Meanwhile, in 2007

[Castro]

It was in 1507 (500 years ago) that Imam Ahmed Gurey was born and barely a man of 25, managed to achieve the unimaginable by defeating the mighty Emperor of Ethiopia and his Portuguese musketeers. In his conquest, he brought three-quarters of Ethiopia under the rule of the Islamic kingdom of Adal.

 

"In Ethiopia the damage which [Ahmad] Gragn [Gurey] did has never been forgotten,” "Every Christian highlander still hears tales of Gragn in his childhood. Haile Selassie referred to him in his memoirs. I have often had villagers in northern Ethiopia point out sites of towns, forts, churches and monasteries destroyed by Gragn as if these catastrophes had occurred only yesterday." wrote Paul B. Henze [Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia (New York: Palgrave, 2000), p. 90.]

 

"While acknowledging that many modern Somali nationalists consider Ahmad a national hero, Henze claims that the notion of a Somali nation did not exist during Ahmad's lifetime." Source

 

Remember that last sentence.

 

Fast-forward four hundred years to 1907 (100 years ago) and it was Sayyid Maxamad Cabdulle Xassan who valiantly fought the mighty emperor of Ethiopia and his British musketeers. He had led a small-scale resistance for a few years until then and in that year, declared full war on Ethiopia and its Western enablers. For 13 years to come, and until his death in 1920, he menaced his enemies until they bombed him from the air (the very first time in the history of Africa that airplanes were used in warfare).

 

The Mad Mullah they called him but he showed them hell and they couldn't even kill him.

 

Fast-forward one hundred years (today) both Gurey and the Sayyid are turning in their graves. The mighty emperor of Ethiopia (with the help of his Western musketeers, as is the custom) has exacted his revenge. From land occupied outright in Somali Galbeed and Southern Somalia to dabo-dhilif mini-lands with names like Puntland, Somaliland and Maakhir land. Everywhere you look, a Somali is either dying of hunger, killing his neighbor in anger or getting crushed under Tigray boots. What a marvelously mournful ending to 500 years of glorious struggle.

 

Ma calayna.

 

So earlier this year, I watched with utter dismay how our one hundred year downward spiral culminated in Ethiopian troops bombing Muqdisho neighborhoods. What I never expected to witness is seeing Somalis cheering such abomination. I've gotten over that since then. What amazes me still that after all this time since the (official) invasion and occupation of Somalia, there are those who still struggle with the big picture.

 

What will it take to see that Geedi, Yey, Cadde, Riyaale and others like them are woven of the same dabo-dhilif, self-serving cloth? What will it take to educate those who cheer the bombing of their kinsmen in South Muqdisho then turn around and wail when Laas Caanood is "captured" by another group of dabo-dhilifs? What will it take to show that an entire people under siege from within and from without share the same destiny whether they like it or not?

 

Grown, seemingly educated men, in the homeland and the Diaspora, singing the clan tune and, as if on cue, wearing their keyboard-general attire to go to war while their ignoramus cousins fight futile, meaningless battles to "capture" a few hundred meters. Trying, in vain, to secure imaginary borders and foolishly seeking colonial recognition. Their counterparts, when not busy Xeroxing money, are furiously selling off lands to crooked Western oil companies or selling off their trees as coal.

 

Earlier, I asked you to remember "that the notion of a Somali nation did not exist during Ahmad's [Gurey] lifetime." Well, five hundred years on, neither the notion nor the nation exist and whatever is there is in utter ruin.

 

Woe to those who sell their souls for little worldly gain.

[rudy-Diiriye]

wc back homie, everytime u come back, something happpens in somali... now tfg is in a hell-hole and getting the spanking they so deserve.

 

u must be doing some behind the scene good work. far out homie, keep it up.

 

lefty was a mean good ole boy...i hope we havent lost his genes among us. u know that be a sad in somaliville. hopefully, soon his kind will show up not only in the net but also amongst our freedom fighters back in the homeland.

[Tahliil]

To punctuate your thought right, I have found this related poem...recited by the Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan himself in Ayl in 1905...

 

Ikhyaarkooda nimankii kufriga, ugu abraaraayey

Aan lagu igraahine kalgacal, ugu abraarayey

Kuwii ubad nasaaraad noqdee, ferenji aanaystay

 

Nimankii amxaara u kacee, Adarinuu guurey

Oo Aw-Cabaas diley, dadkaan eedi kala gaarin

Oo uunka kala fiijiyee,

kala irdheysiiyey

 

Nimankii amxaara u kacee, adarinuu guurey

Oo Mililikh aabe u yehee,

u arrin qaadaayo

Oo xabashi eegi u noqdee,

u ololaynaayey

 

Utuntayda waa heli haddaan,iilka lay dhigine

Araraha intaan maranhayey, igu arkaayane

Maruun baan sidii aar libaax, oodda soo jebinne

 

Halka ka Akhriso gabaydhan oo dhan

[xiinfaniin]

Well come back yaa Castro!

 

As you aptly recapped, the current stoogism that goes on today is but a mere chapter albeit a sad one in the larger struggle in the region! At stake is the survival of the Somali identity. But I firmly believe, as it was evident in the brief six months Courts were in control, Somalis will refuse the status quo. What is happening in the North today is, in a good measure, the beginning of the rejection of the status quo! Somaliland might have struck the wrong target but the fact it erupted with anger is a clear indication that her elusive goal of independence proved politically unfeasible. The same is true with Puntland---stoogism has bought them nothing but a disgraceful defeat!

 

Need I say more about Baydhabo, Mogadishu, Kismayo or the status of the tfg itself? Despite all the tragedies and casualties, and dear losses of lives and limbs, the objectives of the enemy and its plans have been thwarted. In my estimation, at this point of time, the lyrics, as it were, is much better than its cheerless music…at least this political attitude of shameless stoogism has peaked and is bound to fall down!

 

Khayr IA.

[Coloow]

Asc,

 

Dabadhilifism is the ONLY corporate idea that functions in a defunct, poor, tribalistic state.

 

"Grown, seemingly educated men, in the homeland and the Diaspora, singing the clan tune and, as if on cue, wearing their keyboard-general attire to go to war while their ignoramus cousins fight futile, meaningless battles to "capture" a few hundred meters."

 

SEEMINGLY EDUCATED; SINGING THE CLAN TUNE;

 

That says all! (cf., so called political forums)

[Fabregas]

When Imam Gurey embarked on his mission, he came across a group muslims who gave an annual tribute to the Abysnian Emperor each year. This tribute was the best looking girl each year. Anyway, when Imam Gurey liberated them naturally they where thankful and married to him one of their best girls. Ironically during this time a group of people referred to by chroniclers as "Murtads" existed. Who where they? Well stooges and warlords who worked with Abysnian empire who worked with them too take the lands of the Muslims of the horn. The raids of Imam Ahmad terrified the Abysnians so much it is reported that they where scared to even light fires at night hence the alleged tradition of eating uncooked meated. Lastly, when the catastrophe hit the Abysnian empire on its head, one of their leaders remarked that this was a punishment from the Almighty as they had oppressesd the weak and the minorities in their land. Dare I say, we Somalis can learn from this?

 

Again, Ironically, One of the commanders of the Tigray and Amhara alliance during this was a certain "Bishop Zenawi" indeed history is strange!

[Taleexi]

Welcome back Mr. Castro and thanks for zooming us in the chronicle of the last 500 years or so. The shifts and turns of which seeking Somali identity took... The myth of "Somalinimo" proved to be questionable in our times as much as it was then. Let us not give up we are the men of this moment.

[NGONGE]

Welcome back Castro. Hope that life is treating you well (other than the obvious of course).

 

Now that the salutations are over, let us get down to business. I enjoyed reading your rousing rant there and it almost got me to punch the air with disgust (very little does these days). But then I remembered hearing many such like rants in the past (not necessarily from you). I am afraid I've grown into a cynical and thick skinned old man and such words hardly move me at all.

 

Replace this Somali historical narrative of yours with an Islamic one. Ditch the Sayyid and adopt Al-Moctasim Bi Allah! Abandon Ahmed G. and replace him with the Ottomans! Does it all look familiar to you now? I don't aim to come across as patronising or condescending in anyway but would still assert that historical sermons such as yours are not very healthy in the circumstances. We already have our fair share of dreamers and I implore you not increase their numbers or stubbornness by reading them these bedtime stories about dead men. If it were the case that these stories will inspire them to do anything I would have applauded you for starting up their imagination and pushing them in the right direction. Alas, like the case with historical Islamic lectures, your words will only encourage them to live in the past and carry on shouting the words: traitor, turncoat and collaborator long into the night.

 

Still, the only thing that your story proves is that nothing stays as it is forever. Things change and exploited people rise up, foolish people see the light and the oppressors (sooner or later) get their comeuppance.

 

Ps

Have you been reading my exchanges with BilaaL in the thread titled ‘Quotable Quotes’?

 

Pps

Xaaji Xiin,

 

I’ve noticed that for the last few days you’ve been coyly prophesising the beginning of the end for all the so called collaborators, saaxib! Are you privy to some information that we don’t have? Or are you merely thinking aloud? Why in the world does the dispute in LA signal the end of these entities? How is their obvious division going to cause the defeat of the Xabash? Meyad eska hadlaysa mese waxbaad ogtahay? Do share please!

[Chimera]

dp

[Chimera]

Paul B Henze is a Anti-Somalist and a former CIA agent on the pay-roll of Meles Zenawi so his comments mean little to me cause he is obviously biased if he were not, he would not like a fool have ignored the Somali Empires like the Ajuraan Empire that defeated the Oromo conquerors(who then devastated the Ethiopian Highlands and even Adal) and the Portuguese who never managed to conquer the Ajuraan Province ''Muzaffar Mogadishu''. This Somali Empire was larger than modern Uganda,Kenya and Eritrea combined so if this doesn't qualify as a Somali Nation then they can keep that concept of a ''nation'' to themselves

 

then you have the Geledian Empire that incorporated the entire Southern half of Somalia aswell as enclaves in North east Kenya and under the Sultans Yusuf Muhammad and Ahmed Yusuf forced Zanzibari arab governors north of Lamu to pay tribute and send expeditions against the Nabahan Arabs of the Pate Kingdom when it invaded Siyu

 

then there is Adal originating from the Somali word Awdal taken up by the 13th century scholar Al Damashiqi and was spread throughout the Islamic world. At it's height this state included northwest Somalia,Djibouti, the whole Ethiopian Highlands and parts of Eritrea. Today people like 'Henze' are trying as hard as they can to Ethiopianize this state and delete the Somali influence, but they simply can't go around the fact that the Ifatine Kingdom's capital was Saylac which then after it's interregnum became Adal the core of the state was Somali, the bulk of the army was Somali, Ahmed gurey was a Somali, his nephew the second conqueror nur ibn Mujahid was a Somali , his father in law Mahfuz of Saylac was a Somali this really bothers them and the wikipedia article with all those Ethiopianists in it is evidence of this.

 

the problem is there aren't any Somali historians with ''balls'' and with this i mean Historians who are not apologetic or submissive to Eurocentric or other revisionist crap like the vommit from P.B Henze. this is why i respect African American historians they really show balls and currently the whole Eurocentric establishment is covering it's *** because of the pressure there receiving from African historians

 

they honestly inspired me years back and this is one of the reasons why i've taken that direction with my studies cause there is a clear naked aggression on our history similar to what is happening in our homeland. when i have my qualifications no more of this submissiveness and myths like Somali have no indiginous writing systems(what is Wadaad's writing,Borama and Osmanya scripts?) from so-called experts or other acrobatic literature hiding the real insulting intention behind it Insha-allah

 

(btw today's situation is similar to pre-Ahmed Gurey era where petty Muslim leaders refused to back Mahfuz against the Abyssinians with some even co-operating with them( kinda like what happened in dec 2006) against the Adalites. Ahmed rose to power in the army and killed all the rebels trying to become sultan and put his own leader there.

 

I wouldn't be suprised if right now a Ahmed Gurey II is being groomed by a revengefull Somali woman, more power to her)

[N.O.R.F]

Originally posted by NGONGE:

 

Pps

Xaaji Xiin,

 

I’ve noticed that for the last few days you’ve been coyly prophesising the beginning of the end for all the so called collaborators, saaxib! Are you privy to some information that we don’t have? Or are you merely thinking aloud? Why in the world does the dispute in LA signal the end of these entities? How is their obvious division going to cause the defeat of the Xabash? Meyad eska hadlaysa mese waxbaad ogtahay? Do share please!

 

Its called avoiding to discuss what REAllY happened in LA in case it upsets a few people. Having said that I have been doing the same

[BiLaaL]

Welcome back Castro. Your patriotic, illuminating contributions have been sorley missed - at least i did Good to have you back.

[xiinfaniin]

North, tell us what you think did REALLY happened in LA! One can’t help here but notice who’s resorting to pregnant statements to avoid discussing what I see a a potential civil war in the north !

 

NGONGE, I think what LA conflict will do is two things. 1) It will make Somaliland entity part of the Somali civil war. 2) It will highlight, as a consequence of this act, the need for a comprehensive approach to the Somali tragedy.

 

But again may be I am thinking out loud , as you put it !

 

ps--PL is already part of the civil war.

[Castro]

Nomad Nation

 

Of the new nations born last week, none faced bleaker prospects than the Somali Republic. Combining the former Italian and British colonies on Africa's horn, the country is largely a desert plateau, studded with anthills as tall as a man, and roamed by a Moslem nomadic people whose per capita income from their herds is just $10 a year. In a way, Somalia's only asset for nationhood is a small group of capable, moderate leaders. They bear no grudge against the West, because they bear no scars of a struggle for independence.

 

Standard bearer of freedom in the old Italian colony (pop. 1,500,000) is Abdullahi Issa, 38. His counterpart in the old British colony (pop. 640,000) is a British-educated rich man's son, Mohammed Ibrahim Egal, 32. When Issa brought up independence last year, Italy told him he could have it whenever he liked. Egal promptly asked for permission to join his colony to the new nation. Britain readily agreed. The two men quickly worked out a merger agreement, and last week the two legislatures simply combined. As the Somali Republic's Provisional President, Issa and Egal agreed on Aden Abdullah Osman, 51. Once a medical student, long a civil servant, Aden Abdullah is the closest thing Somalia has to a father of the country.

 

Aden Abdullah's main job will simply be to keep the country afloat, a task that the World Bank estimates will take $6,000,000 a year in outside aid. Yet to the new officialdom, optimism came easy last week in the sidewalk espresso shops of sun-scorched Mogadishu, the capital and only major city, where the hot monsoon sometimes blows hard enough to whip off the tablecloths. Construction was being rushed on two jerry-built but air-conditioned hotels. And like tribalists all over Africa, Somalis were talking ambitiously of redrawing the borders imposed by the white men to reunite their fellow tribesmen. Over the years, as their own land eroded, Somalis have settled thickly in the fertile regions of northern Kenya and eastern Ethiopia. Besides these areas, Greater Somalia would also include French Somaliland and its deep-water port of Djibouti. But however desirable from the Somali point of view, the plan was not likely to make for cordial relations with Somalia's neighbors.

 

July 11, 1960

[Castro]

Blood on the Horn

Friday, Feb. 14, 1964

 

On the horn of Africa, a man would cut a throat for a camel. Since Somalia won its independence in 1960, throats have been cut in plenty as lithe, black, spear-swinging Somali nomads crossed with their herds into neighboring Kenya and Ethiopia to fight over water rights and grazing lands. Last week the cost of a camel was approximately war, and blood spilled on the horn.

 

First, a band of 300 Somali shiftas (bandits) slipped across the border and shot up the Ethiopian crossroads town of Jijiga. Then the Ethiopians, after scanning the 30 bodies their troops had cut down, claimed that the raiders were led by a uniformed Somali army officer. Haile Selassie's Cabinet declared a state of emergency, claiming that 2,000 Somali regulars had crossed the border. Somalia alerted its own army, reported that eight Ethiopian armored cars had been destroyed in the border fight. By week's end both sides had called a "cease-fire," but the problem was nowhere near solution. In a welter of charges and countercharges, Somali pride stood in bristling opposition to the Lion of Judah.

 

Frankincense & Myrrh. Of all the nations in East Africa, none combines poverty and pugnacity as completely as Somalia. Outside the capital, its 2,000,000 inhabitants—99% Moslem and 90% illiterate—earn a meager $10 a year on the average, mainly by herding goats, sheep and camels over the parched grasslands of the interior. The country has no deep-water ports, no railroad, in a land half again the size of California. As if to cement its image of Biblical backwardness, Somalia brags of its exotic exports—frankincense and myrrh.

 

But for all its poverty, Somalia is a stiff-necked nation. Its people pride themselves on their Hamitic heritage, their nomad hardiness. No Somali youth feels secure without an iron bracelet—won only by killing two men in combat. Argumentative and fiercely antiauthoritarian, the Somalis are often called the "Irish of Africa," although as Moslems they prefer cold camel's milk to a headier gargle.

Well-meaning foreigners who stroll into their quaint, collapsible villages (stick-and skin aghals that can be packed onto camelback in a matter of minutes) often find themselves on the receiving end of accurately thrown stones as the Somalis scream, "Out with the infidel!" Even Mogadishu, Somalia's sunny, somnolent capital (pop. 150,000), has a perennial air of impermanence, particularly in the rainy season, when some of its mud buildings show a disconcerting tendency to melt into the gutters.

 

Despite the heat and squalor, Mogadishu is a center of political and intellectual ferment. Politicians representing one or another of Somalia's ten parties argue vociferously in gritty coffee shops —a rare sight in a New Africa that is moving steadily toward one-party government systems. There is spirited debate in Parliament, and although the commonest sound on the streets is still the beggar's cry for "Baksheesh!," there is plenty of free and strident speech to counterpoint it.

 

Like all Somali politicians, Premier Abdirashid Ali Shermarke cries stridently for a "Greater Somalia," which would include the disputed portions of Kenya and Ethiopia traditionally cruised by wandering Somali herdsmen. In recent years, the nomads have added Sten guns to their spears, and the once-shiftless shiftas have taken on the determined air of guerrillas. For all his violent expansionism, Shermarke is basically a reasonable man. A heavyset, introspective ex-clerk of 44, Shermarke was educated at Mogadishu's Institute of Law and Economics, took honors in political science studies at Rome. Although his Somali Youth League party is expected to retain power in next month's election, Premier Shermarke himself may well give way to his Foreign Minister, Abdullah Issa Mohamud.

 

But whoever succeeds Shermarke will have to carry the torch for territorial expansion. Though ten foreign nations ranging from Red China to the U.S. have inundated Somalia with $250 million in foreign aid (including ports, highways and macaroni factories), what Somalia really wants is a strong army. Last year, after dickering with the U.S., Italy and West Germany, Somalia accepted a Russian offer of $30 million in military assistance —enough to equip and train a 20,000-man force. Already some 300 Somali army officers are training in Moscow. If the border dispute with Ethiopia does escalate into full-scale war, the world will find itself faced with another sore spot in Africa.

 

Source

Ngonge, did you say "nothing stays as it is forever"?