The somali gaalo concept!

[Coloow]

Assalamu calaykum, How are you doing my people.

 

Growing up as a lad in the Somali inhabited area of "NFD" I remember the term "gaalo" being used to differentiate Somali Muslims from their animists, Christians and pagan neighbours.

 

The occasional white man who visted that peripheral region was referred to as "fariinji" or "cadaan". It was clear_; a white man who is born or converted to the Islamic faith was addressed as "Fariinji", a black borana who practised paganism with gods such as Waaq were referred to "gaal".

 

 

However, coming to Somalia as a young man and later, in a life marked by exile I have the opportunity to interact with many of my Somali brethren. To my dismay, these Somalis defined the concept of gaalosim using ethnicity. In many instances, a black pagan is not called a "gaal" but "madow" while a white Muslim would always be a gaal. But that is not the aim of this article. My aim with this short article is to highlight the double standards that my people, Somalis, Practice.

 

In the later part of the fifties, when independence was knocking on our doorsteps, many of our parents and grandparents lived in the countryside pursuing nomadic life. The British and Italian colonists were anxious to leave power to a few greedy henchmen who would enhance the cultural and intellectual colonisation of our people. Many older and wiser men that I have spoken to have revealed that the words "alore, governo" etc were enough to help you acquire a political position. In the northern part, things were different. The British were reported to have invested in Institutions of higher education. Instead of scholars Somaliland also sent british lackeys to Xamar!. One common feature, however, was these new leaders were secularists; latent gaalos who smoked pipes, talked and walked like gaalos-

 

Almost a half-century later, in the diasporas from London to Toronto, we are witnessing the marginalisation of somalis. On a recent visit to London which is reportedly to be home over 200 000 Somalis, I was surprised to learn of the modern day exodus of Somalis from continental Europe. Unlike the early 90;s this new wave of Somalis did not escape from the persecution of warlords, civil war or from dictatorship. They fled "GAALO". Apparently, many European countries have devised laws that specifically aim to target Somalis; FGM debate in Scandinavia, daily racist remarks by politicians who see Somalis as a threat to democracy, hard to integrate (in actual sense they mean assimilation) or in some cases equating Somalis with primitivism- not fit to live among the human race.

 

In towns such as Toronto, Birmingham, Ohio, London and Minneapolis, you have certainly seen Somali women who wear the "Xijaab" or girls who wear jeans, revealing pants, T-shirts. These girls have the Hijab but do not look muslims or somalis. They have certainly got inspirations from MTV and somali gaalosim. Equally, you might have visited the many arenas including qaad houses, coffee houses, street parliaments where men discuss "GAALO". The same "gaalo" haters could sometimes be overheard supporting a certain warlord, or tribe. In the same token you might be aware that many Somalis in welfare states are over represented in the welfare beneficiary statistics; not to mention the many separations or marriage of conveniences that aim at increasing the GAALO income! Why???? Yes, any many somalis would certainly say "waa GAALADAA"

 

 

In my layman view, we have Somali "gaalos" whose features are: · They play the blame game when discussing Somali issues; you would meet them everywhere uttering words such as "Gaalada allaha ha naga qabto; waxaan gaalada ayaa ka dambeeysa". In most cases these Somali Gaalos slander the hand that feeds them by on the one hand living on social security, while on the other they have the time to sit/stand idly in the "street" parliaments and condemning the white Gaalo.

 

· Warlords and their supporters. According to the Islamic faith to which many of us subscribe to; Islam is a complete submission to Allah; including refraining from murdering women, children and men. Most of the Somali warlords are involved in massacres and only GAALOS are capable of some of the atrocities.

 

 

ALLOW GAALADA MADOOW NAGA QABO!

[Haashim]

Originally posted by Entrepreneur:

In my layman view, we have Somali "gaalos" whose features are: · They play the blame game when discussing Somali issues; you would meet them everywhere uttering words such as "Gaalada allaha ha naga qabto; waxaan gaalada ayaa ka dambeeysa". In most cases these Somali Gaalos slander the hand that feeds them by on the one hand living on social security, while on the other they have the time to sit/stand idly in the "street" parliaments and condemning the white Gaalo.

 

· Warlords and their supporters. According to the Islamic faith to which many of us subscribe to; Islam is a complete submission to Allah; including refraining from murdering women, children and men. Most of the Somali warlords are involved in massacres and only GAALOS are capable of some of the atrocities.

 

 

ALLOW GAALADA MADOOW NAGA QABO!

And yet we're blaming GAALADA for Double Standard, if there's a record for double standard, i think, we broke that record many years ago.

[Changed]

good article but can u ellaborate more on how somalis on walfare are galoos too?

 

to me galoos are those that are non-muslims and am preety sure calling a self-proclaimed muslim gaalo is forbiden, the fact that u called the warlords gaalo to me feels like u went a little over board we have no right to , but i agree with u muslims are not to kill other humans, its like calling bin laden and maxammed ATA a non-muslim(he killed women and men(children am not sure of)). To me rationality is on the eye of the beholder, what my be rational to me may not be rational to the society i live with , and the same goes for everyone , my point here is these people think they are doing the right thing so its rational to them but to us its not ratioanl at all and honestly we cant justify what is rational and what aint and allah is the only judge to rationality.....hope y'll got my point its kinda confusing am sure

[Coloow]

Miz Unique:

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To me rationality is on the eye of the beholder, what my be rational to me may not be rational to the society i live with , and the same goes for everyone , my point here is these people think they are doing the right thing so its rational to them but to us its not ratioanl at all and honestly we cant justify what is rational and what aint and allah is the only judge to rationality"

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I am not a muslim scholar but rationality has nothing to do with heeding Allah's message. I think human beings practice bounded rationality. The way I see it; somalis are quick to judge others; calling them names such as GAALo, blaming others for our problems;

 

It is not about judging other people, or condeming them. Merely to highlight the simple fact that we are not better than those we call GAALOS.

 

Now if a warlord does not qualify for the title of Gaalo, i don't know who would do!

[Changed]

entrep

 

to me gaalo still means non-muslims

and like i stated earlier we cant call a muslim a non-muslim, we have no right to ! i dont have the hadith on me but am sure of it ...

 

and i do agree with u when u say somalis are quick to judge and when i talked about rationality i was just giving my prospective the war-lords power the their dirty politics, they think they are right and they believe that if it was for them somalis would be messed up(i dont agree with them ofcource) and none of them would do anything they considered to be irrational: so for u to say their action are the same or similar to those of the galoos obiviously means u think they are irrational, and i dont object to it but what my objection was all about is u calling them galoos cuz islamically u cant call a muslim gaalo my brother

[Coloow]

Miz unique; I think our stance on this issue is similar; No one somali or not have the right to call people "Gaalo". Leave that unto Allah to do so.

 

previously, you asked about how welfare earners qualify to be called "gaalos". this is an interesting issue. Allow me to come back to this issue on a later date.

 

Thanks

[Waaq]

Entre... I am not sure I understand the point of your piece. Could you explain your position further?

[Coloow]

Waaq- your name reminds me of a man called waaqo-guuto

what is it that you don't understand saaxib? The message I wanted to get across was the double standards of our people. They are good at calling "others" gaalo, while some of our own practices could be described as "Gaalosim".

[Reality Check]

Ent...I understand what you are saying in some level bruh.

 

Even though Somalis advanced from the Nomadic lifestyle rapidly..I don't think their mentality changed with the same pace.

 

We need to stop separating ourselves from the rest of the world by calling them galoos or adoon or what have you...but embrace people..of all backgrounds. Didn't Allah (s.a.w.) tell us to be good to our neighbors? I don't think that included only Somali Muslims..

 

 

Anyway..that's all I have to input today!

 

 

PS: Mz Unique...I think that the use of welfare is not doing our somali communities in the west any justice..if we take it, we are playing the "white" man's role: that all black people are lazy....Welfare is only for those people who need help getting BACK on their feet.. I say why not exploit Financial aid instead

[GarYaQaaN]

Indeed...why not exploit financial Aid instead...?