The Somali Character: Strengths Weaknesses

[me]

The Somali Character: Strengths & Weaknesses

 

The nature, character and personality of a people are mostly moulded according to their natural habitat, historical events and cultural experiences in the course of several centuries. The Somali people have had, since their origin as pre-historic people of this land, a very hostile natural habitat with scarcities of water and abundance of sandy and infertile land and repeated droughts. They have faced several political turmoils -- external invasions, wars, feuds, coups and counter-coups, and they have gone thorough the most trying, grilling, agonising and disgusting period of nepotism, bribery, exploitation, tribalism, barbarous cruelty and misery during the post-Independence era due to corrupt civil governments and an atrocious military regime. All these circumstances and events have left their mark on the personality and character of the Somali people, who have been basically nomadic pastoral people for thousands of years.

The identity of the Somali people has both its positive and negative points, its strengths and weaknesses.

 

On the positive side, we can mention the following distinctive features of the Somali people:

 

1. They are very hardworking, energetic and sturdy people, always bubbling with energy and enthusiasm to accomplish heroic deeds. They are fit to become warriors and engage in difficult work. That is why, they are in great demand in Arab countries as soldiers and drivers. In Kenya and Ethiopia there are hundreds of Somali drivers and soldiers who have been working without caring for their lives and they are known for their sturdiness and sincerity.

 

2. They are great walkers. They can walk for several miles every day with their animals in search of pastures and water-holes. An Englishman, Drake-Brockeman, said of the Somalis: "I know of no natives that can compare with them for trekking in a dry and waterless country. Their prowess of endurance are at times nothing short of marvellous."

 

3. They are gifted with an extraordinary natural intelligence. Even uneducated Somali nomads can very soon understand the meanings and motives of strangers and speakers after exchanging a few sentences with them. They have a developed sense of forecasting -- what the modem futurologists term as "FFKl" (Future Focussed Role Image).

 

4. The Somalis are open-minded and cordial people. They are very hospitable. They consider it very shameful if one of them does not provide hospitality by way of food, shelter and protection to his guests.

 

5. The Somalis are known for their truly great and unique traditions of extending real help to their brethren (relatives and tribesmen) at the time of marriages, need, feud, wars etc. Their widespread diya-paying relations and their custom of makhdarad and respecting and helping parents, siblings and relatives and keeping and feeding their relatives for years free of charge are concrete evidences of their cooperative nature.

 

6. The Somalis are very self-respecting people. They feel free and proud. During the Italian colonial rule, the Italians used to whip the Somali detainees in prisons. Those Somalis would never forget the whipping and would take revenge by killing the Italians as soon as they got an opportunity to do so. Realising this, the Italian Viceroy Garsiani introduced a law banning the whipping of the Somalis. About 135 years ago, the famous British traveller, Sir Richard Burton, wrote about the Somalis of the northern regions in these words:

 

"They (The Somalis) evince a gentleness of disposition and a docility which offers hope to civilization in this region of barbarism...people who in my humble opinion, are capable of being raised high in the scale of humanity...Every free-born man holds equal to his ruler, and allows no royalties or prerogatives to abridge his birth-right of liberty ... with all their passion for independence, the Somali ... are both apt to discipline and subservient to command."

 

7. The Somalis are basically democratic people. The Somali nomads have for more than 30 centuries been deciding their personal disputes and solving their communal problems under big trees in the open. They are very argumentative people, skilled in presenting their case before the people and authorities in a very convincing manner using very apt words, similes, and recalling proverbs, antecedents, poems and genealogical evidences. Burton described them as "a fierce race of Republicans". He wisely advised"... partial intermeddling with quarrels of these people is unwise. Either our intervention should be complete -- either we should constitute ourselves sole judge of all disputes or we should sedulously turn a deaf ear to their complaints...".

 

Gordon Waterfield says, 'The Somalis have intelligence, charm and considerable ability in argumenting a case which concerns their interest."

 

8. The Somalis are very practical people. Functionality is in their very blood. They know how to make best use of their physical and cultural environment to solve their problems of day to day life.

 

9. The Somalis are creative poets. Their traditions of poetry are varied, rich and impressive. Somalia has rightly been called "the nation of bards". The Somali nomads are great composers, preservers, and singers of thrilling, socialising, educative and impressive poems, songs, proverbs and riddles.

 

The Somalis are Islamic people with great respect and enthusiasm for the Islamic faith. But at the same time they love, cherish and continue with their unique cultural blend of the Somali traditions and Islamic culture.

 

10. The Somalis are great lovers of animals, especially their camels whose utility in their lives they understand very realistically. Camels not only provide transport, meat for food, hides for the roofs and carpets for their huts but they lend them social status, social esteem and real purchasing power in marriage transactions, dispute settlements and economic matters.

Naturally, therefore, most of the Somali folklore is addressed to their camels.

 

11. In the words of Burton, "The Somalis are full of curiosity and travel the world accepting almost any job without feeling a sense of inferiority perhaps because they believe that they are superior to anyone else."

 

12. The Somalis have a great spirit of nationalism. They cherish the dream of building up a United Somalia by bringing back all their Somali brethren along with their ancient territories.

 

The Nomadic Value System

 

Tradition, as transmitted orally from father to son, has the force of law among the nomads. That nomad order prescribes what. to do in every conceivable situation and directs the nomad's attitude towards life. The nomad's value system is all embracing and clearly defined. It draws its content from tradition and from the mainstream of Islamic beliefs.

 

There is strong belief in the might of an all knowing, omnipotent and all powerful Allah, upon whose mercy and compassion one finds prosperity and luck or whose wrath destroys whole populations. It is Allah who is worshipped, his prophets professed, the saints revered, the ancestors appeased and respected. Only then can a society lead a decent life protected from natural catastrophes.

 

The corollary of these values is manifested in the fatalist philosophy which the nomad holds true. Any conceivable situation, social or ecological takes form on the will of God. To the nomad nothing in the world of nature functions but in accordance with God's will. The other corollary is to profess Islam, the religion ordained by the Almighty through his Prophet

Mohammed, and to abide by its tenets.

Since the Somali family is an extended unit, ancestors are revered and accorded holy or saintly status. Members of a clan aspire to appease their ancestors through offerings and ritual ceremonies, in the hope that they will take care of their offspring and will avert any evil which may fall on them.

 

Religious men, wadaad, play a vital role among the nomads. They treat the sick and initiate the rituals of offerings, ceremonies, feasts, of marriage and death. Traditionally, teaching in classrooms was first done by the wadaad.

On the other hand, the Somali character has also been adversely commented upon by some observers.

 

British explorer Sir Richard Burton who had lived and dealt with the northern Somali nomadic tribes about 135 years ago described them as 'treacherous people', he described the Easa tribe of that time in these words:

"In character, the Easa are childish and docile, cunning, and deficient in judgement, kind and trickle, good honoured and irascible, warm-hearted, and infamous for cruelty and treachery. Traitorous as an Easa' is a proverb at Zeyla, where the people tell you that these Bedouin with the left hand offer a brol of milk, and stab with the right.

 

"... yet the Easa have their good points; they are not noted liars, and will rarely perjure themselves. They look down upon petty pilfering without violence, and they are generous and hospitable compared with the other Somalis. Personally, I had no reason to complain of them. They were importune beggars: but a pinch of snuffe a handful of tobacco always made friends: they begged me to settle amongst them.1

Burton's companion Speke, who was attacked by Somali nomads, wrote in one of his letters "If a man is to be threatened by men who live by lying and tricking everybody they can, travelling among them should cease..."2

 

Ralph E. Drake-Brockeman in "British Somaliland" (1972) wrote as under:

 

"Burton left us a very poor opinion of the Somali, but it must be remembered that his knowledge of them was not only small, but was almost entirely limited to the northern tribes, which, most travellers seem agreed, do not compare formerly with the Isaak and ***** tribes'; these tribes did not, as did the Eesa, murder men in cold blood in order to obtain the right to marry".3

 

The great Somali hero-poet Sayyid

 

Mohammad 'Abdille Hasan in one of his poems sang as under:

 

"Dissembling (Musuq, masuq) or double dealing is the Somalis' inveterate habit. They come to you every day and night with a new color. Oh! Death to duplicity and bluster".4

 

According to I.M. Lewis, a British anthropologist who specializes in Somali society and culture:

"... paradoxical as it may appear in relation to his own egalitarian system, the Somali pastoralist is keenly sensitive to differences in others, especially among government officials. With Europeans he displays a snobbish regard for status and rank".5

 

... "Soft, merry, and affectionate souls, they press without any apparent transition into a state of fury, when they are capable of terrible atrocities".6

 

"As in many highly egalitarian cultures, traditional attitudes towards power and authority are distinctly ambivalent, like the Americans, the Somalis are fascinated by royalty and noble titles, and display that persistent snobbery of which only the most ruthless republic peoples seem capable.

 

For all their hearty individualism and egalitarianism, the figure of the tyrant and despot holds a curious fascination for the pastoral nomad, and possibly because of the enormous abstracts which would have to be overcome to wield effective power in such unpropitious conditions ... since such power is usually also associated with an uncompromising command of ruthless force, it strikes a chord in the heart of the Somali warrior and wins his grudging if not entirely unqualified admiration".

 

In a novel "A Naked Needle" written by a Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah against the background of the city of Mogadishu full of excitement over the 1969 Revolution of Mohammed Siad Barre, the following statements about the Somali identity or Somali character have been made;

 

... That night he had beaten her, and he blamed his upbringing in the country side, as having grown up in a environment where violence between husband and wife was an everyday affair...".

"What are Somali women in your opinion?

Serviles in the society..

 

No less, surely.

 

They like it that way, being Somalis.

 

"Emotion is Africa's tag, but Somali's is super-intelligence. A sick society that sees her handsomeness in a shadow in the water of a non-existent river. That is what I say!"

 

"... because Somalis, to my mind, are the most political parrots on this earth.... The Somalis are the Irish of Africa.

 

Proud, fanatical and poor.

- Yes, all.

 

"... and there is musuq-masuq (you must learn what this word means, you will hear it very often in the Somalia of the revolution, and it means: corruption, unlawfulness etc.).

 

... "The so-called intellectuals of Somalia, the brightest sons and daughters of Puntland (Somalia..he means I guess), the best that have made a home with a degree in their hands, almost all of them, or the ones who count, are at this party, speaking impeccable English and Italian, dropping hot names. Ho Chi Minh. Mao Tse Tung; and they are here at this party warming themselves up with wine and women while the age-old poverty, ignorance and idiocy hang over them like shadows. Do they care for the country?

 

With the birth of day, I'm sure they'll have nothing to speak of but the fair ladies they conquered the night before.

 

... A fugitive glance at the Secretary, Neck or nothing, how he wishes to make it with a girl this very night... Like a hungry wolf, he's wolfing ... I wonder if he ever gives a thought to the major issues, national issues, at stake, what with his duty towards the state, his national duty which must come first".8

 

In his analytical paper "Parochial Culture Traits and the Work Ethic in Somalia",9 Somali Social Scientist Abdul Kadir H. Deria mentioned the following criticism of the contemporary Somali culture:

 

... Compulsive opportunism in order to survive and prosper, together with disregard for ideals;

... most members of the population have a deep natural dislike for anything that modes of paternalism, to the point of irreverence. They simply have no patience with idols, however affecting they may be ... very frequently, it means the denial of merit and excellence, which in the view of some individuals may put them in unfavourable contrast with someone of superior talent and is therefore unacceptable to them.

 

... Indeed, one of the worst manifestitions of oralism in the office environment is that it often degenerates into gossip and small talk in a manner hostile to the purposes of sound administrative behaviour.

 

Distaste of abstraction: and since literate habits are not deeply ingrained in the Somali culture, to that extent also we tend to be somewhat unfamiliar with extensive abstraction.

 

... Indeed, it is the element of a negotiability and extra-legal bartering of public goods and services, of mutual accommodation at public expense, that poses the potential of paving the way to other more dangerous forms of corruption such as graft, bribery and venality.

 

Resistance to Discipline ... many of them (Somali subordinates) seek ingenious ways of breaking away from the limitations and bonds imposed by the normal imperatives of magical subordination.

 

The very concept of organizational straight jackets, even for the purpose of effective administration, seems culturally alien to them. Accordingly, there is that innate feeling among many that submission to the rules of discipline may well reflect badly on ones' honour, dignity and independence -- a fall from grace, as it were, such perceived affront to one's personal dignity may be exaggerated to the extent of the antipathy felt by the subordinate towards his office superior..."

 

Permissive tolerence: This (lax application of disciplinary regulations) obviously leads to further intransigence and indiscipline on the part of many office and non-office workers, in the near-certain knowledge that no harsh punishment will result from their irresponsible action, or alternatively that they will always be able to negotiate their way out of any difficulty through informal methods.

 

... In the last few years there had been a dramatic upsurge in what might conveniently be called consumerism and hedonism, even among these who are not able to afford them, but nevertheless feel compelled to drop into the prevailing social current. For hedonism has slowly surfaced as an inescapable national past-time, and eventually a chronic obsession, specially in urban centres. And there are indeed many underlying cases for it than meet the eye.

 

For hedonism and associated consumerism are symptoms of a social malaise; namely, an escape from the responsibilities and challenging demands of hard work, into the light and frivolous world of having a good time for as long as often as possible".

 

According to a Somali teacher, Ahmed Nur Sheikh Ali Hassan:

 

"Inherently a Somali has a tribally-minded psyche even if he claims to be an intellectual. He thinks that his group is the only one which has the right to rule his particular area". (New Africa, December, 1992, p. 26).

 

It is repeatedly said by Somali intellectuals that during the oppressive rule of Siad Barre, there has been a very steep decline in the whole traditional values, cultural characteristics and virtues of the Somali people. The Somalis are in fact now a demoralized and badly shattered people. Actually the Somali people are not at fault. Some of their leaders, dictators and adverse physical and economic circumstances have been responsible for all this.

 

"Somalis have passed through so many stages of anarchy that respect for elders, for doctors, for religion and morals just don't mean anything any more". (Willie Huber, Austrian-based agency SOS Kinderdorf International, quoted in Newsweek, Dec. 23,1991).

 

14. Marauding Warriors in his cover story 'Rounds of Fire' in Africa Events (April 1992) mentioned about the inherent humour of the Somalis:

 

Perhaps the only thing in Somalia that has not been destroyed by war is the national sense of humour. But comedy is closely related to tragedy. Humour is one of the last forms of protection from terrifying reality that is Mogadishu. Rape, robbery and murder are now so commonplace that nobody bothers to mention them. But there is nothing that can disguise people's fear of random shelling.

 

An outgoing rocket, mortar round or artillery shell is known as a 'To Whom It May Concern". An incoming missile or place of shrapnel has a distinctive sound, a spinning, whistling noise that goes "ssuf, ssuf, ssuf". In Mogadishu it is called a "Yusuf" with the emphasis on the last syllable. Friends saying goodbye to one another will add a parting remark such as "If you see Yusuf on your way home Just ignore him".

 

The vast majority of the remaining inhabitants of Mogadishu have nothing but contempt for the two leaders. Both have acquired derisive nicknames; "Ali Mahdi is known as "Ali Diesel" after an impassioned appeal he made to the international community for immediate humanitarian assistance. He spoke of the need for food, medicines, blankets and doctors, but "our most pressing need of all is for diesel". It was not a secret that Ali Mahdi's Range Rover ran on diesel. Cali Naafto

 

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[Allamagan]

Thanks, very interesting article!

An outgoing rocket, mortar round or artillery shell is known as a

'To Whom It May Concern"

. An incoming missile or place of shrapnel has a distinctive sound, a spinning, whistling noise that goes "ssuf, ssuf, ssuf". In Mogadishu it is called a

"Yusuf"

with the emphasis on the last syllable. Friends saying goodbye to one another will add a parting remark such as

"If you see Yusuf on your way home Just ignore him"

.

looool @ "To Whom It May Concern" so anyone it concerns will get their lethal copy

 

The vast majority of the remaining inhabitants of Mogadishu have nothing but contempt for the two leaders. Both have acquired derisive nicknames; "Ali Mahdi is known as

"Ali Diesel"

after an impassioned appeal he made to the international community for immediate humanitarian assistance. He spoke of the need for food, medicines, blankets and doctors, but "our most pressing need of all is for diesel".

It was not a secret that Ali Mahdi's Range Rover ran on diesel

. Cali Naafto [big Grin]

[Ibtisam]

looool.

 

Interesting article. Thanks ME.

[Ariadne]

good chest puffing article! it's not very often you find these type of articles on Somali's nowadays.... thank you

[Crystal_Clear]

Interesting! thanx