where were U 1989-1992(outbreak of the war)

[Keyz 1-8-7]

I agree with Diamante. From the answers I seen, I do think ppl are taking this question rather lightly. I was just a little kid and I don't remember much. All I could remember is that our car window got shattered by a bullet and my neck ended up full with glass. I even had to endure a surgery to take the glass out and the scar is still present to this day.

[-Serenity-]

I just returned from school. For some strange reason, my mother put my brother and I in two schools. We attended a private school in the morning and a public school in the evening. But I digress. And on my way was picked up, tossed on the shoulder and hurdled home by my abti. I could hear gunshots as we paced through the houses. At home, atleast 3 other families have come from apparantly their neck of the woods where the war was full fledged. We stayed home amidst all the noice, chaos, hysteria, and fear. Finally, on the 25th day of the war, mum decided enough was enough and put the 5 of us (my abti and 3 of my siblings) on the back of a truck and thus began the most horrifying journey out of xamar into kismaayo and then Nairobi and eventually thailand where my dad was awaiting us with the heaviest of heart. . I dont wish to go into the finer details of our journey, but the worst and most vivid memory was being stopped, robbed and told we were to say our 'asha'haado' and kiss life goodbye. Of course I was too young to realize the severity of the situation and was actually munching on boiled egg with my 2yr old sister! .

 

About the humour n all. It was horrific, terrifying and most of all tragic...but whenever my mum tells this story, it does make me emotional and even chuckle - specially the egg eatin part. ah! the innocence of a whippersnapper. The tragedy is over for most of us and yes, we can cry or laugh over it, it changes nothing.

 

The misunderstanding (I think) between the peeps up there is, NGONGE's isnt poking fun at the people who lost their lives or the tragedy...but the human comedy of the situation - meaning how people reacted to it (even his nonchalant attitude, but he was a youngster and so far away, I wouldnt expect any different). So take it easy.

[Gabbal]

Such a historic time!

 

Actually the "war" had started on our house months before the day the government was officially kicked out. Months before the the real ruckus begun, our house was being shelled indiscriminately every night after the sun went down. It seems (during that time) that we were in the middle of an "unfriendly" neighborhood! The neighborhood wasn't unfriendly in general, but during that time was unfriendly toward US!

 

Our family and my uncle's family lived in a big compound divided into two houses in the Suqa Xoolaha suburb area far from the city center. So the night the president was officially being overthrown, is ka daa dad kalee ee our own former friendly neighbors were shellin and snipping at us!

 

Well anyways two of my uncles, some friends they were playing cards with, and our guards held fence until my father and another uncle brought suffient "help" to safely escort us out. Trucks were literally placed on our doorsteps so as to minimize the distance we traveled from the safety of the house to the safety of the trucks.

 

Well it's a long story, but we joined a large (when I say large, I mean LARGE :eek: ) convoy that made it out of the city and ran tail west to Gedo region.

 

What happened between the trip from Muqdisho to Gedo is a WHOLE different story..

[OG_Girl]

I was in kuwait.One day my grandpa was listenning The Radio that said Siyad Bare fled from Somalia .

 

Dawaco and Brotha I am sorry dearests , I can't lie and say I feel your pain but I can tell cause I been right here in Kuwait durring Gulf War 1991.

 

Allah yarham al jamee3.

 

Salam

[Xoogsade]

-DELITED-

[Xoogsade]

Guardian-n-Protector, Illeen Gabar yaraa eheed? How come I thought you were in the botox group fighting wrinkles? Btw, your innocence at that time is heart-wrenching. It is better not to deal with past events as current and hold on to useless memories that serve nothing. May be people like me who are neutral biologically speaking when it comes to somalis can only do that lol. I am saved from a lot of issues that might make others emotional. Thank God.

 

 

Half-W-Half-A

 

I wonder what Half_Woman_Half_Amazing stands for? The guy's picture along with the nick confused me a little. No offence intended, but I like to know the correlation between the man's picture(your avatar), the half-Womanness and the Half_Amazingness Thanks.

[Alle-ubaahne]

Unlike many of you, I was probably 13 years or somewhere there, and the war started in Mogadishu when I was sitting for the grade 7th examinations in an afternoon. The school was M.W. Ziyo in the district of Hurwaa, Muqdisho. I came to home, and suddenly realized my father having some constant meetings with some other elders, mainly freinds, anti-govt. folks, and neighbors. An hour later, I heard a major artelary gun thrown from villa Somalia, where Siyad Barre was stationed. I could very much understood the atmosphere and the political turmoil in which our country was going through. My aunt from father side suggested to flee the family to Kismayo, but my father opposed because he believed in the strenght of the Jabhad will overturn Siyaad's Govt. as time goes. In the course of two days, the Police Station in Hurwaa was stormed by some youths and armed guarrilas. Clearing Hurwaa from anyone who has a link to the government has allowed the district to become a place where people of Reer X shelter and support the struggle for toppling the govt. I was witnessing some of the worst attrocities that has led our country to where its now. I regret to undermine onething that I will never forget in my life, and that was the repeated sayings of my mother, "maandhoow waxaad qortaa dhibaatada dhaceysa, ama jaraa'idada soo baxa guriga meel fiican iigu keydi". She knew an unforgettable history was to unfold before our bare eyes. I never did anything until now, because I was so bussy and still more bussier.

 

Oh, I lost a good country, walaahi!

[GlassEyeGirl]

My friends and I were walking back from school with our dhar jaale uniform. I remember my feet were all dusty and dirty because my mom let me wear dacas that day to school. Anyhow, everyone at our xaafad were outside watching the smoke filling the sky. My mother was going crazy because my brothers didn't get home right away, we found them after and hour. Gather some clothes and went to Madina, lafoole, Kismaayo and never looked back. Alxamdullihal, I didn't loose any immediate family. But I miss home dearly..

[wind.talker]

There's her:

 

Originally posted by *Diamante*:

I can't believe some people here can talk so lightly about this. I'm seriously disturbed by this thread...As small as I was, I don't think that children should be subjected to that.

Then, there's him:

 

Originally posted by Brown-Brotha:

Wallahi am so offended by some of you homourising one of the saddest moments in mankinds history...To some of us this is a chapter of our lives that we will hope to bury it forever. Some of us have lost very dear ppl in our lives, and its quite disrespectful that some of you folks come in here and jest on it.

Finally, there's him:

 

Originally posted by Northerner:

I think the light hearted-ness in this thread is more of a reflection on our attitudes today. Even though the events back then were atrocious and badly effected the majority of somali families, the reponses to this thread show that people are ready to put the past behind them

^^ I agree with him. If we don't put the past behind us, are we supposed to cry and build museums in honor of the deceased?

 

What's sadder than our past is the people who are CURRENTLY living in a civil-war-engulfed country, Somalia. Pray for them. But the past? Its gone and I'm sure we've all lost loved ones but GEERIDU WAA XAQ..

[Valenteenah.]

God, this is pretty depressing. I think we've all been affected by the conflict to a degree, so I don't think it's quite right for some to dictate to others how they should feel about it.

 

Its been almost 17 years (the war started in '88 not '89), long enuf for most of us to attempt to put the past into perspective, altho scars can admittedly take a whole lot longer to heal.

 

Anyway, maybe its too soon to be discussing this sort of thing. Maybe we should give it another ten years.

[-Lily-]

My parents were in Germany at the time with my 2 younger sisters and brother because my dad needed to see a specialist doctor.My oldest sister and I stayed behind with our grandmother. It was all meant to be a temporary arrangement.

 

One ordinary afternoon after school, I was in year 2, my uncle comes home holding my cousin who was about 20 at the time by the arm, he was shouting and there was so much commotion. I thought he must be in a real bit of trouble if my uncle is shouting like that but I later saw his whole arm was bleeding and he was hit by a bullet. A doc came to see him and my aunt who was a nurse was tending to him. Things got really wierd during that week, there was curfew that seemed to be getting earlier every day. The only fear I felt was that when one day my aunt told me to get dhuxul (coal) from the neighbours house after curfew.I had overheard adults talking about what would happen to people who were out after that time. I ran with all my might, got the coal and ran back but on the way back only to see some soldier who told me to go home immediatley as I was about to enter our house. I 'll never forget that feeling.

 

Some time soon after this I was woken at 4 am by my aunt who gave me and my sister a shower and told us we were going on holiday to join our parents in Germany. I was complaing I didnt say bye to any of my friends. On the way to the aiport we were stopped by some soldiers who demanded to see our 'papers' but fortunately we escaped because my uncle who was driving us was of the 'right clan'.

 

And thats all I remember, luckily I have not witnessed any horror or lost immediate family members, thank GOD.

(There were funny times though like when my aunt dressed in my dad's military outfit to scare my cousin , who unfortunately ripped open the dressing on his wound to appear uninjured! Apparentlt the gov was collecting people who were part of the uprising.)

[Alle-ubaahne]

The Somali Conflict has deeply affected those who fled out of the country, and for those who remained in the country might probably have seen the affect of the war in one way or another. But I think its very important for us to refrain from the practise of tribalism, or the same pattern of vicious cycle will come to play. Thanks to Allah, I never fled as the result of the war, I departed home for the sole reason of education.

[Warrior of Light]

Its true for those who werent in Somalia it is hard to understand the effects the war had .We can only sympathise and learn from others. The most I experienced was the increase in somali people in our city and met, hosted new met relatives.

 

Well, I was at home in Dar es salaam all excited about the new birth of my baby sister our No.4.You can guess how its like the excitement. Apart from that was the usual schooling,weekend Maalim came 2 teach us quraan. Im sorry to say but dont remember more than that.

What I do remember was when we heard about the war and its effects and learnt that it was based on tribalism.We, children especially Me and my brother as we were older were warned not 2 talk about it-our ethnicity. Back then All somalis were brothers ,freinds, family even at school my pals were Somalis(there were only 3 of us). We made a secret pact among ourselves not to let the war at the motherland divide us. Alhamdullilah we finished school without a squabble.

[xiinfaniin]

Originally posted by NGONGE:

I was an adolescent youngster, inexperienced and carefree. Life was great and easy back then. I had just purchased my new Nintendo console and was eager to play the Super Mario game that all my friends were raving about. The phone rang. I ignored it. It carried on ringing and ringing. In the meantime, Super Mario was crushing all those turtles. My mother walked into the room, slapped my head and muttered something then answered the phone. I carried on playing my game. Some time went by before I sensed that something was not right with the room! My mother was not on the phone anymore!

 

I turned round and looked at her (another turtle killed Mario). She was staring at me with an angry look! She waved the phone handle on my face and said, “It’s for YOUâ€. I panicked. Who could it be?

 

I took the phone of her hands and uttered a tentative HELLO! It was my friend (Cali Matag). He heard about my new computer game and was asking if he could come over and play. I told him that he could. He said that he’d drop by in an hour’s time. I hurriedly agreed and impatiently tried to end the conversation so as to get back to my game. I said BYE. He said BYE.

 

Just as I was about to put the phone down, I heard him say, “By the way, did you hear about the war in Somalia?â€

تموت الأسد ÙÙŠ الغابات جوعا

ولحم الضأن تأكله الكلاب

 

وعبد قدينام علي حرير

وذو نسب Ù…Ùارشه التراب

 

[NGONGE]

^^^^

 

I wouldn't have used كلاب and عبد but the general message was the same.

 

I suppose I should be offended by Al Shafici’s famous words now. :rolleyes: