Koonfur Afrika - 1997

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Sixteen years ago, it was even then business as usual attacking Soomaalida in Koonfur Afrika. Read on.

 

Somalis find uneasy refuge

 

Johannesburg - ABDI Hussein (30) grabs a fistful of spaghetti and,

with great skill, swings it into his mouth. Hussein is one of the 3

000 Somali refugees who have come to South Africa since their country

erupted into civil war six years ago.

 

I meet Hussein in a hotel that is unlikely to be listed in any travel

guide. The hotel's Fordsburg address is passed from one Somali refugee

to the next. The room is full of men watching The Bold and the

Beautiful on television, sipping shah (sweet tea) and eating spaghetti

-a result of Italian influence from the days when it administered

parts of Somalia before independence in 1960.

 

A bowl of spaghetti costs the refugees R4 and it's R20 a night for a

room.

 

Signs on the wall prohibit smoking and chewing mirra - a sort of twig

that stimulates the senses. Mirra is to East African culture what

boerewors is to the Free State.

 

Hussein's home village is on Somalia's border with Kenya. He recently

completed his master's degree in History at Rhodes University and has

been accepted for a PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George

Mason University in Virginia in the United States.

 

"Africa is going to need those skills," he says.

Unfortunately, they

didn't help him last month. The evening he celebrated handing in his

thesis, he was assaulted. Somebody broke a beer bottle over his head.

He boasts a forehead full of scars. "I came very close to losing my

life," he recalls.

 

Nevertheless Hussein claims he is one of the more fortunate Somalis in

South Africa. He left the country before the war to take up a teaching

post in Swaziland and managed to raise enough funds to study. When

civil war broke out, many of his compatriots fled, leaving behind

families and qualifications to put themselves at the mercy of foreign

governments.

 

"We've crossed many borders to come here and on the way many people

contracted malaria," says refugee leader Mohammed Hirsi (41), who left

Somalia in 1992. He travelled along the coast from Tanzania to

Mozambique and then went to Swaziland. It took him two weeks to get to

South Africa. "We travelled without documents and were harassed by

officials in many countries. A lot of refugees were turned back when

they reached Tanzania. It's only the lucky few who make it," he says.

 

The Somalis in South Africa recently formed a committee to represent

their interests. Hirsi was given the social activities portfolio and

is responsible for looking after newcomers. Why did they choose South

Africa? "Because it's the most economically developed country in

Africa and offers a lot of opportunities," he says.

 

There are not many opportunities for 60- year-old Mohammed Jama, or M-J

as he is affectionately called. He clutches a walking stick to his

chest and explains that he spends most of his time going to hospital

to get treatment for his legs.

 

When fighting broke out in his village, he fled on the back of an

overloaded truck. Soldiers ambushed the truck, killing the driver. The

truck overturned. ** jumped. His legs were crushed. He was lucky,

though, because many people in the back of the truck were killed.

 

In Mayfair, about 8km from the Fordsburg hotel, is the Somali

Community Centre. Forty young men are squeezed into a small room. The

only noise that breaks the silence is the sound of lips smacking

together. Bundles and bundles of mirra are stacked in the middle of

the room.

 

The mirra, which costs R50 a bundle, was flown in from Nairobi and

arrived that afternoon at Johannesburg International Airport. "It's

not illegal," Hussein says, "they bring it in as vegetables and cover

it in dried banana skins to keep it fresh."

 

Mirra is farmed in northern Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen and, according to

Hussein, is now grown by a farmer in the East London area.

 

Hussein. who says he started chewing mirra when he was 12, peels the

bark off the twig and chews the bark strips.

 

"It's not like dagga or beer, it doesn't make you dizzy or

aggressive," he says. "It's very sociable. It helps you tell stories.

It's also a painkiller and very good for flu, because it keeps you

warm."

 

M-J and Hirsi and some other Somali elders are sitting in another room,

also chewing mirra. Hirsi explains that in Mogadishu he was a wealthy

businessman and now in South Africa he is a hawker. He says he studied

political science for four years in Cuba, before working for Somalia's

communist government. He switched to a business career in 1984. When

the Somali capital turned into a battlefield after faction fighting

erupted, Hirsi fled to South Africa.

 

"Our plight is a hellish nightmare," he says."We've come to South

Africa as asylum- seekers and we are only given temporary status.

Because of this, we cannot get help from the Red Cross or any other

non- government organisations and we struggle to find jobs."

 

The dozen Somalis gathered around the table nod in agreement. Hirsi

continues: "Some of us are hawkers, some of us are security guards and

some help out in stores. As casual labourers, we earn between R150 and

R180 a week.

 

"

I sell shoes and clothes that I buy from Chinese wholesalers. I was

chased away from hawking in Secunda because the locals there accused

me of stealing their jobs. These days I hawk in Benoni."

 

Hirsi says that most of the refugees who do not have jobs spend the

day glued to the television set and at night they chew mirra.

 

"One day while we were sitting in the house, thugs with guns came

inside. We could not defend ourselves. They stole our money and beat

us. We went to the police station, but because we only had temporary

documents we were told to go to the Department of Home Affairs. One

policeman said that whoever doesn't have a permanent document has no

rights in South Africa. We are powerless."

 

One of the reasons the Somalis congregate in Mayfair is to be near the

mosques. They have received some support from the South African Muslim

community. "We stick to ourselves. We live in one country, but we are

in a different world. You are the first white person we've had contact

with," says Hirsi.

 

According to Hirsi, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees

suggested the South African government set up camps for the Somali

refugees. "But the government rejected the whole idea. We don't have

the power to contact the big shots in government to help us. We are

refugees. We share rent and sometimes 15 people share a room. If a

newcomer comes to South Africa we help him. We don't even ask R1. We

know how tough it is to survive."

 

I get the impression that the Somali refugees are reluctant to answer

questions about the problems in Somalia. They come from many clans,

but in South Africa they only have each other to rely on, so they

stick together, rather than quarrel about politics thousands of

kilometres away.

 

Hussein believes that they will return to Somalia one day. "Yes,"

agrees Hirsi. "One day when there's peace."

Mail and Guardian (May, 1997)

[Haatu]

These madows are qurun. Scum.

[Cambuulo iyo bun]

Haatu;958919 wrote:

These madows are qurun. Scum.

This. Disgusting people the worst thing of all we helped them against apartheid :mad: :mad:

 

 

 

[Xaaji Xunjuf]

^^ You dont get it they love apartheid they love the Dutch and the Brits to return

 

[warsamaale]

I don't condone violence against my people, but they should at least know which countries their welcome. madax adkaa dadku, acuudibillaahi !

[wyre]

^^sow somali maahan, hilib geel iyo CAANO geel bey isku cuneen isku cabeen

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Reer Koonfur Afrika in la wada caayo ma fiicno. Taas waa laga fiicanyahay, qowmiyad walba dad xun iyo kuwa wanaagsanba waaku jiraan. Soomaalideena askarigii Mareykanka ahaa dhulka markaa ku jiid jiideynay, Soomaali dhan in wada caayo ma jeclaan lahayd? Waa maya. Koonfur Afrika of Nelson Mandela Soomaalida aad iyo aad u soo dhaweysay. Bilaa dalkugal ayee joogeen, aqoonsi qaxootinimana waala siiye.

 

Nelson Mandela's ANC Soomaaliya abaalkee u gishay wey ogaayeen, waana sababta ay u soo dhaweeyeen Soomaalida, where dalal badan soo dhaweynin such as Tansaaniya, Simbaabwe iyo Malaawi. Those countries Soomaalida si xun ula dhaqmaan, gaar ahaan Tansaaniya, whose prisons Soomaali badan ka buuxo, some tortured to this day. Few of us know that.

[raula]

^^^inta kale waan kugu racsanahay (except, how you somalisized countries...kulaha simbaabwe & you do this a lot MMA, like sawaaxili, waa gar daro loooooool taada )

[QansaxMeygaag]

These unfortunate things will keep happening to us till we get our affairs right. As our brothers are stoned to death in public and our sisters raped, we are busy filling the airwaves with the names of men of very inferior intellect and track records we call leaders and fighting over some shitty pieces of land called this Land or that Land. How sad; how really really sad.

[Alpha Blondy]

South Africa is for South Africans. these Somalis with their ''Jew-like shrewdness'' ought to leave immediately.

 

30,000 in 1997........7.8 birth rate per year, per somali mother.

 

30,000 x 7.8 x 16 years = 3,744,000 SOMALIENS in S.A today.

 

isnt it any wonder they're wanted OUT!

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Sadex kun iyo sodon kun xataa ma kala garto. Damiinimo saas lagu gaaray, not to mention how flawed your whole equation is.

[Alpha Blondy]

Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar;959293 wrote:

Sadex kun iyo sodon kun xataa ma kala garto. Damiinimo saas lagu gaaray, not to mention how flawed your whole equation is.

would you like a Xigasho with these stats?

 

:mad::mad::mad::mad:@Damiinimo saas lagu gaaray.

 

^ apologies now or i'll report the statement above, ma garatay? :mad::mad:

[Alpha Blondy]

Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar;959293 wrote:

Sadex kun iyo sodon kun xataa ma kala garto

. Damiinimo saas lagu gaaray, not to mention how flawed your whole equation is.

haha@MMA,

 

you're right, you know. its 3,000 not 30,000.

 

here's a correction of my earlier 'equation'.

 

3,000 in 1997........7.8 birth rate per year, per somali mother.

 

3,000 x 7.8 x 16 years = 374,400 SOMALIENS in S.A today.

 

isnt it any wonder they're wanted OUT!

 

------

 

apologies. balse 374,400 is still a large figure. :cool:

[GaraadMon]

Your math would make more sense if every Somali woman had septuplets once a year, and even then the growth would exponential rather than a case of simple multiplication

[Haatu]

raula;959093 wrote:

^^^inta kale waan kugu racsanahay (except, how you somalisized countries...kulaha simbaabwe & you do this a lot MMA, like sawaaxili, waa gar daro loooooool taada

)

Oo sidee kale baa loo qoraa? Ma ujeedid miyaa in af walba dalalka dunidda ku yaal in ey si gaar ah magacyadooda ugu dhawaaqaan? Tusaale ahaan Isbaanishku () Ingiriiska waxey u yaqaanaan Inglaterra. (I struggled to make this sense, I hope it's rightish )