Re-inventing The Wheels of Somali History

Akash · November 2, 2010

If you scour the several hundred or so Somali websites, or listen to other media such as local radios and televisions controlled by Somalia’s burgeoning autonomous administrations spearheaded by Somaliland and Puntland to name a few, you will be gob smacked to learn the amount of distortion and disinformation made about Somali history contrary to the one we have known to, or studied at schools. I have to emphasize here that some websites have exceptionally stuck to the true old Somali tradition and sprit, and kept their dignity intact.

Prior to the introduction of Somali script during the military government of the late Mohamed Siyad Barre, Somalis always relied on what was orally narrated to them (cascaded down to them) over the years by their forefathers and to a certain degree on what was said and written about them by foreigners, especially colonial administrations that ruled their countries for decades.

Everything seems to be different today than it was before the pre-civil war era. In today’s tribally-stricken Somalia, there is no consensus among Somalis on what our true heritage is/was and who our true national heroes or heroines are/were. This is more evident in the Somali intelligentsia who run the mass media than the normal person in the street, as they are often blinded by clannish sentimentality. We seem to see everything through the clan binocular, more so in some parts of current Somaliland and Puntland.

Even the renowned household name, the great Dervish fighter and poet Sayid Mohamed Abdulla Hassan, who held the British at bay for well over twenty years with little or no help from the outside world and whose own Somali people had been turned against him by the British, is maligned by some sections of Somalis, particularly those in Northern Somalia. For the current generation who heard little or nothing about the great nationalist, Sayid Mohamed was the first freedom fighter to be bombarded by the Royal Air Force of Britain in his Taleh fortress, Nugal region in 1920.

Imam Ahmed Gurey who fought and broke Abyssinia’s Emperor Lebna Dengel’s ability to resist in the battle of Amba Sel in 1537; Haji Farah Ali Omar who went to the UN headquarters in New York and pleaded help for his country’s independence; Mahmoud Harbi, the torch-bearer and the founding father of Djibouti’s independence movements; Hawo Osman (Xawo Taako) who showed a stern resistance against fascist Italian occupation in southern Somalia; and many more, are vilified and discredited by other sections of contemporary Somali media.

In some parts of current “Somaliland”, Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan is derided by some as mass murderer and a villain not necessarily because of what he did in the battlefields of Jidbaale, Beer dhiga and Dul Madoobe (where colonel Richard Corfield was killed by Dervish fighters), but because of the misinformation and innuendos spread about him by current day clannish historians. It is ironic the off springs of the yester year generations are on a mission to obliterate the good name of the great warrior when in fact their very forefathers had nothing but admiration and respect for the great man.

Before tribalism turned Somalia upside down, Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan was written extensively and favorably by previous generations of the very same people who are currently portraying him as the bogey man of cotemporary Somali history, including Mahmoud Ahmed Ali, the father of Education. In reality, nothing has changed as far as the status and reputation of those great men and women are concerned. What simply changed (and to the worse of course) is the fact that Somalis have become clannish to the bone, and that any member of those aforementioned Somali greats who does not belong to their clan is worthless as far as they are concerned. You go to any public place and engage a conversation with people in some parts of current Somaliland and ask about Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, and the response will be alarmingly shocking. You will be forgiven if you assume you stepped into an enemy territory.

Playwright greats such as the late Hassan Sheikh Moumin, Abdillahi Qarshe, Hussein Aw Farah, Mahmoud Tukale, Mohamed Ali kariye and Osman Aden Askari, Mohamed Omer Huuryo, and living legends such as Mohamed Abdullahi Issa (singub), Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame (Hadrawi), Saeed Saleh, Ali Sugulle, Abdi Aden Qays, Ali Gaab, Mead Migane, Ahmed Sulaiman Bidde, who between themselves created almost all contemporary drama (ruwaayado), songs, poetry and other arts in Somali literature, and many, many more unsung literature heavyweights are simply dismissed as clannish artists (Reer Hebel) by one group or another, depending on which Somali region you live in.

Arguably, the greatest Somali singer of all times, Halima Khalif Magool, was shunned by a large number of Somalis due to her alleged involvement in USC’s ethnic – cleansing in Mogadishu and its environs where a large number of Somalis, mainly of ****** lineage where either massacred or maimed and their properties confiscated. Magool has allegedly sung a song in support of this massacre, but her glittering career and great legacy in Somali arts should not be tarnished forever because of this incident if it ever occurred. She was simply too invaluable and indispensable to go to the dustbin of Somali history.

Nurradin Farah, the only world renowned Somali novelist (although other precocious talented writers, especially women, are hot on his heels) , a man who has garnered acclaim as one of the greatest contemporary writers in the world and won many international awards, including International Prize for Literature, Premio Cavour in Italy, Kurt Tucholsky Prize in Sweden, Lettre Ulysses Award in Berlin and many more internationals accolades, is barely mentioned or known in some parts of Somalia partly because some bigwig clannish supremacists don’t want to see his name anywhere near their tribally customized history books. Had he born for another nation, he would have been immortalized and become a living legend. Mind you, he is still a living legend in many parts of the world, especially in Africa.

In early 1990, I attended a Somali concert held in Hackney Empire theatre, East London for the entertainment of what was mainly a Somali congregation whose number was growing in the UK at that particular time. The theatre was backed and buzzing, as the expectation as well as the turnout by both artists and the audiences was very high. What could otherwise have been a great spectacle in the middle of the city of theatres and amusement was almost ruined by mindless clannish thugs who started booing and hurling verbal abuses at certain artists they perceived as not one of theirs, clan wise. Even very popular singers back home such as Khadra Dahir, Abdi Nour Allaale, Nimco Yaseen and Ahmed Ali Dararamle who were among the entertainers could not escape this tribal bashing.

In turns, the artists had to endure unnecessary abuses from some sections of the audiences. At the time, I thought it was just a trivial thing in the heat of a moment, as Somalia was about to collapse into tribal enclaves. Two decades on, the tables have been turned upside down and the re-invention of Somali history is if full motion.

Since the last central Somali government led by the late Mohamed Siad Barre was violently brought down by armed clan militias, and consequently the country was thrown into chaos and further dismembered into tribal enclaves, the only common thing we shared for generations regardless of our regional or tribal background – Somali history – is on the verge of becoming endangered species. Every piece of Somali history is being distorted by one group or another.

People who lost their limps and livelihoods for the advancement of their country are being ridiculed by today’s clan pen historians. You tell the thousands or so amputees who lost their limps in the 1977 ****** war that everything they believed and fought for was in vain. If a war breaks out today between one of the current tribal administrations that sprang to life since the demise of the last Somali government against another sort of alien country, very few will go to that conflict, as they reminisce the event that took place decades ago between the then Somali state and its old enemy, Ethiopia. They know they will be treated in the same manner as their predecessors in the said war once they lost limp and life.

Almost twenty painful and agonizing years have gone since Somalis turned into each other in a vicious tribal civil war after the collapse of the last Somali government. After more than fourteen failed reconciliation conferences, It seems we are losing our country as we have known it and we may also about to lose our heritage and culture as the clan pen is becoming mightier by the day.

We cannot afford to lose our history to tribalism, as the few notable Somali history makers aforementioned in this piece (who indeed belonged to all Somali tribes) have earned and achieved their greatness as being Somalis and not as being representatives of their clans – the notorious Reer hebel?

Mohamed F. Yabarag

Email: myabarag@yahoo.co.uk