Mogadishu: Whose City is it Anyway?

Several weeks ago, there was a duel on the airwaves between Sheikh Ciise Ahmed Dalabey (Chairman of Guurtida Beelaha Hawiye) and Sheikh Foad Shongolo, one of the top leaders of al-Shabab group. Mr. Dalabeey (Abgaal) started it when he gave a rousing speech before his supporters and demanded, among other things, that the Darod take their ‘man’ (then TFG Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke) from Mogadishu because the capital belonged to the Hawiye. I will summarize key points of Mr. Dalabeey’s speech, which he addressed larger and smaller clans under the 4.5 formula (Hawiye, Darod, Dir, Digil/Mirefle, and the “0.5” smaller clans) as following;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl5ayzCTo5U

On the Darod: The HARTI group, and especially the Majertein, are asked to take their ‘man’, Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, away from Mogadishu and to their land –Puntland-because Omar Abdirashid has fleeced the wealth of the nation, failed to defend the land, and remained mum about the continuing deportations of many Somalis by the administration of Puntland. It is unacceptable that Omar Abdirashid would rule the Hawiye in their own land while President Farole of Puntland is forcefully deporting Somalis.

On the Digil and Mirefle: The Digil and Mirefle, and especially the Mirefle, are asked to remove Sheikh Sharif Hassan Sheikh Ahmed from Mogadishu because this politician has been nothing but a nuisance; a figure who relishes on conflicts. He should be brought to court and asked how he had managed the treasury of the country for the year and half that he was the Finance Minister. Our request, if not implemented, will be followed by use of force.

On Dir: The Dir from the North have established their own administration in Hargeisa and the Hawiye will work with them and support them. We will welcome their support too. The Northern Dir people are better off leaving Mogadishu and joining their brethren in Somaliland. The Dir of the South, and especially the Biimaal, would get their rights. The Hawiye inhabit between Hobyo and Kismayo. In many parts of Somalia, we are the majority but there are areas we co-habit with other groups.

On 0.5: There is nothing good to say about the 0.5. These are smaller groups and those who live with us would be respected.

On TFG President: We want the president to implement Islamic courts, create a national army that is run by professional and honest Hawiye officers, and protect Hawiye port, airport, and properties. The Hawiye businessmen have been robbed and they should get their businesses back. In fact, we have all been robbed.

On Al-Shabab Group: The Al-Shabab group should cease the fighting in Hawiye land because the Hawiye know how to fight. We made you who you are; Ayro brought you from nowhere. Sheikh Hassan Dahir and Sheikh Mohamed Dheere are still around and relevant. The Hawiye had fought against Mohamed Abdille Hassan, Ali Yusuf, and Siad Barre. We would defend ourselves. You, Al-Shabab group, only know how to detonate a bomb. We would build fortresses from Mogadishu to Ceel Buur then wait and attack you. Go to Bay and Bakool where defenseless people live and takeover their land.

Fouad Shongolo who was born and raised in Mogadishu but hails from the Awrtoble lineage (Darod) responded to Dalabeey’s speech by denouncing the latter’s claim that Mogadishu belonged to the Hawiye. “Who said that this land belongs to the Hawiye,” bellowed Shongolo. Shongolo said that the Al-Shabab Group came to existence to fight against tribalism. He also urged people whose homes have been taken away from them to seek his assistance in getting their properties back.
http://miisaanka.com/article.php?articleid=2729

Given the current situation of Somalia, the issue of who does Mogadishu belongs to is a diversion to the real story; the story of a country that has become a byword for religious extremism and anarchy.

Ciise Dalabey is a new tribal chieftain in the political landscape who has embraced his role with a convert’s zeal. He is already exhibiting a mania for disputation. A friend of mine, who used to be a high official in the Somali Football Federation and who also belongs to the same sub-clan as Dalabey, chastised me for magnifying the significance of the chieftain. “He is nobody”, my friend said, “but I am sure some people are pleased with what he is saying.” I have to agree with my friend that there are some people who think that Dalabey is making sense and that, perhaps, it is better that we reexamine the tribal land delineation. Can clans claim their own territories, or are the Somalis so intertwined that dividing the land based on clan domination or numerical majority in an area becomes insignificant? Dalabey’s willingness to carve out Somalia into clannish enclaves and his bravado for calling for an open warfare deserve condemnation. His bellicose rhetoric is nothing but a paragon of hate speech. What is equally deplorable is Farole’s arbitrary deportations of many people from Puntland. I will only address the issue of Mogadishu in this particular article.

The history of Mogadishu, before the civil war, is a history of diversity and peaceful co-existence. Once upon a time, no Somali lived in Mogadishu. According to Al-Shaikh al-Imam Shihab al-Din Abi Abdalla Yaqut al-Hamawi al-Rumi al-Baghdadi’s book, Kitab Mu’jam al- Buldan, in 1286 Mogadishu had residents “whose inhabitants were all foreigners and not Black: (Cited in Hersi 1977, P. 103). These foreigners originally came from Arabia and Persia and settled there. Long before the Arabs and Persians made their way to Marka and Barawe, there were travelers such as Ibn Said (died 1286) who visited the Benadir coastline and found Marka the capital of Somali Hawiye clan. The Hawiye were a present force in Benadir in the 12th Century but they were not “the only occupants of the land” (Lulling 2002, P.16). There were other communities such as the Digil/Mirefle, the Biimaal, Bantu, and, according to Lulling, the predecessors of the Eyle, “who in modern times are scattered bands of professional hunters,” who were already settled in these areas. Cassanelli goes even further when he argues that,”The Digil appear to have been among the earliest Somalis to occupy the Benadir, probably in the first Millennium A.D (Cassanelli 1974, P. 6). But Mogadishu was different in its demographic makeup. By the time the renowned Arab traveler, Ibn Battuta, visited Mogadishu in 1331; the city was ruled by a Somali who spoke both Arabic and Somali fluently. The city’s population consisted mainly of the descendants of earlier Arab/Persian communities and whom we call today “Benadiris”. Mogadishu residents were engaged in trade and the city was bustling with merchandise from all over the world. Ibn Battuta also noted that about 200 camels were slaughtered in the city every day and that the residents consumed large quantities of food to the extent that they were corpulent. Mogadishu, to Ibn Battuta, was a prosperous and booming town compared to Zayla, in which the Moroccan traveler had earlier visited and called “the dirtiest, most abominable, and most stinking town in the world”. Zayla residents had plenty of fish and they had a habit of slaughtering camels in the streets. “When we got there [Zayla] we chose to spend the night at sea, in spite of its extreme roughness, rather than in the town, because of its filth”. But Ibn Battuta was impressed with Mogadishu and the hospitality he received as a religious scholar.

The outskirt of Mogadishu was inhabited by nomads who were Hirab or Darandolle. What made Mogadishu special and prosperous was the fact that it was not a self-sustaining town. It was a city that manifested economic interdependence as well as good neighborly existence. Somali pastoralists and the people in the inter river plains had stake in the prosperity of Mogadishu. There was a period during the Ajuran Empire in which Mogadishu was jointly run with the Mudaffar Dynasty. One Ajuran Imam was ruthless to the Darandolle nomads and would not allow them to use certain wells. There were times that the nomads were also not allowed to stay in Mogadishu after sunset. Between 1600 and 1625, the nomads rebelled against the repressive rule of one Mudaffar leader and took control of the city. An Abgal king was installed in Shingani and subsequently became the head of both the Abgal and the city (Cassanelli, 1974, P. 36). Mogadishu’s rule changed hands and by the 18th century it found itself under the joint rule of the Geledi Sultanate and the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar. It was in 1892 when the Sultan of Zanzibar leased the city to the Italians. By 1905, the Italian colonial administration had made Mogadishu the capital of Italian Somaliland.

Mogadishu went through massive transformation in the twentieth century as many people, from the north to the southern tip of the country, made it their home and achieved a degree of harmony. It became the only cosmopolitan city in Somalia that could boast of being diverse and peaceful. Every Somali administration since colonialism made Mogadishu its capital. If there was a census in the city in 1990, I am sure it would have shown a melting pot. Perhaps, to the detriment of the development of other cities, Mogadishu received more attention and aid both from foreign countries and previous governments.

Many years ago, I visited Washington D.C, which has predominantly Black residents, and I naively told an African-American cabbie of the city’s uniqueness for being a “Black city”. The cabbie looked at me with disgust and ruefully said, “Sir, Washington is not a Black city. It is an American city and the capital of all Americans”. I was hoping that Sheikh Dalabey would be a purveyor of hope rather than despair; a unifier rather than an agent of schism and belligerence. Any Somali national has the right to settle any part of Somalia without fear and recrimination. One can safely say that non-Hawiye Mogadishu residents suffered tremendously in the Civil War whether it was losing life, limb, or properties. Perhaps, the Darod and the Benadiris were specifically targeted as people and became piñatas for the Mogadishu warlords (Aidid, Ato, Ali Mahdi, Yalahow, etc). Hawiye residents, in turn, also suffered in the hands of Siad Barre’s forces, the TFG governments under Abdullahi Yusuf (remember the Ethiopian invasion) and now under Sheikh Sharif and his AMISOM backers; not mention the ruthless Al-Shabab (Shongolo, Godane, and Robow) and Hizbul Islam (Hassan Dahir Aweys). No one group in Mogadishu can claim to be sole owners of the city and only victims. After all, Mogadishu belongs to all of us and, frankly, we all have been robbed!


Reference
Cassanelli, Lee Vincent, The Benadir Past: Essays in Southern Somali History, Ph.D. thesis; University of Wisconsin, 1973.
Hersi, Ali Abdirahman, The Arab Factor in Somali History, Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1977.
Luling, Virginia, Somali Sultanate: The Geledi City-State over 150 years, Transaction Publishers, 2002.

Black Mamba Boy: A Book Review

There are three types of women; those who have little or nothing to say about their fathers; those who revile their fathers and those who lionize them. The American writer/poet Sylvia Plath made it fashionable to excoriate her father in the most corrosive terms. It did not matter that Plath’s father died when she was 8 years old. In her famous poem, “Daddy”, Plath blames her father for almost everything that had gone wrong in her brief but illustrious life; from attempting suicide at an early age, to marrying a fellow poet, Ted Hughes. In her poem, she uses a metaphor of her father as Hitler and her husband as a vampire.

If I have killed one man, I‘ve killed two__
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

Plath concludes her poem with perhaps a painful departing line; “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through”. Three months after writing her poem, Plath, who suffered from chronic depression, killed herself at age 30.

Nadifa Mohamed’s new novel, Black Mamba Boy, (London: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010) is an attempt to lionize her father and pay tribute to him. As a child, Nadifa imbibed stories of her father’s early life which, to the pedantic, might seem the saddest poetry. But to Nadifa they were intriguing tales that warranted a book. The term “Griot” is used by West Africans. It refers to someone whose task is to keep an oral history of a clan or a village and then entertain people by using such methods as storytelling, dancing, and songs. Nadifa Mohamed is unabashed about who she is to her father. “I am my father’s griot…This is a hymn to him. I am telling you this story so that I can turn my father’s blood and bones, and whatever magic his mother sewed under his skin, into history,” says the novelist. Nadifa was born in Hargeisa, in 1981 but grew up in England. Her serene and free-from-trauma life is no match to what her father had endured while growing up.

It is 1930s and eleven-year old Jama, the protagonist of the novel, lives with mother in Aden, Yemen; a British colonial outpost. Jama’s mother is a single woman who struggles to eke out a living in a poor and strange land. She is a woman of mercurial moods and you never know what to expect of her. She can be benevolent one minute and hard to get along on the other. Jama’s father has long been gone from their lives as he is rumored to be somewhere in Sudan. Young Jama lacks a sense of purpose and dawdles in the streets of Aden doing nothing. But this early experience in the rough streets of Yemen would later become crucial as he copes with a life rich with irony. His mother suddenly passes away and Jama is left with a meager 100 Rupees. An aunt brings him to Hargeisa, Somaliland, to live with his grandfather. But there is no grandfather in sight and he finds difficulty dealing with his female relatives. In Hargeisa, jama’s father looms imposingly over his life and the lad has a pathological drive to look for him. It becomes a veritable obsession to find his father and Jama leaves Somaliland to undertake a 1000-mile journey by foot, camel, train, and boat that takes him to Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Palestine, and Europe.

Jama’s odyssey is mired in difficulty and often warfare. He vacillates from crisis to crisis but he also utilizes a string of clan connections as well as the benevolence of strangers. Jama’s hazardous journey is all too familiar to today’s Somali immigrants who had encountered an array of hurdles, hunger, diseases, imprisonment (or to put it mildly, detention); a cascade of abuse, poverty, menial jobs, and at times, a mood of utter despondence. Jama’s survival skills and his magnificence of spirit save the day. In his journey, Jama meets a woman in Sudan, falls in love with her, and finds that he is unable to cease traveling. Jama, after making safely to London, gets news from his wife and faces the most jarring question in his life.

Nadifa Mohamed’s novel can be summarized as a novel about fatherhood and all that it entails. It is a celebration of fatherhood; the longing for a father, a search for a father, and the profound question of whether a man wants to be an active father or merely a generous sperm donor. Nadifa is a good writer who infuses fact and fiction. Her lacerating wit makes you howl with laughter. There are, at times, tedious historical details in the novel and some phrases that are left not translated to the benefit of non-Somali readers. But overall the novel is an interesting read. I can see Nadifa saying to her father, with an apology to Sylvia Plath, “Daddy, daddy, I am proud of you.” I have heard rumors of Nadifa Mohamed’s exciting novel. For once, the gossips are right.