Two decades, one Somalia

[Showqi]

wrote:

 

Twenty dollars is enough to cover

Khat

, cigarettes, the family's needs and to pay secondary schools fees for my two kids.

 

wrote:

 

I've been coming only to this hotel, the Sahafi, for all these years. I'm sure you always see me sitting here. I chew

khat

just to make me forget the past -- that is is how life is.

 

 

Qaad, qabyaalad iyo qori waa waxa dalkeenii iyo dadkeenii qaribay. Ilaahay ummaddeena ha u sakhiro. Hadda ma aha wakhtigii aynu balwad isticmaali lahayn si aynu xanuunka iyo dhibaatada isu iloowsiino.

[burahadeer]

Most of us will live to see much happier days ahead, insha alla very soon.Don't know wat else to hope...

[Som@li]

^Insha Allah

[Som@li]

I am with Ismahan here, Most Somalis have directly or indirectly contributed to destruction of Somalia, the forces of evil (qabyaalada, Revenge, nepotism etc)was far greater than the forces of good. This has blinded many people. When doctors, professors, innocent people were being killed? how many bystanders try to stop? or enjoyed?

 

 

 

[Carafaat]

Som@li;742123 wrote:

I am with

Ismahan

here, Most Somalis have directly or indirectly contributed to destruction of Somalia, the forces of evil (qabyaalada, Revenge, nepotism etc)was far greater than the forces of good. This has blinded many people.

When doctors, professors, innocent people were being killed? how many bystanders try to stop? or enjoyed?

Some set the example(goverment), others indeed follow(civilians).

 

Nice song. AUN Fanaanada Qaranka ee Magool. Ilaahay Janada ha ka waraabiyo.

[NASSIR]

Nice stories yaa MMA. Thanks for sharing them.

[Abdul]

These stories are about regular people who had no control of what was going on around them i belief.They are lucky to be alive and tell the story.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Idinkaa mudan, aqiyaarta.

________________

 

 

Cabdi Kaarshe Cabdi

 

THE SOLDIER: War in a time of warlords and extremists

 

I was recruited as a soldier in 1967. I never thought Somalis would ruin their own country and destroy people's property.

 

Back then my salary was only 120 Somali shillings and with this I could feed my family well and save some cash in the central bank. Only 25 cents was enough to dine at a restaurant. Now we don't have coins or notes of less than 1,000 shillings. See how illiterate Somalis have spoilt our life?

 

The worst moment in my life was the Somali-Ethiopian war in 1977, which lasted eight months. At that time, Somalia was called the lion of Africa. We had jets and T-55 tanks. Somalis had courage and dignity. We captured many towns from the mighty Ethiopians. Thousands of soldiers from both sides died, although Ethiopians died the most.

 

As we neared Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, after capturing its highlands, Russian planes began unloading tanks to fight us. Fighting escalated and we were in hell. Our commanders were ordered to shoot any Somali soldier who turned back. We had to fight to the death.

 

Anwar Sadat, Egypt's president, called our president, Mohamed Siad Barre, to warn him that we would be overrun by troops from Russia, Yemen and Cuba. Barre ordered us to back to Somalia and we finally had a chance to run for our lives.

 

I appeared like a ghost to my family. When they hadn't heard from me for eight months, they carried out my funeral ceremony. They never thought I was alive. My wife, kids and I hugged and shared tears of happiness in 1978. I was by then a captain.

 

We expected Barre to stand down because of the shame he brought on Somalia. But he didn’t. In 1985, Somalia started deteriorating. Barre’s regime worsened and the democracy he only paid lip service to turned to cruelty, prompting citizens to turn against his government.

 

Hargeisa (now the capital of Somaliland) started a revolution and Barre fought them like he fought with the Ethiopia, with tanks and jets. Eventually, he overpowered Hargeisa.

 

But what happened next? A more powerful revolution led by General Mohamed Farah Aideed started from central Somalia. General Aideed, Ahmed Omar Jees and Abdirahman Tur together planned to topple the dictatorship and form a broad-based government for Somalia.

 

They toppled him but the other dream did not come true. Hargeisa split and formed Somaliland, Bosasso split and formed Puntland. General Aideed struggled to pull the parts together but in vain.

 

Somalis turned into wolves - camel herders, thieves, street boys and prisoners took up arms and started robbing, looting, raping and shooting.

 

There was no reason for me and men like me to carry a gun. There is dignity in soldiering only when there's discipline.

 

The looting started at the central bank. They even dug up tarmac roads and took away the electric cables. The airport was destroyed and crushed rocks collected to build private houses. Government buildings were destroyed and their bricks looted.

 

I threw down my gun and started selling watermelons on a wheelbarrow in the streets. Most of the literate men or those who depended on the government died of hunger in the streets, fled abroad or were killed in gunfire. They could not cope with the new life.

 

General Aideed was patriotic and he hated extremists. I'm sure Al-Shabaab would not exist if he were alive. He was the only man in the world who made the mighty U.S. surrender. He dragged their corpses through the streets of Mogadishu.

 

I never left Mogadishu. I kept on selling watermelons and lemonade as the season allowed. I will never forget my beloved wife who was devoted to helping me bring up our seven children. She used to sell tea. None of my family was killed or injured but the list of friends and relatives who were casualties is endless.

 

In 2002, an interim government led by Abdiqasim Salad Hassan was formed. Warlords were better than this government, which after three years were unable to control the same amount of territory that even a weak warlord had in his power.

 

In 2006, the worst morning was born for Somalia. Somali extremists enlisted cursed foreigners. The Islamic courts led by the current president bred all evils.

 

It was a strange culture of beheading, cutting lips, ears and limbs, digging graves of great sheikhs and taking the bones. They started beating any woman who wore no veil and any man who did not grow his beard.

 

Extremist Islamists do not give a cent to their parents or relatives unless they conform to their ideology. Cockroaches breed in toilets and extremists in collapsed countries.

 

A relative of mine leads a dog’s life. His wives and children were indoctrinated by Islamists in 2006. They told him he was not a good Muslim and threatened him with death.

 

One of his wives and two daughters married jihadists and his sons became fighters, hunting down their old father. Since then, he's been hiding in hotels in the areas under the control of the government and African Union forces. This is where I also hide. I cannot go to Al-Shabaab areas. They will obviously behead me.

 

Somalis were deceived by these Islamists. They supported and helped them fight the warlords but afterwards the Islamists slaughtered them like animals, stole their money and took their wives and daughters.

 

Most Somalis now regret ousting the warlords, but gone is gone. Only minority clans and two or three powerful sub-clans support Al-Shabaab and believe in the so-called jihad as a means of attacking the other clans.

 

Al-Shabaab is totally hated but the current president, who was head of the Islamic courts in 2006, has deprived civilians of their weapons. He says, “Help me fight Al-Shabaab,” but people cannot fight weapons with their fingers.

 

In January 2011, I said to myself: "You should join the military again". I saw some dignity in this new government of Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi.

 

I'm still a captain but now we are given $130 per month. There is a bit of law and order. Nowadays a military officer is saluted and his orders are followed. That is what I see.

Xigasho

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

 

Nadiifo Cabdi

 

THE KHAT-SELLER: Rescuing husbands and saving marriages

 

I started the khat business a week after the dictator's regime was toppled in 1991. That regime banned khat but permitted cigarettes and wine. Our faith does not allow for the consumption of alcohol, so very few people indulged in it. I was a housewife and my husband was a driver and life was good.

 

In 1991, hungry Somalis looted factories and banks. Khat became an open business. My husband had no government car to drive, so I tied my scarf at the waist (made more effort) and started earning our daily bread -- you see how life changed.

 

My husband became the babysitter. Women became the breadwinners of the families. Sixty percent of the women started selling khat and the rest sold jewellery, tea, milk, fuel, meat and vegetables on the streets.

 

Most of them were widowed. Men were either killing or being killed or becoming house husbands. Women from rich families also started running businesses. Hungry men with no jobs were looking for women who sold khat, milk or had a small shop to marry.

 

The period after 1991 was good for women. Women who were neglected like pet animals ruled the family. Men had to be loyal or else they were told, “Take this cash and give me a letter of divorce.” Men who looked after the children enjoyed life, chewing whatever their wives sold -- khat, meat or vegetables.

 

Unlike wine, khat is good. Any man who chews its leaves or branches becomes alert, aroused, happy and stimulated. Old women whose husbands chew khat appreciate it. They say, "My husband sees me as a young girl but to him I will look my real age if he stops chewing khat.” However, the young wives of khat-chewing men say their husbands are not active in bed.

 

I'm sure warlords were good for Somalis. Life was cheap and business was open for all. Militias bought a plane of khat, tanks of fuel, meat and vegetables daily, so there was a circulation of money. A kilo of khat was only $2 but now it's $13-$15.

 

In 2006, brutal Islamists emerged. Their main aim was to destroy society. First of all, they destroyed the warlords and their militias who were mainly driving the economy. They forced us to put on heavy veils in Somalia’s hot climate. And lastly, they banned khat.

 

People talk of six peaceful months under the Islamic courts but this is nonsense. They prevented women from working and people almost died of hunger during their rule.

 

Ethiopian troops came and drove out the cruel Islamists in December 2006. This was a joy. We never wanted the Ethiopians but Al-Shabaab forced us to love them because Al-Shabaab beheaded our people and closed our businesses.

 

Unfortunately, Al-Shabaab came back and carried out many explosions in 2007. But they did not ban khat this time. Instead they took thousands of dollars in daily tax from the K50 airstrip where planes carrying khat always landed.

 

I always sold khat in the government areas but Islamists conducted guerrilla warfare almost every day in this place and Ethiopian troops kept on fighting these Islamists. Many women died in buses and in the streets after Islamists targeted them with roadside bombs.

 

The worst moment was when a masked man hurled a grenade at us in the K5 area where hundreds of women sell khat. Five people including women and street boys died on the spot and a dozen others were injured. The masked man escaped. I could not eat food for two days.

 

I always remembered how their flesh was scattered in front of me, but we did not stop business because we did not have any other source of income.

 

The government grew weaker. Al-Shabaab took most of the country save small portions of the capital Mogadishu and most of central Somalia. There is no life in the areas under Al-Shabaab control -- women have been banned from working.

 

Today, khat from Kenya is sold in Mogadishu and central Somalia.

 

The problem with khat is that you cannot avoid fighting men. We buy khat on credit and sell on credit. What else can you do? There isn't much employment. Only a few people work for the government.

 

Most customers wait for the couple of hundred dollars their relatives in the diaspora send at the end each month. We get by by putting our jewellery down as a deposit.

 

Then you know what follows. We look for customers who hide because they are unable to clear their debts. We cling on them and drag them in the streets -- that's the only time we get money back from the relatives.

 

The good thing about Somali culture is that it's taboo for men to fight women. You drag him like a cat until his next of kin tells you, 'Just leave him and tell me how much he owes you.” You get the cash on the spot or a promise that you'll be paid after a few days.

 

What shame for the khat-eaters but life goes on like that. A woman who sells khat never shies away from collecting her profits. Those are the pros and cons of khat.

 

The problem is when the one who owes you money joins Al-Shabaab. It's happened to me. All wanted people -- murderers, thieves and those limping with debts -- join Al-Shabaab. There's no other option. You have to give up hope of being paid.

 

Big men in Nairobi who hire planes to transport khat are today millionaires. They buy buildings in Nairobi and send their children abroad.

 

For us, we are struggling with life. I sell 15-20 kilos a day and earn $40 dollars a day. I have employed a man at $150 and a woman at $200 a month. I have also employed two young street boys at $30 each a month. All these people help me sell khat, collect money and serve customers.

 

Men smoke cigarettes too much when they chew khat. They also buy flasks of tea. Women do not chew at all in Somalia. I heard about two or three women who furtively chew but I have never witnessed it.

 

When khat is banned the whole economy is destroyed because businesses and people depend on the income from khat. Five of my kids are now in secondary school. I pay their fees from khat.

 

You cannot talk about love when you come home tired at 10pm from working all day. You only have some minutes to ask the husband if he fed the children and washed them, then you throw yourself onto the bed like a log.

 

We rarely see our husbands. We struggle most of our time to generate income for food, clothes and school fee. Selling khat is a tedious task. I would do other work if we had peace and effective central government.

 

Khat-eaters are the losers. I remember men who lost their villas because of eating too much khat on credit. We never give khat on credit to someone who has no property. If he fails to pay, you auction his property.

 

I once took the car of a customer who failed to pay $2,000. I pray for my children always, so that they do not eat khat in the future.

Xigasho