he started comedy and other issues.

Could you tell as something about your background?

Well, I was born in Waaberi neighborhood in Mogadishu. Our neighborhood was home to many great Somali artists especially comedians, storytellers and folklore dancers and that had an effect on me to love everything about performing arts and entertainment.

And that influence made you easy to become a comedian?

Well, it was not by accident. I had an early start because of that influence. I started as a playwright and slowly morphed into being a comedian. I would be writing a play and all of sudden I would be visualizing something funny and I would start laughing at it. Those around me would be like what are you laughing and I tell it as I pictured and everyone would be laughing. People saw my talent and encouraged me to be an artist and an entertainer. However, sometimes the same mental picture would lead me to serious thing to contemplate upon. Then I would think of ways to make that serious staff laughable or I will write a play or come up with an act.

Like what?

Well, usually things that are bad and negative in society and in culture. I would think about how I could challenge these things without being controversial and rude. It happens that comedy is one civil way to deal with those things. You will make people laugh at themselves and at the same time make them realize how bad they are or how bad it is of what they do. Nowadays people became self-righteous and stubborn. I am not saying everything or everyone is bad but I happen to see the bad side of things and try to address them lightly. For me it is fulfilling sometimes to make fun on those issues.

you make fun of the people of Gaalkacyo?

I make fun of everyone not only Reer Gaalkacyo. I make fun of Reer Xamar too and I will tell you the reason. People from Gaalkacyo don’t give a damn whether you offend them or not. They are fine with verbal taunts and ridicule as long as you are not physically attacking them. And when it comes to Reer Xamar they are very open minded and tolerant. Another reason is I am from Xamar and my father is from Gaalkacyo, so I know the ins and outs of both folks; they have many twists of fate so it is always fun to make jokes about them and it is not my fault that I am a product of Gaalkacyo and Xamar.

What is distinctive about your comedy?

Comedy in our culture is done and acted on by group of people and even famous comedians act as in duo or as in group. Mine is a solo act and it is a stand-up which is a new thing in Somali comedy. I am also based here in the Diaspora and not in Somalia, so my comedy deals with issues like hip-hop, immigration, taxation, culture shock and alienation, unemployment and things that are unique to where I live.

I saw one act you were talking about a Somali American kid being sent to Gaalkacyo for cultural rehabilitation.

That was a dhaqan-celis gone wrong. Somali parents who want their children to learn about the Somali culture they should be careful not to send kids to places where they would be toasted. People in Somalia are tough and they don’t take bullshit from a kid who grew up playing video games or watching BET. Before you send your kid there, at least give him an orientation like the one they gave you in Nairobi when you were coming to America. Or otherwise be ready for the consequences.

You are a family man and have kids; do your kids know about your comedy?

I am a father and husband fulltime and comedy is a sidekick for me. Before I start an act, I got to call home to check how my wife and kids are doing and if they need something. Usually I am on the phone at a comedy club and scribbling something on paper and people think I am writing jokes or someone is dictating jokes to me over the phone. I am writing down the grocery list and baby-formulas instead. That is why I have to run to the corner store after I am done with my act.

Who are you favorite Somali comedians?

I liked the late famous Somali comedian Jeyte because he was also involved in writing plays and funny skits. He was very creative. I like Ilkacase and Nakruuma too.

Any thing new you would like to share with us.

Oh yeah, I am working on a new show now and I am planning a tour through North America. This would be my biggest show in 2010, so be tuned.

Thanks BR.

Starbucks Dads: Perspectives on Somali Immigrants & Fathers

2010-07-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

By Safia Farole

There they stood – a group of Somali men, some in their late-twenties and others in middle-age, congregated around the coffee shop located on the corner of the plaza, on a Friday afternoon. It was a typical rainy day in Seattle as I was driving down to the local Somali shopping mall, and the sight of these men was all too typical. Around several major cities in the US and Canada, where Somali immigrants live in large numbers, there is this phenomenon of “Starbucks Dads” (SD) – Somali fathers who gather at coffee shops, including but not limited to Starbucks, talking idly for hours on end. To clarify my position, in no way is this column eant to denigrate Somalis or Somali men, nor is it meant to cause fitnah. This phenomenon is a symptom of the disease that hampers our progress as a multi-ethnic Muslim community in the West. To approach this topic, we should first examine what factors motivate these men to engage in this activity. What are the social repercussions as a result? How does the immigrant Somalia experience parallel that of disadvantaged minorities in America? What is the role of the father in Islam? What did the Prophet (SAW) teach us about wasting time? And finally, what are the level of responsibilities necessary to addressing and fixing this social problem?

As an ethnic group in Diaspora, many Somali families have fled the civil war that erupted in Somali in 1991. Similar to many immigrants, a lot of Somalis have strong ties to families that may still be back home – one reason why money transfer businesses are a staple of Somali shopping centers. As an ethnic group, the integration of Somali families into Western societies has not always been smooth. A major reason for this is because Somalis are relatively recent immigrants to Western states, compared to other communities such as the Arabs and Pakistanis, who began immigrating to the West decades earlier. Thus, since the 90’s, many first generation Somali Americans are just now in the prime of their youth. The obvious impact of this is that Somalis have not had as much time to take advantage of educational opportunities and white-collar careers that come with being a long established immigrant community. Added to this delicate balancing act is the strong tribal affiliation that is present in Somali culture. In terms of the SD phenomenon, you may ask, how is the cultural baggage of Somalis contributing to this occurrence? I have been told by male relatives who were witness to these gatherings that a lot of times the discussion of clan politics is ever present. Back home, as the patriarch in the family, fathers gained a strong sense of identity from clan relations. With government corruption running rampant in Somalia, often times, clan relations made the difference between a good lifestyle or a bad one. Because these gatherings are often times marked by tribal affiliation, they allow Somali fathers the opportunity to recreate the reality they had left behind, all the while blocking out the frustrations of adjusting to a different society. These frustrations may stem from the realities faced by many immigrants. The father, who may have occupied a middle-class job back home, in the US, is forced to take up a labor skilled job because his work credentials from Somalia don’t match up to those found here. Thus, in major metropolitan areas, it’s common to see many Somali men who are taxi drivers. Frustrated with dismal job prospects and changing family dynamics, these Somali fathers attempt to retain a semblance of old tribal order by meeting up with other like-minded Somalis, to vent over clan politics from back home. But the obvious question becomes, with all of these dads hanging around, what about the children?

According to the Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services, one of the factors that may complicate social adjustment for Somali youth is “family conflict due to cultural adjustment, in addition to other family stressors [which] has…led to homelessness or gang involvement” among this age group. This report cites a recent study of Somali youth in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, which “identified three distinct Somali youth gangs in the Twin cities area, two of which were engaged in crime and violence” and “noted that only 1% of gangs in the Twin Cities are comprised of Somali youth.” Now, that 1% may seem insignificant, but imagine the effect that gang members have on other children in the family, who may one day decide to pick up the gun themselves. But, how did we get to this point? While SD’s are sitting in cafes, the children are bereft of a father figure. And who fills that vacuum? It may be the drug dealer on the corner of the street or the gun-toting hustler on the basketball court. Not only do fatherless homes have a devastating effect on youth in general, but it should be observed that the plight of Somali-American youth is strikingly similar to that of black American youth.

Although this article is not an in-depth sociological exploration of this phenomenon, one of the repercussions of SD is that the children of those fathers end up hanging out with the wrong crowd. Often times, when you look at who these Somali youth are imitating, it is the stereotypical black “ghetto” male or female. If these youth came to the West as children, and if they’re coming from a fatherless household, they are left to finding another source of guidance. Given that many Somalis are relocated to “ghetto” like government housing projects, they are more likely to be around the “ghetto lifestyle.” Thus, they begin to imitate the gangster lifestyle – listening to rap music, talking and dressing like rap moguls. Although this is an anecdotal claim, there is evidence in the psychological literature that children are prone to imitating their friends. A fatherless home does nothing but compound this easily influenced population. As a means to ameliorate this social problem, some may suggest that Somali immigrants be relocated to the suburbs, that way they may imitate middle-class, oftentimes “white” children. But the truth of the matter is, the way to fix this problem is not a change of venue, rather we can find the medicine to this social ill grounded in the tradition of the Prophet (SAW).

It is a well known basic fact to all Muslims that the Prophet (SAW) is the best example sent to mankind. This is repeated at almost every Islamic conference we attend – rightly so. But, as with everything in life, we have to walk the talk. For us, as human beings struggling with daily life, one of the most critical roles of the Prophet (SAW) was his fatherly role. Anas ibn Malik, who was the Prophet’s servant for 10 continuous years, stated, “I have never seen a man who was more compassionate to his family members than Muhammad.” (Muslim) Countless Hadith have produced for us the image of a Prophet who treated his children equally, and most importantly, was there to give them advice in the affairs of daily life. One example is found in Ibn Hambal and Muslim when one of the Prophet’s male grandchildren wanted to eat a date that had been given to him to be distributed as alms. The Prophet immediately took it from him and stated, “Anything given as alms is forbidden to us.” He didn’t destroy the boy by rebuking him or changing his demeanor, he instructed him politely in a manner that contributed to the righteous upbringing of these grandchildren. If SD are not around enough to ingrain these small, yet significant principles in their children, who do we expect they will learn morals from? The Messenger’s example of fatherhood is one that should not be trivialized, but when it is not being imitated in Muslim households, the effects can be pronounced – it can make or break a Muslim’s life course.

At the crux of this issue is the concept of time. What is happening when fathers are idly chatting up their buddies in cafeshops? They are wasting time. And with the reality of the life of this world jumping out at you in countless Quranic ayat, that is not something the Muslim can afford. In one of shortest Surahs in the Quran, Al-Asr, Allah clearly states “By the time, Verily! Man is in loss.” Wasting time on non-beneficial activity will certainly decrease one’s Eman, but it will also drive you further from Allah’s mercy. As a caveat, in Islam there is nothing wrong with a man occasionally hanging out with buddies and socializing with them, in fact socialization is a critical facet of a healthy human lifestyle. But, when a healthy activity reaches an extreme, it is bound to have an effect on one’s worship. Another blog topic can be spent on just extrapolating meaning from this short Surah and the many Hadith that speak about using time well. For a good lecture on the dangers of wasting time check out Wasting Time by Nouman Ali Khan. But in terms of understanding the SD phenomenon, it is important to know that not only does this problem affect the family unit, it also weakens the relationship between the Creator and a servant. Now, what can we all do as Muslims to address this issue?

It can’t be stressed enough that this problem is wide reaching, and it is not only limited to the Somali community. Concurrently, this social problem may not necessarily be widespread in the Somali community, but anecdotal observations warrant that we bring this issue to the fore. So how do we go about tackling this issue? As with many other social problems, there are levels of responsibility in how to address this problem. In no way are these proposed solutions exhaustive, but they are a foot-in-the-door.

Firstly, at the masjid level, Imam’s should be the first line of defense in bringing this issue to light. As the weekly congregation prescribed by Allah, the khutbah can be used to pinpoint the social ills of the community, within the framework of proper naseeha of course (i.e not pointing fingers to individuals or to a specific community). These khutbahs should be dedicated to explaining the role of the father in bringing up a healthy household. Besides the khutbah, Imam’s and masjid boards can take action on this issue by creating Father/Son or Father/Daughter activity days, which can create a structure that encourages family cohesion. At the second level of social responsibility is the mother. There are a myriad of solutions that Muslim moms can engage in to preserve their children, but if these moms find themselves running a household singlehandedly, most critically, they should create or maintain a strong connection with the local Muslim community. This assumes that there is an activity Muslim community nearby, but a lot of times this is not the case. Regardless, bringing children up with a masjid-centered outlook can have profound effects on their lives as Muslims. And finally, the last level of responsibility in addressing the SD phenomenon is the community level. A lot of times we Muslims enter the masjid and we may walk out after prayer without saying nothing more than salam to those around us. And a lot of times, our social circles are limited to those of our own skin color. Just reaching out to Muslims of other ethnicities can create strong bonds of trust in our communities. Give it a try the next time you go to the masjid: sit next to someone of a different ethnicity/race other than yours, strike up a conversation with them and perhaps even exchange contact info with them. Call them up to go out for lunch or dinner, or invite them to your house for socialization. Make an effort to sit next to them at the next AlMaghrib course – if there is one in your city. Just as children like to imitate their friends, grown-ups are not immune to this either. If some family-oriented brother reaches out to a Starbucks Dad and demonstrates how he engages with his children, imagine the self-introspection that could take place. As with every social problem, we can all contribute to eradicating it – the SD phenomenon is no exception.

References:

Fatherhood Institute. Parenting training for Somali Fathers.

Bridging Refugee Youth & Children’s Services. Strengths-Based Programming: The Example of Somali Refugee Youth.

IslamOnline.net. The Prophet: The Ideal Father and Grandfather.

50th Anniversary of Somali Independence

2010-06-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

50th Anniversary of Somali Independence Day Photos

2010-06-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

These are the photos I took at the 50th anniversary of Somali independence day celebrations held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 26, 2010. It was great event: well organized and well attended. Somalis in Minnesota showed their love for the nation and waved the celestial Somali flag with pride. Somali musicians sang beautiful patriotic songs to entertain the crowd. Kids sang along with songs like "Maanta ...maanta and Soomaliyeey toosoo," Religious Imams and elders prayed for peace to come to the homeland. Federal, state and local politicians came to deliver speeches and solicit the "Somali Vote". One minor incident involved an old Somali man donning the Somaliland flag. He was a distraction and was booted out of the event respectfully by Somali police officers. Other than that, the celebrations went beautiful. Enjoy the photos in the three sideshows below - courtesy of Mashriq. All content is public.

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Qaal Designs

2010-04-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

Qaal Designs

With a bucket on her head, a young girl goes to fetch water from a well near the beach. She walks, mindful of the greenery around her. She wanders and drifts towards the tempting beach. Once there, with her bare feet, she feels the moist sand with her toes. She is inspired by the natural beauty around her and appreciates the lush textures surrounding her. Patterns of harmonized tints begin to appear.

She rushes home and strings pieces of fine fabric together to form different designs. She then dyes the textiles and hangs them on grassy ropes to let them dry in the open air. The equatorial sun brightens them to preferred hue. Suddenly the women of the neighborhood gather around her and praise her with songs as she is immersed in her world of color and patterns. And that is how it all started; the beginning of what is to become a life long dream for Nimo.
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When Faarax met Xaliimo

2010-04-01T10:01:00.001-07:00

By: Ato Shaair Mataan

Xaliimo is a very beautiful and hot gabar. Her qurux is like jowharad that would make you sleepless for many habeeno. She is like boqorod full of suuro and jinniyo. She is the kind of girl that most of ciyaalka xaafadda would die to be with. She is tall, dhiig furan. She could be a super model any maalin if she wants to. She has a perfect jir, dhaxyar with the right curves. She has a wicked smile and heavenly indho-deero that would make you think of the Xuural Ceynta Janadda lagu sheegay.

They say jaceylku is blind and makes you feel jileec. From the first day her family moved into our xaafad, I was struck by her qurux and wanted inaan ku dhaco. Somehow ma helin a chance to do that. One day I saw her walking in the Suuq buying some dirac for the coming aroos party on saturday habeen that will be held at Habaryar isniino’s wedding hall. She was right there in the Suuq but was into tough gorgorton and iibsi. I followed her like waardiye camal. She was getting cilaan on her long fingers and all over her gacmaheeda xaadaa leh. She reminds you of that song “Gacmahaada xaadda leh markaan soo xasuustaan xadantoodaa,” in addition, she was getting her timaheeda garbaha jooga done while chilling with her girlfriends in Sahra’s hair salon. After she was done with timaha and cilaanka, she came down to do more wax-iibsasho.

I can’t just follow her like that. This was my chance. I tried my best to overcome my unnatural xishood and went straight to her and say something like “abaayo, iska waran? ... my name is Faarax”. I wanted to be cool and self-confident and I wanted to let her know saan uga helay. After my is-maqiiqin and indho-adeeg, I found myself in front of her, frozen and speechless. My geesinimo went out of the dariishadda. I couldn’t even dheh xataa one word. I started to gariir and dhidid. I was like a tiny leaf in a small Geed caught in a dabeel waalan.

After a daqiiqad or two, I was able to jooji the trembling but the sweating waa iska socday like fire hydrant ciyaal fureen. What an embarrassment! I was like alwaax fooqal alwaax big time.

She qosol at my awkwardness and lack of geesinimo. So did the other Xaliimos that were with her. I neceyb them overweight fulxumo chicks that are always with her like body guards. They remind you of that song “Buur buuranaayee alla ma buunsheey cuni jireenee.” I specially neceyb that dhuxul gubatay la mood, Faadumo Gaab. Her shortness is like a ganbar lugaha laga gooyay. Xaliimo checked me kor iyo hoos and walked away with jeesto, giggling and laughing. I could hear Faadumo Gaab saying ….what an alwaax!

I wished I was meyd aan nooleeyn. I was breathing si xoog badan. I regained myself control and started to orod from this fadeexo like a tuug maalin cad la qabtay. I went straight to my guri, and went to my qol, slammed the albaab behind me, jumped on the sariir, found my go’ and barkin and started to hide myself from the yaxyaxii and jacdii that followed me all the way from that awful is-biimeen. That was ill-choreographed ku-dhacoow for 20 year old nin rag ah like me. After hours of painful shalaay and galgalasho, I fell into a nice hurdo. Dreams of mixed qarow and riyo maalmeed became my comfort. I dreamt of her. She was with me in the sariir, lying by my dhinac, giving me warmth and raaxo. I felt like I was in jano aduun.

Knock ... knock on the door and loud bang woke me up of what could have been one of my wildest imaginations with Xaliimo. It was my little hyperactive walaalkeeyga yar, waking me up with his usual feer and faralaab. Waa a little nuisance that I have to deal with maalin kasta. I adkeeysi him walaahi on daily basis as if beat him my hooyo would call all my gardheerayaal adeero who will then take me to the masaajidka and keep me there and for saacado and for sure bore me with wacdi. Cunugaas usually spoils my daily dreams. I have to beat the hell out of him and vent all my ciil on him. But he ran away to the qolka fadhiga as I was trying to kac from sariir. I ran after him just to catch him and beat the hell out of him. The little devil managed inuu igaga baxsado guriga gudihiisa.

To my yaab, she was there. I mean Xaliimo was there, sitting with my abaayo and hooyo. I was only wearing one duluf macaawiis. She could see my skinny feero and hairy xabad. Again, I stood there speechless like alwaax. Embarrassment fooqul embarrassment! This inkaar again?

Xaliimo and my heartless abaayo started to laugh. My hooyo started to tuur her kab on me. “war nacasyahow dhar soo gasho ... gabar baa kuu joogtee,” Hooyo shouted. I ran like tuug la qabtay talo ma leh back to my qol. I didn’t want to go back to the fadhiga any more. Again I felt like Alwaax.

Knock, knock on the door and it was my pitiless abaayo this time. “ war marax yahow soo bah, gabar baa ku sugeeysa, ” she taunted me with her challenged but improving Af Somali eey ka soo boowsatay dariska. We have loud and talkative new Somali daris fresh of the boat. I wanted to say “bax naga tag” but that was not ragnimo thing to do. I took my shukumaan and went straight to musqusha to titir my face, get the fiish out of my indho, brushed my qaxwo stained ilko. I took a quick shower and started is-qalajis and is-qurxin. I combed my jareer hair with shanlo and put some lotion on my qaleel skin. I came back to my qol and changed into a nice shaar and surwaal jeans and went back to fadhiga. Xaliimo was there sitting in the fadhi carbeed; eating some buskut, xalwo and drinking qaxwo qaraar like she is a marti in Eid celebrations. She looked up and smiled at me. I sat horteeda and murmured something that sounded like a salaan. I asked myself thoughtfully “maxeey qoftaan maanta ka sameeyneeysaa in our home?”

My mother started her obvious marmarsiiyo to excuse herself and others and let me be all alone with the quruxleeydan na soo booqatay. “waryaa maxamed ... nayaa asli ... kaalaya iiga soo qaada threadmillka from the basement.” They all left fadhiga to the basement. My hooyo wants to shed some culays these days.

I kept silent for daqiiqad or two until Xaliimo started to break the ice by saying “hooyadaa is cool,” I was like “Yeah,” I asked her what she is doing in our Guri.

“I came to see you ...what you did in the suuqa maanta was amazing... I felt your vibe,” I couldn’t believe waxa eey sheegeeyso? Gabartu dhiiranaayeey. A Xaliimo so geesi to come to your guri to ask you out, that is lama arag lama maqal ... it must be a joke.

“ Look Faarax ... aboowe you are a nice guy and I would like us to know each other si fiican and yaa og what this could lead to,” Xaliimo continued.

I was like this must be the craziest shukaansi ever and walaahi it is unbelievable sheeko unlike I have ever experienced. Yaabka yaabkiis, All I could say was “Haye” like baari caano ma daadshe. “one of us has to have the initiative ... you made the first move oo waa igu dhacday, so I thought it would be nice to retun the favor.” All I could say was “haye,”again like caano madaadshe. “So you know meesha la iga helo aboowe,” She stood up and walked toward albaabka. I followed her and opened albaabka for her like a gentleman. I did little bit of sagootis. That was kind cool saan u maleeynaayo. As I closed the door, I started to jump and shout with farax and qosol. “Yes,” Waanba iska hilmaamay all the embarrassment for the day. I was jumping and shouting for dhowr daqiiqo unaware of my surroundings and who is around hareeraheeyga or not. God is good. Ilaaheey ma ku gargaaraa mise ganfuur ganfuur aas kuu tuuraa...my farxad was on the roof and caadaas!

My hooyo, abaayo and little devilish brother were all in front of me with yaab and qosol at my unusual reaction. I don’t give damn about them. My sister Asli again flexed her newly acquired taunting repertoire of Af-Somali on me with her carabla’ accent and she laughingly said “walaahi ahadkan waa la soo haayaa,” She can’t pronounce the ‘Xa’ and ‘Ca’ in Somali and sounds like gaal speaking Somali.

Elders Validate Education

2010-04-01T00:48:00.001-07:00

By: Mohamed Hassan

Despite the daily struggles to adjust life in a new country and the revelation of Somali youth leaving Minnesota to fight alongside a designated terrorist group, Some Somali elders in Minnesota continue to show a tremendous strive to success and to educate themselves. Among the many graduating students of past semester from Minnesota universities were Mohamed-Rashid Mumin and Hussein Wehelie.

Neither of these men is ordinary nor traditional student.

It’s very common to see scores of Somali students randomly roving around university camouses in Minnesota but not 53-year-olds attempting to complete a degree. Mr. Wehelie and Mr. Mumin’s achievements are exceptional in Somali standards. Most 53-year-old Somalis work in odd jobs and strange shifts, and are preoccupied only on how to raise their kids and help relatives in the homeland, or are consumed with nasty Somali politics. However, while working full-time and raising big families, both Mr. Mumin and Mr. Wehelie managed to collect their graduate degrees from a respected universities in Minnesota.

Mr. Wehelie and Mr. Mumin’s past may have contributed to their continued drive to better their lives. Mr. Mumin was an exceptional professional athlete in Somalia. “I was a professional soccer, basketball, volleyball player … I played at the national level with more than one of these sports.” Mr. Mumin said.

Likewise, Mr. Wehelie was a well-known journalist. Before the civil war, he was a producer and a writer for both Radio Mogadishu and Xidigta October newspaper. “I used to write for number of programs at Radio Mogadishu and produced the “Titanic” tragedy in Somali to be broadcasted on the Radio.” Wehelie stated.

Obviously, no success is achieved with ease or without a sacrifice. “I went through a lot trying to provide and make time for my family while going to school.” Mr. Mumin explained. Likewise, Mr. Wehelie paid a price to juggle between school, work and family, “I used to work 3 days for 12 hrs go to school for the other four days … all of these time, and I was also helping my family and relatives back home.”

Mr. Wehliye was a student at the Somali National University in Mogadishu when the civil war broke-out and had to start everything all over. “First, I enrolled into an ESL [English as a Second Language] program then GED [General Education Development] to prepare for the high school diploma before going on to college” Wehelie explained.

The success of these two gentlemen is an example of one’s resolve and resilience. It could as well be an indication to a possible trend. Many Somali parents are now beginning to enroll colleges and catch-up with their college educated daughters and sons.

Mr. Wehelie and Mr. Mumin received their degrees in Political Science & Public Administration and Urban Planning & Geographic Information System respectively.

Poems

2010-03-31T19:52:00.001-07:00

War - a poem

by Lucky Omaar

A whisper in the night
A shadow that blocks the light
A squeeze in my heart of fear
The feel of which I cannot bear
A weight under which my heart might tear
Suddenly the silence is shattered
As the blood of my kin is splattered
By a bullet from a far-off land
That has buried my future in the sand
As I stare at what was once a white wall
But is now a stained symbol of my fall
Despair renders me mute
In the wake of a heartless brute
Who for his demon-god of tribe
Left me in a world I can ill describe

Photo: Sahal Abdule

Droping Hostilities

By: Fadumo Tahlil
The world turns a blind eye to my people
and sits back and looks,
while people’s houses lay in smokes
Arrogance is in the attitude of the Somali population
dehydration, lack of perspiration
unable to make accommodations
due to disorganization
making decisions with hesitation
apprehension reaps devastation

causing people to cry aloud the Quranic recitation
all of these issues and still no one governs our nation

Ignorance lies amongst my people
when will the ignorance end?
and the enlightenment begins?
when we will see our own empowerment?
when will the world see the other realm of Somalia
that is not broadcasted on BBC?
They say Black Hawk Down is part of our history and
Hollywood sells our sorrows and pirate warriors
to fulfill peoples entertainment needs.
Washington, with a hidden apparatus, laughs at us
as will kill one another in frustration
Somalia has become a target for false accusations
yes, we are a Muslim nation,
but does that make us guilty by association???
We fled our country because of a civil war
we find refuge in other countries
unlike ours are not so torn
we must remember,
we are guests in the countries we reside in today
because even though we are citizens
laws can be changed.
We look at the other in disgust
not because they committed a crime
but because of their tribe.
even though we look the same,
we loathe each other
because of ancestral names
Who supplies the militia today?
is there a logical reason for fighting anyway?
the bright light at the end of the tunnel is far away,
the light bulb is not going off, and that’s not okey
i’m not going to blame anyone
for my country’s situation
because the blame game is what got us so untamed.
there, I dropped my hostilies ,
but is Somalia willing to do the same?

Ras to Ras “Despair”

By: Ato Shaa’ir

I search peace
in alienated, violated land
god-forsaken, sun scorched dirt
blood soaked, Gun-powder tainted terrain
mob destroyed, razed dwellings
I see pieces
people stepping over
dead bodies all over the place
folks gone insane
unfeeling brain drain
led and held hostage by ruthless band
of unrepentant evil men
dressed in rags and robes
employing untaught child soldiers
drug crazed bandits and armed urchins
skinny hands tightly holding to AK47s
fisted grips of dope
marauding with blood-stained skirts
anonymous as faces cover
destroying and shelling

I try to preach
in the land of the unlearned
damaged people sinfully hurt
unwell and starving
so much pain, unconcerned
skeleton children swinging
from frail mother’s rips and hips
belly swelling, sick yelling

With misery I freeze
can’t continue this damned journey
with despair I ponder to pass
back from where I start then pause
feeling the same pain
relentless and alert once again
spirit is failing and short-selling me!
O’ God, please help me to overcome this
feeling numb and lost
emotional roller coaster! atone
and let peace rain from Ras to Ras
so I don’t dwell in pain zone
condemned and complaining

THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY

2010-03-31T08:54:00.001-07:00

THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg[/youtube]

CHIMAMANDA ADCHIE

I’m a storyteller. And I would like to tell you a few personal stories about what I like to call “the danger of the single story.” I grew up on a university campus in eastern Nigeria. My mother says that I started reading at the age of two, although I think four is probably close to the truth. So I was an early reader. And what I read were British and American children’s books.

I was also an early writer. And when I began to write, at about the age of seven, stories in pencil with crayon illustrations that my poor mother was obligated to read, I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading. All my characters were white and blue-eyed. They played in the snow. They ate apples. And they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out. Now this, despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria, I had never been outside Nigeria; we didn’t have snow; we ate mangoes; and we never talked about the weather because there was no need to.

My characters also drank a lot of ginger beer because the characters in the British books I read, drank ginger beer. Never mind that I had no idea what ginger beer was. And for many years afterwards, I would have a desperate desire to taste ginger beer. But that is another story.

What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children. Because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books, by their very nature, had to have foreigners in them, and had to be about things with which I could not personally identify. Now, things changed when I discovered African books. There weren’t many of them available. And they weren’t quite as easy to find as the foreign books. But because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye I went through a mental shift in my perception of literature. I realized that people like me, girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails, could also exist in literature. I started to write about things I recognized.

Now, I loved those American and British books I read. They stirred my imagination. They opened up new worlds for me. But the unintended consequence was that I did not know that people like me could exist in literature. So what the discovery of African writers did for me was this: It saved me from having a single story of what books are.

CHIMAMANDA ADCHIE

Photo: Ato Shaair

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from nearby rural villages. So the year I turned eight we got a new house boy. His name was Fide. The only thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice, and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn’t finish my dinner my mother would say, “Finish your food! Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing.” So I felt enormous pity for Fide’s family.

Then one Saturday we went to his village to visit. And his mother showed us a beautifully patterned basket, made of dyed raffia, that his brother had made. I was startled. It had not occurred to me that anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them is how poor they were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was my single story of them.

Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria to go to university in the United States. I was 19. My American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if she could listed to what she called my “tribal music,” and was consequently very disappointed when I produced my tape of Mariah Carey. She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.

What struck me was this: She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her default position toward me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning, pity. My roommate had a single story of Africa. A single story of catastrophe. In this single story there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her, in any way. No possibility of feelings more complex than pity. No possibility of a connection as human equals.

I must say that before I went to the U.S. I didn’t consciously identify as African. But in the U.S. whenever Africa came up people turned to me. Never mind that I knew nothing about places like Namibia. But I did come to embrace this new identity. And in many ways I think of myself now as African. Although I still get quite irritable when Africa is referred to as a country. The most recent example being my otherwise wonderful flight from Lagos two days ago, in which there was an announcement on the Virgin flight about the charity work in “India, Africa and other countries.”

So after I had spent some years in the U.S. as an African, I began to understand my roommate’s response to me. If I had not grown up in Nigeria, and if all I knew about Africa were from popular images, I too would think that Africa was a place of beautiful landscapes, beautiful animals, and incomprehensible people, fighting senseless wars, dying of poverty and AIDS, unable to speak for themselves, and waiting to be saved, by a kind, white foreigner. I would see Africans in the same way that I, as a child, had seen Fide’s family.

This single story of Africa ultimately comes, I think, from Western literature. Now, here is a quote from the writing of a London merchant called John Locke, who sailed to west Africa in 1561, and kept a fascinating account of his voyage. After referring to the black Africans as “beasts who have no houses,” he writes, “They are also people without heads, having their mouth and eyes in their breasts.”

Now, I’ve laughed every time I’ve read this. And one must admire the imagination of John Locke. But what is important about his writing is that it represents the beginning of a tradition of telling African stories in the West. A tradition of Sub-Saharan Africa as a place of negatives, of difference, of darkness, of people who, in the words of the wonderful poet, Rudyard Kipling, are “half devil, half child.”

And so I began to realize that my American roommate must have, throughout her life, seen and heard different versions of this single story, as had a professor, who once told me that my novel was not “authentically African.” Now, I was quite willing to contend that there were a number of things wrong with the novel, that it had failed in a number of places. But I had not quite imagined that it had failed at achieving something called African authenticity. In fact I did not know what African authenticity was.

The professor told me that my characters were too much like him, an educated and middle-class man. My characters drove cars. They were not starving. Therefore they were not authentically African.

But I must quickly add that I too am just as guilty in the question of the single story. A few years ago, I visited Mexico from the U.S. The political climate in the U.S. at the time, was tense. And there were debates going on about immigration. And, as often happens in America, immigration became synonymous with Mexicans. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were fleecing the healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.

I remember walking around on my first day in Guadalajara, watching the people going to work, rolling up tortillas in the marketplace, smoking, laughing. I remember first feeling slight surprise. And then I was overwhelmed with shame. I realized that I had been so immersed in the media coverage of Mexicans that they had become one thing in my mind, the abject immigrant. I had bought into the single story of Mexicans and I could not have been more ashamed of myself. So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.

It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is “nkali.” It’s a noun that loosely translates to “to be greater than another.” Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali. How they are told, who tells them, when they’re told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power.

Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person. The Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti writes that if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story, and to start with, “secondly.” Start the story with the arrows of the Native Americans, and not with the arrival of the British, and you have and entirely different story. Start the story with the failure of the African state, and not with the colonial creation of the African state, and you have an entirely different story.

I recently spoke at a university where a student told me that it was such a shame that Nigerian men were physical abusers like the father character in my novel. I told him that I had just read a novel called “American Psycho” — and that it was such a shame that young Americans were serial murderers.

Now, obviously I said this in a fit of mild irritation. I would never have occurred to me to think that just because I had read a novel in which a character was a serial killer that he was somehow representative of all Americans. And now, this is not because I am a better person than that student, but, because of America’s cultural and economic power, I had many stories of America. I had read Tyler and Updike and Steinbeck and Gaitskill. I did not have a single story of America.

When I learned, some years ago, that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful, I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me. But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood, full of laughter and love, in a very close-knit family.

But I also had grandfathers who died in refugee camps. My cousin Polle died because he could not get adequate healthcare. One of my closest friends, Okoloma, died in a plane crash because our firetrucks did not have water. I grew up under repressive military governments that devalued education, so that sometimes my parents were not paid their salaries. And so, as a child, I saw jam disappear from the breakfast table, then margarine disappeared, then bread became too expensive, then milk became rationed. And most of all, a kind of normalized political fear invaded our lives.

All of these stories make me who I am. But to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience, and to overlook the many other stories that formed me. The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

Of course, Africa is a continent full of catastrophes. There are immense ones, such as the horrific rapes in Congo. And depressing ones, such as the fact that 5,000 people apply for one job vacancy in Nigeria. But there are other stories that are not about catastrophe. And it is very important, it is just as important, to talk about them.

I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

So what if before my Mexican trip I had followed the immigration debate from both sides, the U.S. and the Mexican? What if my mother had told us that Fide’s family was poor and hardworking? What if we had an African television network that broadcast diverse African stories all over the world? What the Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe calls “a balance of stories.”

What if my roommate knew about my Nigerian publisher, Mukta Bakaray, a remarkable man who left his job in a bank to follow his dream and start a publishing house? Now, the conventional wisdom was that Nigerians don’t read literature. He disagreed. He felt that people, who could read, would read, if you made literature affordable and available to them.

Shortly after he published my first novel I went to a TV station in Lagos to do an interview. And a woman who worked there as a messenger came up to me and said, “I really liked your novel. I didn’t like the ending. Now you must write a sequel, and this is what will happen …” And she went on to tell me what to write in the sequel. Now I was not only charmed, I was very moved. Here was a woman, part of the ordinary masses of Nigerians, who were not supposed to be readers. She had not only read the book, but she had taken ownership of it and felt justified in telling me what to write in the sequel.

Now, what if my roommate knew about my friend Fumi Onda, a fearless woman who hosts a TV show in Lagos, and is determined to tell the stories that we prefer to forget? What if my roommate knew about the heart procedure that was performed in the Lagos hospital last week? What if my roommate knew about contemporary Nigerian music? Talented people singing in English and Pidgin, and Igbo and Yoruba and Ijo, mixing influences from Jay-Z to Fela to Bob Marley to their grandfathers. What if my roommate knew about the female lawyer who recently went to court in Nigeria to challenge a ridiculous law that required women to get their husband’s consent before renewing their passports? What if my roommate knew about Nollywood, full of innovative people making films despite great technical odds? Films so popular that they really are the best example of Nigerians consuming what they produce. What if my roommate knew about my wonderfully ambitious hair braider, who has just started her own business selling hair extensions? Or about the millions of other Nigerians who start businesses and sometimes fail, but continue to nurse ambition?

Every time I am home I am confronted with the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians: our failed infrastructure, our failed government. But also by the incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government, rather than because of it. I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer. And it is amazing to me how many people apply, how many people are eager to write, to tell stories.

My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit called Farafina Trust. And we have big dreams of building libraries and refurbishing libraries that already exist, and providing books for state schools that don’t have anything in their libraries, and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops, in reading and writing, for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories. Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.

The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her southern relatives who had moved to the north. She introduced them to a book about the southern life that they had left behind. “They sat around, reading the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained.” I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise. Thank You •

African Blogs

2010-03-30T10:07:00.001-07:00

AFRICAN BLOGS

By Julia Nekessa Opoti
For every issue, I will profile some of our favorite blogs, websites and initiatives by East Africans around the world. For this issue, I am going to profile web sites that are using the Internet and other web technology for engaging in public discourse: Kenya Imagine, Global Voices and Project Diaspora.

We started KenyaImagine, in part, as a response to the advances in communication technology. For the sake of full disclosure, I am one of the co-founders and the current publisher of kenyaimagine.com . It became clear to us that there was a necessity for an alternative media system, consisting of user generated content in order to allow for a more interactive exchange of ideas and knowledge that is specific to Kenya. This project quickly grew beyond my wildest expectations. We now have over 1500 authors writing on issues as diverse as politics, economics, lifestyle and fiction. But these numbers are not the key. The crucial aspect of citizen journalism as I see it is that consumers are now the gatekeepers of news. Our readers don’t have to be journalists or reporters. All they need is a passion to write that which they know best. It is with this voice, that of speaking beyond the letter to the editor, that will allow Kenyans to redefine public discourse. Readers and participants discuss issues on East Africa and the rest of the world on KenyaImagine.

Global Voices has become one of my Internet staples. In a few hours I can get caught up on the latest news and trending topics around the world. Started by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, Global Voices has grown from an aggregator of blogs in the US and Europe to giving a voice to bloggers all over the world.

Project Diaspora was started by a young Ugandan, TMS Ruge, living in Texas. He noticed that his African friends spent a lot of financial resources on their countries of birth. He watched with dismay as foreigners flew in with the promise to change the continent and watched as foreign AID became the defining financial income for many African countries. With his partner Tracy Pell, they proposed something different. Project Diaspora estimates that over 167 million Africans living away from home remit over $40 billion to their countries’ economies. This money, if harnessed in the right way, could just be the answer to Africa’s economic quagmire. Project Diaspora asks that Africans in the Diaspora engage directly in determining the growth of the continent’s educational, health and financial sectors.

As we look into the next couple of months, before the next issue of Mashriq, I am excited about profiling initiatives as hopeful as the last three. But, I am also reminded that technology and Internet outreach is still a pipe dream for many Africans on the continent. As our different countries begin laying fiber optic cables, as some already have, it is important to remember that poverty still stands in the way of information for many of our countries. And this divide in getting information will stand in the way of progress. Mobile phone technology has defied all these odds, and will
make a prominent feature in the next issue.

The author welcomes readers’ suggestions on web sites, social media experiments, and Internet and technology initiatives to profile She can be reached at julia@mashriqq.com .

Fly lil’ one, Fly!

2010-03-30T09:45:00.001-07:00

By: Leyla Bile

There comes a moment in each person’s life that they have to leave the nest and discover the world on their own. Like a chick the first time they are learning to fly, the chick takes off to the ground and if it survives and learns to fly then it is meant to be. Now, humans are a different species. We have evolved socially and with that change we have adopted certain norms. One of which is the coddling of our young ones. We go out of our way to ensure that our young are protected from the world. Unlike the mother bird we do not push our chick out the nest and into the world. Instead we pad their nest with education, care, food, clothing, etc. This is especially true when it comes to the way we treat our daughters.

I am someone’s daughter and I feel like a caged bird at times: One to be stared at and prodded; or worse, one to be shown to the guests during a parlor party. I abhor this sad fact of my existence with every cell of my body but more and more I realize that this is something I let happen to me. I am not crippled or disabled. I am not slow nor am I delicate in any sense. I have full capability of my mental faculties when it comes to how I function in the world. I am a college graduate, earn a decent wage, pay my bills and belong to a social network of peers and friends. So why is it that I have no say when it comes to my life? Why is that I cannot choose to live in a different state from my family without my community raising an eyebrow and attributing my decision to being loose and ‘westernized’?

Look around and tell me what you see? How many independent women, who are respectable, contributing members of society, do you know? Then ask yourself a follow up question, how many of those women have been talked about in our community in a negative manner? If you are like me then you arrived at an answer that is unacceptable. The yardstick that we use to gauge the worth of our women is flawed. It is flawed because we continually underestimate our women when they repeatedly have shown us that they are more than capable of running entire households, businesses and even villages. Living in the West should have opened our eyes but instead we bind our womenfolk more; spreading the fear that were we to let them out of our households we would then lose them to ‘western’ values.

I suggest that it is time to change this mindset. Our daughters are beautiful women who will grow up to raise a family of their own (or not). We have to trust that we have equipped them with knowledge of life. We have to trust that we taught them the difference between wrong and right. We have to trust that when we push them out of the nest they will fly like the beautiful swallows they are and find the world ready to embrace them. I am not trying to sell a fairy tale. I know it is hard out there for anyone but whoever said that life was easy? We all manage fine. We navigate the maze we call life without a map, taking in the dead-ends and back-trackings as a daily occurrences. We should then let our daughters find their own way through the maze for it is this journey that shapes us for as long as we live, and were we to deny our daughters this opportunity then we have done them and their descendants a great disservice.

Photo by Sahal Abdule

Remembering Mogadishu

2010-03-28T09:47:00.001-07:00

By: Layla Ali

My happy childhood days were cut short when Somalia broke into a vicious war that has continued over the last twenty years. While I still hold strong my memories of a beautiful and a peaceful Somalia, the rest of the world only sees Somalia through the Black Hawk Dawn lens; and in recent times the infamous pirates. And for Somalis who are still home, life is less than rosy. Many Somalis, thousands of us, have escaped this continuous tragedy and live as immigrants and refugees around the world. I remember a different Somalia. Nostalgic about my country, I remember a Mogadishu where our lives were as normal as they are here in America.

Mostly, I remember fondly how children in our neighborhood of Hawlwadaag would play, sing and dance together when they got home from school. Girls in brightly colored “guntiino” or “dirac”, a traditional Somali women attire, played with each other giggling and laughing in ways only innocent children know how to. And the boys. I remember them in their dusty shorts and shirts, mostly bare feet, teasing each other or kicking soccer balls made of socks. For my generation, unfortunately, those days did not last long.

Once the civil war broke out the once-beautiful and peaceful Indian Ocean port was now run by anarchic militias who roamed the city, pillaging. Black smoke and choking stench of burning rubber now filled the air, a far cry from the sea breeze and flower aroma that we were accustomed to. In 1991 my family was forced to flee Mogadishu. I did not know that that would be the last time that I would see my childhood home.

What followed, as we made our way out of Somalia, was traumatic most of all to a child. I watched as my country changed right before my eyes. Ruined buildings, fleeing families and the eerie silence in between bangs of mortar shells and the distant wails and screams of mothers still haunt me. It was these graphic images and sounds that made me realize that my life would never be the same again. The songs of my childhood became a distant memory. First we fled Mogadishu into Kismaayo, and then made our way into Kenya in 1992.

While in Kenya, my experience in Somalia’s civil war began to become a distant memory.We made new friends and reunited with family and friends who had made safely into Kenya. Six years later, we came to the US. Thankfully, this move seemed final, one that would allow me to settle. Opportunities at peace and a successful life were finally a reality for me.

I was excited as the Somali community in Minnesota grew. For many people it became easier to track and find relatives and old friends. For me, the search for my childhood friends was futile. However, I still remained hopeful that we would reconnect.

It wasn’t until 2004, while visiting friends in London, that I reunited with one of my friends. One of my cousins dragged me to a wedding that I was not keen on attending. The musical guests were legendary Somali Waaberi artists like Samatar and Aweys Mabuto As Aweys Khamis Mabuto started to sing I felt myself tele-ported to Mogadishu taking me right into my childhood. Suddenly, my brain was flooded with distantly familiar images and feelings. I saw flashes of Arabesque and Italian styled houses and crumpling shanties, unpaved roads and exotic plants and trees. I became a child again. I was soon on the dance floor singing and dancing my heart away. This song that was playing was of my childhood favorites. I remembered our neighborhood competitions where children from different blocks would dance away to this particular song

I laughed out loud thinking that had it not been for my cousin I would not have made it to the wedding party. Imagine my delight when one of the young men on the dance floor recognized me as one his childhood friends. Tears of joy flooded my eyes when I remembered dance competitions with him and others when were children. Soon we were hugging, talking, and trying to catch up on lost time. Amazingly, that night, I reconnected with two other childhood friends.

We obviously looked nothing like what we did years ago in Mogadishu. The skinny boys with the dusty feet and worn-out shorts were now well toned and wore crisp designer suits. One was almost bald while another had a receding hairline. In makeup and wearing the latest fashion, the girls, now young women were still skinny as demanded by the pressures of modern Western fashion cultures.

Had it not been that we were speaking in Somali, we would have noticed our different English accents influenced by our long residences in the USA and the UK. But, what brought us together was our love of Somalia and the shared memory of our hometown song. That brief moment reminded us of the little things that make our lives so worthwhile. In that moment we could go back in time and be children again relishing in the joys of a forgotten Mogadishu.

2010-01-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

Hundreds came to pray and demand justice for the slain men at Seward Grocery and Halal Market tonight. Despite the freezing cold weather, people of all elasticities and background braved to stand in the cold and lit candlelights to remember the murdered store-owners.
Thanks you all

There’s more to come, promises Abdisalam

2009-11-10T09:32:00.001-08:00

Abdi Ibrahim is keen to build on his first taste of Premier League action.

The midfielder made a 15-minute appearance as a replacement for Stephen Ireland in Sunday’s draw with Liverpool, having made his senior debut in the FA Cup tie at Scunthorpe a month ago.

A packed City of Manchester Stadium against some of the biggest hitters in English football made for a big change from the more modest surroundings at Glanford Park, but the 19-year-old is thrilled to have been given the chance to shine in some exalted company.

He told mcfc.co.uk, “I had not played so much since Scunthorpe but it was nice to be named on the bench, and I was really excited to actually play against Liverpool. It was great experience for me, I’m happy to have played against them although disappointed we did not beat them.

“I’m not used to playing in front of such a big crowd and that was also really exciting for me. All my family were here to watch me as well, I’m glad they have been able to see me at this level for the first time because they have always supported me so much.”

Despite making a relatively brief appearance, Abdi has taken his experiences from Sunday on board and is determined to keep learning and give Roberto Mancini an extra string to his bow for midfield.

“It was much quicker than the cup tie,” he added. “I was told to watch out for Mascherano and I tried to stay near him as much as I could. Liverpool play the ball all the time, other teams will be a lot more direct so there are a lot of differences but I am starting to pick these up the more I play and the more I watch what the others do in training.

“It’s only the start for me but playing against Liverpool was a really big step. Now I want more of this, because I am enjoying it so much. It’s amazing for me, I just have to keep learning from all these big players in our squad.”

Player: Abdisalam Ibrahim

Team: Manchester City

Position: Midfielder

Date of birth: 01 May 1991

Place of birth: Mogadisho

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Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed - A True Somali Hero

2009-09-12T01:09:00.000-07:00

Somalia: "I realize I am one of the lucky ones"

Wed at 4:00pm

Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed is one of only 20 students to have graduated from medical school in Somalia in the past two decades.

In December 2008, 20 Somali students overcame huge odds and graduated from medical school in Mogadishu—the first batch to do so for almost two decades in the failed Horn of Africa state.

Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed, 26, was one of those receiving a diploma from the capital’s Benadir University. Upon completing her studies, she decided to work for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), using her skills to help provide free medical care in Somalia.

In this interview, she describes some of her experiences growing up in Mogadishu and working as a female surgeon in Somalia:

When I was very young, there was peace in Somalia but I don’t remember it. Throughout my childhood fighting, looting, destruction and killing were commonplace in Mogadishu. I was caught in crossfire many times when I was going to school. I saw people dying and others seriously wounded. University was especially challenging for me. I had the fear of death every morning and prayed to Allah every day that I would come home safely. In addition to the fighting there were other problems, many parts of the city had no electricity so studying at night or doing practical training in hospitals was very difficult.

Despite all the challenges, I realize that I am one of the lucky ones. My mother went to live in the UK before I started university and she paid for my education. Many others don’t have that opportunity. There are so many very bright students in Somalia who don’t get the chance to achieve their dreams. I hope this will change. Education does not have an age limit. As the English proverb goes: ‘You’re never too old to learn’.

I graduated at the end of last year. I chose to become surgeon because I wanted to help Somali women, particularly mothers who don’t get good medical care, especially when they have difficult births and need surgery. There is a huge need for female surgeons in Somalia as many Somali women don’t want male surgeons doing their operations.

After graduating I did six months further training in Mogadishu and then I came to work in Marere at the beginning of August. There was no hospital in Marere until MSF started working here in 2003. There used to be an expatriate surgeon but due to specific risks faced by international staff, MSF has been forced to run its programs in Somalia without their input since early 2008. In Marere, this meant they had to suspend surgical activities as they couldn’t find a qualified Somali surgeon.

Before I started working in Marere, MSF would refer women needing emergency obstetric surgery to Kismayo. The journey would take five hours in the dry season and MSF would cover the costs. Now that I’m here, we can do surgery again. On August 31, I performed my first caesarean section. I had done many caesarean sections as a student, but this was my first one as a practicing surgeon.

The girl I operated on was only 18 years old. She’s partially disabled in her right leg and lives with her parents in Jilib, a town about 11 miles north of Marere. Her husband is in Kenya right now. As her pelvis is very narrow she was not able to deliver properly. She was in labor for 24 hours before her parents brought her to the hospital. Without surgery her uterus could have ruptured, killing both her and the baby. Fortunately, her parents brought her here in time. The surgery was quite straightforward, we managed to deliver the baby in less than an hour. Both mother and daughter are doing well. In fact, the baby has been named Hafsa in my honor.

MSF has worked in Marere since 2003. In Marere hospital, MSF staff provides outpatient services for adults and children and inpatient care for children, medical and maternity cases. Medical staff provides delivery services, including emergency obstetric care, therapeutic and supplementary feeding, surgery (mainly obstetric), outpatient curative and preventative services and tuberculosis treatment. In nearby Jilib MSF runs a feeding programme but was forced to suspend these activities in August 2009 due to insecurity. In the first six months of 2009, MSF teams in Marere provided 18,104 outpatient consultations and admitted 536 patients to hospital. 2,453 children were treated for malnutrition and 3,373 received vaccinations.

In total, MSF runs ten projects in eight regions of Somalia.

Suaad home at last -

2009-08-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Jesus Plus Nothing, Minus Somalia

2009-08-15T23:44:00.001-07:00

Jesus Plus Nothing, Minus Somalia

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Xaliimo: Somalinglish love story.

2009-07-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Somalinglish Love Story: When FaaRaX hits on

When Faarax hits on Xaliimo: Somalinglish love story.

Xaliimo was a very beautiful and hot gabar. Her qurux was like jowharad that would make you sleepless for nights, nights of wet dreams and probably undeserved isku-junuub. She is boqorod and full of suuro and jinniyo, the kind of girl that most of ciyaal xaafad would love to be with. She was tall, dhiig furan and with a super model physique. She had a big booty, dhaxyar and naaso taagtaagan. She had a wicked smile and heavenly indho-deero that would make you think of the Xural Ceynta janadda.

They say jaceylku is blind and makes you jileec. From the first day her family moved into our xaafad, I was struck by her qurux and wanted inaan ku dhaco. Somehow, ma helin a chance. One day I saw her walking in the suuq buying some dirac for the coming aroos party in saturday habeen at Habaryar isniino's wedding hall, doing hard gorgorton, getting cilaan on long fingers and gacmaha xaada lah, getting her timaheeda garbaha jooga done, and chilling with her girfriends. I tried my best to overcome my unnatural xishood and went straight to her to say “ abaayo, iska waran? My name is Faarax”. I wanted to be cool and self-confident and I wanted to let her know jaceylka aan u qabo.

After my is-maqiiqin and indho-adeeg, I found myself in front of her, frozen and speechless. My geesinimo went out of the dariishad. I couldn’t even dheh xataa one word. I started to gariir and dhidid. I was like a tiny leaf in a small Geed caught in a dabeel waalan ala tornado. After a daqiiqad or two. I was able to jooji the trembling but the sweating waa iska socday like fire hydrant ciyaal fureen in a blazing summer day. What an embarrassment!

She qosol at my awkwardness and lack of geesinimo. So did the other Xaliimos that were with her. I neceyb them fat and fulxumo chicks that are always with her like body guards. They remind you of that song: Buur buuranaayee alla ma buunsheey cuni jireenee. And specially that dhuxul gubatay la mood Faadumo Gaab. Her shortness is like a ganbar lugaha laga gooyay.

Xaliimo looked me kor iyo hooos and walked away from me with jeesto, giggling and laughing. I could hear Faadumo Gaab saying ….what an alwaax!!.

I wished I was meyd aan nooleeyn but I was breathing si xoog badan. I regained myself control and started to orod from this fadeexo like a tuug maalin cad la qabtay. I went straight to my guri, and went to my qol, slammed the albaab behind me, jumped on the sariir, found my go’ and barkin and started to hide myself from the yaxyax and jac that followed me all the way from the awful is-biimeen and ill-choreographed ku-dhacoow. After hours of painful shalaay and galgalasho, I fell into a nice hurdo. Dreams , qarow and riyo became my comfort, I dreamt of her, she was with me in the sariir, lying by my dhinac, giving me warmth and raaxo. I was in Jano Aduun!

Knock, knock on the door and loud bang woke me up of what could have been one of my wild imaginations with Xaliimo. It was my little hyperactive walaalkeeyga yar, waking me up with his usual feer and faralaab. What a little nuisance that I have to adkeeysi him walaahi on daily basis as if beat him my hooyo would call all my adeero gardheerayaal who will then take me to masaajidka and keep me there for wacdi. He spoiled my dream and I had to beat the hell out of him and vent all my ciil on him. He ran away to the qolka fadhiga. I ran afer him. She was there. Xaliimo was there, sitting with my abaayo and hooyo. I was only wearing one duluf macaawiis .She could see my skinny feero and hairy xabad. Again, I stood there like alwaax and speechless. Embarrassment fooqul embarrassment! This inkaar again?

Xaliimo and my heartless abaayo started to laugh at me. My hooyo started to tuur her kab on me. “war nacasyahow, soo gasho shaar, gabar baa kuu joogtee” Hooyo shouted me. I ran like tuug la qabtay talo ma leh back to my qol. I didn’t want to go back to fadhiga.

Knock, knock on the door and it was my pitiless abaayo this time. “ war marax yhaow soo bah, gabar baa ku sugeeysa” she taunted me with her challenged but improving Somali luqad she boowsid from dariska. We have loud and bad-mannered new Somali daris fresh out of the boat.

I wanted to say “bax naga tag” but that was not ragnimo thing to do. I took my shukumaan and went straight to musqusha, titir my face and get the fiish out of my indho, brushed my coffee stained ilko dhaadheer. I took a cold shower, get out of it and started is qalajis and qurxin, combing my jareer hair with shanlo, and putting some lotion on my dry skin. I came back to my qol and changed into a nice shaar and surwaal jeans and went straight to fadhiga, Xaliimo was there sitting in the fadhi carbeed; eating buskut, xalwo and drinking qaxwo qaraar like she is a marti in Eid celebrations. She looked and smiled at me. I sat horteeda and murmured something that sounded like a salaan.

My mother started her obvious marmarsiyo to excuse herself and others to let me be all alone with the quruxleeyda na soo booqatay. “ war maxamed iyo asli, kaalaya iiga soo qaada the threadmill from the basement” and they all left fadhiga to the basement. I kept silent for a daqqiiqo or two and Xaliimo started to break the ice by saying “hooyadaa is cool!” I was like “yeah” and then I asked her what she is doing in our Guri. “ I came to see you. What you did in the suuqa maanta was amazing. I saw qof waalan but wax jecel and I felt that jaceeyl.” I couldn’t believe it. I was like is this another riyo or real? Gabartu dhiiranaa!!!.., A Xaliimo so geesi to come to you Guri to ask you out! lama arag lama maqal! this must be A joke! “ Look Faarax, aboowe you are a nice guy and I would like us to know each other better and yaa og what could happen” Xaliimo continued. I was like this is crazy shukaansi and sheeko unlike I have seen. A xaliimo, so daring and bold. Yaabka yaabkiis, All I could say was “Haye”like baari. “one of us has to have the initiative and be the man….you made the first move oo waa igu dhacday , … so I fakir inaan retun the favor and come to you.” All I could say was “haye”again like caano madaadshe “ so you know meesha la iga helo and here is my number, I soo wac, aboowe” she stood up and walked toward albaabka. I followed her and u furay albaabka and like a gentleman did little bit of sagootis that was kind cool saan u maleeynaayo. As I closed the door, I started to jump and shout with farax. “YES! YES!” Waanba iska hilmamay all the embarrassment for the day. I was jumping and shouting for dhowr daqiiqo unaware my surroundings and who is around my geeso and hereero or not. God is good..ilaaheey ma ku gargaaraa mise ganfuur ganfuur.. my joy was on the roof and caadaas!

My hooyo, abaayo and little devilish brother were all in front of me ..with yaab and qosol at my weird moves. I didn’t give damn about them. My sister Asli again flexed her newly acquired taunting repertoire of Somalia on me with her carabla’ accent she said “ walaahi ahadkan waa la soo haayaa” She can't pronounce the Xa and Ca in Somalia and sounds like a Gaal speaking Somali.

Maanta I am feeling all good for two sabab: One is I am taking Xaliimo out to Maqaayad and Shaneemo. I don’t know which one aan Horumariyo. Should we first aad to the movie theatres and ka dib dinner or the other way around. Eating late night waa laga fiican yahay unless you gonna be up habeenkoo dhan which could be the case since beri is Saturday but Xaliimo wants to go that aroos Saturday night, so she has to be in bed for saacado to get her beauty sleep. She doesn’t want to go there iyadoo indho-fiiqan and gooman dhaadheer plus I can’t have another night of dhafar and maqaaqo-dhuuq. So it is got to be early movie, then casho, then coming back to xaafad and getting some deserved hurdo. A good qorsho right?

Xaliimo and I had a brief hadal over the phone. This was my markii ugu horeeysay to ring her and talk to her over teleefanka. I wasn’t nervous rack like markii hore plus her sexy cod was soothing and macaan. We discussed waxaan sameeyn doono and how it is going to be heer sare to be all kaligeen. But to my qalbi-jab, she wants Faadumo Gaab to come with us. I first said maya!.I had to totally diid sheekadan raqiista ah. Who I am dating here? Xaliimo Xuural Ceyn or Gaabeey madax-musmaar, the notorious gaanjibo and gang-leader in the Xaafad? No way Jose! Yaa la caarifaa? I want this balan to be all kaligeey with Xaliimo and to have waqti fiican with her only and not a whole bunch of gaanjibayaal.

I protested and expressed my ka-soo-horjeed of this but Xaliimo suggested that I should bring one of my saaxiibayaal to fix with Gaabo? Are you kaftanning me ? who is , in his right maskxa will go with gaabo? Xaliimo gave me kama danbeeyn, If gaabo is not coming, no balan, no movie or casho aadoow! I tried to reason with Xaliimo but to no guul.What a dilemma! I had to aqbal this lame soo-jeedin and I said waayahay. Let me pick you up maqribka in front of your guri.

Well, I had to get my hommie, Cali-Atoore. He is the coolest xariif in the xaafad who will never disappoint you and markasta gets your back when aa u baahato. Atoore said yes to being a double date. He is into shorties and since Faadumo Gaabo is a thick shortie with not that bad jir. I think he is gonna have a blast with her. Besides, when it comes to indho-adeegnimo and being cool-cat, he is raggeedii. I had to codsi this from him to keep Gaabo mashquul and to not outsmart me or inuu isku dayo to be funnier or cooler than me. I have to impress Xaliimo and be the man! Atoore assures me that wax kasta will be OK. Man, is this guy a friend la isku haleeyn karo or what?

Now that I took care of this, my next move was to get a nice gaari. My Qanax Honda has muffler qaylo badan plus it only has labo albaab and it is too duq. Xaliimo drives a nice Passat cusub but since I am taking her out, I can’t ask her to isticmaal her car. So I phoned my other saaxiib Xasan Xiito who works at Budget rental car. He can hook me up with a luxury car. Xiito told me all luxury cars waa la ijaartay for the weekend but he will hook me up with a full size Ford Expedition. This ma wanaagsana. Sababta hore, SUVs consumes a lot of gas and I am qaac, broke-a$$ and ma awoodo to fill it up. Secondly, it is is tus-tus and an invitation for a carjack. With all the madoow waalan in our ghetto, it is not safe be driving an expedition habeenkii. I had to settle for a mid size.

Caawa is the night. I have casual labis , so is my saaxiib cali. I called Xaliimo and she is running late mashquul with something but tells me she will be done in labaatan daqiiqo. That is cool. I pray fast maqrib and ask Allah to make this balan go smooth. As I started my salad, a loud noise comes from Fadhiga. My sister Asli is now listening to Somali hees with Cali Atoore whom she had a crush before Hooyo found out and suggested she will be arranged to marry him just si looga nixiyo. She used to listen R&B and Rap but since this new qaxooti cid came from Kenya, she is into Somali. In a way, this is good but not now and not that hees of Maryan Mursal. – “balantii aan dhiganaba waligaa ha beeneeyn, barashadii kalgacalkana bilaash yaaneey kula noqon” damn, I am in the middle of my salaat and I am following the lyrics of this hees? Wiswaas fooqul wiswaas! And why it has to be balan and barasho? Not like that Magool song she was listening – Nin lagu seexdoow ha seexan? Which my sister thinks it is all about a naag telling her husband not to sleep. I am doomed. This could be a bad omen. I ka bax salaat and go to fadhi and shut the whole CD-Player. “Waan tukaneeynaa, naga dami heesahaaga waalan” I shouted at her. I came back to my qol and xirtay another Salaat. I prayed degdeg and asked allah again to make this balan go smooth. - (Continued)

Abdulkadir Mohamed (Ato Shaair)
Copyright © 2009 Ato Shaair. All rights reserved
April 28, 2008

Ras to Ras “Diatribe of Despair”

2009-07-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

Ras to Ras “Diatribe of Despair”
By Abdulkadir Mohamed (Ato Shaair)

From Caseyr to Kaamboni

I search peace
In alienated and violated land
God-forsaken and sun scorched dirt
Blood soaked,
Gun-powder tainted terrain
Mob destroyed, razed dwellings

But I see pieces
And folks gone insane
Unfeeling and brain drain
Led by ruthless band
of unrepentant evil men
employing untaught child soldiers
Drug crazed bandits and armed urchins
skinny hands tightly holding AK47s
marauding with blood-stained skirts
Destroying and shelling

I try to preach
In the land of the unlearned
Damaged people sinfully hurt
Unwell and starving
So much pain, unconcerned
skeleton like children swinging
from frail mother's rips and hips
Belly swelling and sick yelling

But with misery I freeze
Can’t continue this damned journey
With despair I ponder to pass
Back from where I start then pause
feeling the same Somali pain
relentless and alert once again
spirit is failing and short-selling me!
O' God, please help me to overcome this
feeling, becoming numb and lost
emotional roller coaster! atone
and let peace rain from Ras to Ras
so I don't dwell in pain zone
condemned and complaining

Diaspora Dialogue for Peace & Bridging our Differences with Mr.Ahmed Abdisalan, Former Deputy Somali Prime Minister

2009-07-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

Diaspora Dialogue for Peace & Bridging our Differences with Mr.Ahmed Abdisalan, Former Deputy Somali Prime Minister
Mr.Aden was a former co-founder and director of programming for Horn Afrik. He was the minister of information, youth and sports for the Somali transitional government and former Deputy Prime Minister. He was instrumental in the Djibouti Peace Process that brought moderate Islamist President Sharif Ahmed to power. He is now touring and visiting the Somali Diasporas in Europe and North America to encourage the continuation of the peace process and the dialogue to pacify and stabilize our war-torn country.

Date: Sunday, July 19, 2009
Time: 00pm - 11:00pm
Location: Zuhrah Shrine Center
Street: 2540 Park Ave S
City/Town: Minneapolis, MN

The Rally - Part 1

2009-07-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

Minnesota Somalis condemn Suicide Bombings in Somalia.

2009-07-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

Minnesota Somalis condemn Suicide Bombings in Somalia.

Minnesota Somalis condemn Suicide Bombings in Somalia

By Abdulkadir Mohamed
Sunday, July 05, 2009

Minneapolis, Minnesota - More than one hundred Somali Minnesotans held a rally on Friday to denounce Al-Shabaab, the hard-line Islamist insurgents in Somalia and a series of suicide bombings in their homeland.

The radical Islamic group Al-Shabaab has carried out several suicide bombings attacks on African peacekeeper’s bases and against government officials and clan leaders whom they suspect to be allied to a weakening Somali government led by their former ally, President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

Holding signs that read "No to Suicide Bombings" and “Somalia needs peace” the protesters lined inside Peavey Park and alongside East Franklin Ave and Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis shouting slogans in English and Somali that drew a chorus of horns from passing motorists.

The protest was organized by an ad hoc group of young Somali activists who live here in the Twin Cities. Abdinasir Ghelle, one of the organizers said the rally was to express the community’s condemnation and opposition to suicide bombings. “This turnout shows that Somalis in Minnesota are against those few extremists who misuse and hijack our religion to terrorize people.“

Sadiq Mohamud of Concerned Somali-Americans in Minnesota added that Somali Americans are just as passionate about their opposition to extremists as other Americans. “Somalis in Minnesota don’t condone extremism and it’s about time we let our fellow Minnesotans know that,” he said.

The rally was also attended by Imams, the Muslim religious leaders from several Mosques in the twin cities. In the recent past the imams from the Abubakr-As Siddique Islamic Center have come under intense scrutiny by the media and both local and federal law enforcement agencies for being involved in the disappearance of young Somali-American men who it is alleged they sent off to fight at the side of al-Shabaab extremists in war-torn Somalia. The imams have continued to distance themselves from the kind of violence exhibited by Al-Shabaab.

“Suicide in killing oneself is condemned by Allah and The Quran does not promise Heaven to those who commit suicide but rather the wrath and the condemnation to Hell, and if you kill others in suicide bombings, the punishment is even more,” Omar Hurre, the director of Abu-Bakr-As Siddique Islamic center told the protestors.

Imam Hassan Mohamud of the Islamic Dawah Center in Saint Paul urged local Somalis to work hard to pacify their homeland and the Somalis in Somalia through non-violence means and to engage in dialogue. The Imam challenged Al-Shabaab fighters to put down their weapons and to spare the lives of innocent civilians in Mogadishu, the bullet-ridden Somali capital.

The recent fighting between Al-Shabaab and forces loyal to the Somali government in Mogadishu has forced more than half-million civilians to run away from their homes.

The Imams in the rally reiterated their opposition and condemnation against suicide bombings one by one in series of speeches.

Amira Adawe, one of the organizers who lost family and relatives in the latest suicide bombings in Beledweyne, a town in central Somalia promised more rallies and forums to come to encourage the Somali community in Minnesota and beyond to be united in condemning suicide bombings and acts of extreme violence in Somalia.

Copyright © 2009 CSAM. All rights reserved

Minnesota Somalis condemn Suicide Bombings in Somalia.

Local Somalis holding rally to condemn violence in homeland | Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ

2009-07-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

Local Somalis holding rally to condemn violence in homeland | Minnesota Public Radio NewsQ

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Local Somalis holding rally to condemn violence in homeland

by Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio

July 2, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. — Somali-Americans in Minnesota will protest a rash of suicide bombings in their homeland at a rally Friday in Minneapolis.

Somalia has been at civil war for the past two decades, but suicide attacks began to surface only recently. Last month, the radical Islamic group Al-Shabaab struck again, killing a number of Somali government officials and tribal leaders.

Federal authorities think Shirwa Ahmed of Minneapolis, a U.S. citizen, was responsible for a suicide bombing last fall.

Some Somali-Americans worry that the bombings will take hold of their home country like an incurable cancer.

But Ato Shaair, who is organizing the Minneapolis rally, is one of the hopeful. Shaair says Somalis won't stand for terrorism.

"A lot of people are saying enough is enough. We've got to stop this. This cannot continue," Shaair said. "The anguish and the suffering is unacceptable. I think the community and Somalis all over the world will reject this ideology."

Shaair is expecting hundreds of Somali-Americans, from religious leaders to college students, will come out to condemn the violence with one voice.

Shaair said Ahmed's alleged role in the October attack is all the more reason why Somalis in Minnesota must condemn the violence. Shaair said many Somali-Americans were angered when they heard the news.

"They're wondering why would a Somali who's here and who came here to find peace and a safe haven would go back to commit these acts of terror? It doesn't represent us," Shaair said. "The community is against suicide bombings."

Some Somalis in Minnesota have been personally affected by the violence of their homeland. One Twin Cities woman lost some of her close relatives in a bombing last month in western Somalia.

The rally will take place Friday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Peavey Park in Minneapolis.

When the devil meets the children of Satan in the Somalia Hell.

2009-06-30T01:34:00.000-07:00

When the devil meets the children of Satan in the Somalia Hell.

The devil has a red beard and the children of Satan wear red scarves on their face and the deal is simply to destroy what is left of the war ruined Somalia by brute force and barbarism and by any means necessary. The two vicious forces of evil are united to bring down one red-eyed fellow who was part of their faction but broke ranks after realizing that his allies were no good for nothing and were only prone to perpetual and barbaric bloodshed. The red eyed fellow is accused of colluding with the angels of leniency and sanity and to have had a change of heart through divine intervention.

The big devilish Kahuna is a fiend devoted to diabolical crusades to commandeer religious hegemony and sectarian supremacy but miserably failed at every go through his bellicose quest. Since his unproductive fanatical attempts bore no fruition, the Devil conspired and thought about other plots to rout his obstacles to rule and domination. He devised a wicked plan to use the children of Satan. The allied forces of evil are now nastily and brutally working in the Somali hell. The children of Satan maim, kill, the unlucky masses of poor women and children who have no means and no intermediaries to get away from the hell that is Somalia. The children of Satan have been programmed to detonate bombs and to carry out suicide bombings as some kind of spirited exercise and they are also taught to congregate the poor women and children into gladiator-like pitches to amputate the limbs of vulnerable and slaughter them in front of the desensitized public spectators. This barbarism is their sport.

The scene portrayed is the tragic reality of poor Somalia.