Unsung Somali Heroes

[BiLaaL]

Unsung Somali Heroes

 

Somalia has been called many things in its history, the Horn of Africa, Nation of Poets, The Great African Hope. The English historian turned explorer Richard Burton, in his book “First Footsteps in Africa” describes Somalis as a "a fierce race of Republicans". Gordon Waterfield also had this to say “The Somalis have intelligence, charm and a considerable ability in argumenting a case which concerns their interest.” We are known to be argumentative people skilled in presenting their case before the people and the authorities in a very convincing manner using very apt words, phrases, similies and recalling precedents, antecedents, evidence, etc. in poems, proverbs and songs of genealogical histories. In a novel “A Naked Needle” written by 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:

 

"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.

 

Furthermore, if we turn to democracy and its ideals, by closely viewing the decision making process of what is known as the “Shir”, we begin to see clear evidence of true, pure democracy in action. The west views democracy as its own, something that only they know how to accomplish. It seems the rest of the world, needs to be taken ‘back to school’ first, in order to be considered ‘democratic’, by the west. When in actual fact, neither the Europeans nor the Americans are actually 'democratic' in the strict sense of the word. I would describe their democracy more as a 'corporate democracy', for the only reason they agree on the already rotten principles that they do, is to satisfy their urge for everlasting economic stability, which directly stems from their total believe that as long as they keep their populations materially content, or at least give them the feeling that they are materialistically 'sound', then they can keep them in check and that materialism is the route to happiness.

 

The unique concept of ‘Shir’, was studied by a number of Social anthropologists, one of which is Professor I.M. Lewis in his research study “A Pastoral Democracy” (1961). He vividly describes the democratic process of decision-making adopted by the Somali pastoral bands in their Shirs. He testifies as under:

 

“The informal council (Shir) summoned as need arises, at every order of segmentation, and attended by all the adult men, or their representative chosen at smaller lineage-group Shirs, is the fundamental institution of government. It has not formal constitution except that of membership of the lineage concerned, no regular place or time of meeting and there are no official positions on it. All men are councillors, and all men politicians. Agreements are reached by majority decisions following the direction taken by the consensus of feeling at a meeting. Men sit or squat on the ground at a Shir and when they wish to speak often rise to their feet. Although there may be a great deal of argument and wrangling, all those present are expected to behave courteously and breaches of good manners may be punished. The ad hoc council disposes of the collective business of a group. Here contracts are promulgated within dia-paying groups and between them, or they are rescinded; peace-treaties are made, the decision to unite against another group is taken and an attack planned with the appointment of a battle leader; all these and other matters are dealt with by the Shir.”

 

By know you must be asking, why all this historical commentary. Well allow me to clear the air. The title of this paper, translated in English is ‘The Voice of Somali Youth’. This youth currently make up more than 50% of our population. Therefore it is the future of the youth of Somalia that is today being ruined by warlords poisoned or rather overdosed with the age old medieval concept of tribalism. The youth of today, have been denied the chance to attend school in their own country, the only option left being for their parents to ship them out in the depth of the night, to foreign countries. The few that have made it to the west, had to contend with a whole new culture and the experiences of attending school in a foreign land, where they had to learn a whole new language, just to get a start. They have never known a Somalia in peace with itself and neighbours, they have never experienced the joys of attending school with their own countrymen and women, singing their own national anthem at the start of school, instead of singing ‘Advance Australia Fair’ or even worse ‘God Save The Queen!’. These are the anthems of Australia.

 

So my intention for writing this article, is to give our young brothers and sisters reading this paper, a sense of the honour, dignity, respect, courage of our former self. Somali heroes are many, such as Ahmed Gurey, Sayyid Muhammad Abdille Hasan alias Mad Mullah, Xawo Tako, Dagax Tuur, members of the Somali Youth League that led the struggle for independence and many others some well known, others not so well known. Even though these heroes defined our nation and are people we should adopt as role models, we must also realise and reflect on the Somali character itself, rather than the heroes as individuals. For what defines every hero or role model is his or her character, and that character surely stems from their own culture, as the saying goes ‘behind every great man is a woman’, well we say ‘behind every great hero is the character of his/her people’, or something to that end.

 

Our youth should therefore learn their history, which will hopefully make them realise that they are more than what they give themselves credit for, and this will help us to get rid of the resulting inferiority complex. Some arguments include the ‘blame-game’ where we start blaming our elders for the dire state of our nation, but solutions are not found by such a strategy, nor by the lack of role models on which to build our aspirations. The typical Somali male of today, with his crooked teeth, from excessive chewing of Khat. More like the teeth, to mirror it with the Eddie Murphy comical analogy of 'don't know whether the brother is smiling or kicking a field goal'.

 

This is where we have to look to the past, our glory days. The heroes which defined our nation, youthful heroes that is. As I noted above, the Somali Youth League was founded in 1943, a youth league that helped Somalia gain its independence from foreign colonization and united the Somali people. They did this by fighting tribalism and rejecting it in all its forms and manifestations. Just like we are today, they were youth who were tired of the way their country was being mishandled. Mind you, they were facing not only the tribalism which are today, but in addition to that, they were also facing foreign armies(colonisers), who were exacerbating the situation by using tribalism to further divide the Somali people in order to further increase their days of ruling by the iron-collar.

 

This youth however were not to be threatened, nor out-gunned they started a political organisation where they single handledly dismantled the politics of tribalism. For this, was what kept our nation from gaining its independence, this internal fighting game. As soon as this was accomplished, our country became one of the first African nations to gain independence. This led to some commentators at the time hailing Somalia as the Great African Hope, ahead of Ghana, reason being that we had all the necessary political components, this was further strengthened by the fact that we had the resulting elections produced the first democratically elected President in Africa. This youth never gave up, they used their culture and the natural Somali flair to bring their people together and as a consequence became one of the most popular parties in Somali politics.

 

See politics was not new to our people, they just needed to find one minus the tribalism. The level of political participation often surpassed that in many developed western democracies.

What this youth did, to bring that back was to twist and bend with their people, they became creative because their people were creative, mirrored their needs, and became their voice, being judged by those who gave it life.

 

Therefore we must not let their longevity be limited to the nourishment they provided their people, by ridding them off the shackles of slavery and colonisation, but we must continue their legacy, just as they preceded those before them.

 

We should use those people as our heroes and role models, brothers and sisters just like you and I, who didn't stand back while their motherland was being robbed and raped, but stepped up and did something. We should get out of the inferiority-complex that many of us are finding ourselves in today. We belong to a proud nation, with proud and highly ingenious and creative people. Each one of you can make a difference by discouraging your family members from using tribalism as a tool to down-grade their own brothers and sisters. If we can’t convince our own family members of the ills of tribalism, who else are we going to convice?

 

On a final note, there is a lot to hope for in the future. What we need to do is to honour those heroes by continuing their legacy or at the least keeping them in mind. For those of you who were of the thinking, that we are a bunch of crazy gun wielding skinny Somali’s. You no longer have an excuse to continue such thinking; we are more than that, a lot more. There are Alhamdullillah, plenty of young brothers and sisters who follow this line of thinking, that we are more than that and always have been. Lets encourage each other; remind each other of the beauty, discipline, courage, commitment and intelligence of our heroes, our unsung 'Somali heroes'.

[abdikhadar]

AS WR WB

Thanks brother Bilal xilligaan ama waqtigaan lagu jiro oo taariikhda Soomaalida gees kasta oo laga eego maqal, qoraal, argti ay noqatay waxyaabo qofkasta oo Soomaali ah dareen wanaagsana leh qalbi-jab iyo niyad xumo ku abuuraya specially the young generation ka cusub oo aan figrad iyo sawir buuxa ka haysan taariikhda runta ah ee Dalkooda iyo Dadkooda. Aad baa loogu baahan yahay kalmadah dhiiri galinta ah boorinta am niyad dhiska ah xiliyadaan oo kale in the era of warlordisam, tribelisam, ignorance, immigration to wonder-lands , disintegration, disownerisam, and so many more- qaar kale oo badana inay kugu daydaan ayaa loo baahan yahay.Waxwalba oo dhacy waan ka soo kaban karaa haddan si sax ah u isticmaalna saddexda shay ee qaranimada saldhiga u ah qaran xor ah DHUL/ LAND, SHACAB/ PEOPLE, MAAMUl SIYAASADEED/GOVERNMENT.

[BiLaaL]

Mahadsanid walaal AbdiKhadar. Saad sheegtay, Somalia maanta meel xun ayeey taalaa, marka anaga ayeey quseesaa soo celis keeda.

 

"Heybad Waxaad Kuleedahay, Dhulkaaga Hooyo".