From: HRW
Mohamed, a 22-year old Somali, was in Saudi Arabia and made a living
washing cars. In late 2013, due to increasing government pressure on
employers of undocumented workers, Mohammed was fired. In December,
after several weeks without a job, he handed himself over to the police.
He spent the next 57 days detained in appalling conditions. “In the
first detention center in Riyadh, there was so little food, we fought
over it,” he said. “So the strongest ate the most. Guards told us to
face the wall and then beat our backs with metal rods. In the second
place, there were two toilets for 1,200 people, including dozens of
children.” Mohamed is now in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. He is one of
more than 25,000 Somalis, including hundreds of women and children,
rounded up by the Saudi authorities and expelled back to their war-torn
home country since the last month of 2013.
The rash of deportations has continued in early 2014, with hundreds
forced to leave each week in February and March to date. And the Saudis
are expected to expel thousands more. These moves are part of a campaign
by Saudi labor authorities and security services to arrest and deport
undocumented migrants from several countries, a process that the
government contends will open private-sector employment opportunities to
Saudi Arabian citizens.
Nine recent deportees who were interviewed by Human Rights Watch
researchers in Mogadishu in early February described conditions in Saudi
detention similar to those experienced by Mohamed. They spoke of severe
overcrowding, little air or daylight, poor sanitary facilities,
sweltering heat in some cases and cold in others, and limited access to
medical assistance. Some said they had developed chronic health
problems, including persistent coughing, as a result of their time in
custody. Children are sometimes detained with their relatives but some
have also been separated from their parents or caregivers.
Saladu, a 35-year old mother of two, was detained for nine days with
her two children, ages 7 and 9, and her sister’s three children in Jidda
before deportation. “The room we stayed in with 150 other women and
children was extremely hot and there was no air conditioning,” she said.
“The children were sick. My son was vomiting and his stomach was very
bloated. There were no mattresses. People just slept on the floor.”
Most of the recent deportees described inadequate food of poor quality
in detention. Several said people in the cells fought over space as well
as food. “There were a lot of people in the room, some little
children,” said Raiza, 45, detained for three months with her daughter,
who suffers from mental health problems. “You would have to fight to get
your space.”
Others said they were subjected to beatings and other abusive treatment
during the deportation procedures. Sadiyo said she was in the ninth
month of her pregnancy and was standing in line at the Jidda airport
when a Saudi policewoman beat her with a baton on her back. She went
into labor and gave birth on the cabin floor of the plane as it flew to
Mogadishu.
Given the number of people being deported and the gravity of the
situation in Somalia, Saudi Arabia may be violating its obligation under
international law not to send anyone back to a place where their life
or freedom would be threatened or where they would face persecution,
torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment. Mohamed, for example, left
Baidoa in south-central Somalia in 2008, fleeing conflict and economic
stagnation. The reasons for his flight remain unchanged: fighting
persists in many parts of south-central Somalia, government control is
severely limited, and the armed Islamist group, al-Shabaab, controls
large sections of the territory.
Mass Expulsions
Somalis in Saudi Arabia are part of one of the largest migrant labor
populations in the world. At least 7.5 million migrant foreign
workers—more than half the work force—fill the country’s manual,
clerical and service jobs.
Since 2011, increasingly conscious of unemployment among the
native-born population, Saudi officials have had a quota system for
foreigners in the private sector. In April 2013, Saudi police and labor
officials opened the nationwide campaign to arrest and expel
undocumented workers, including workers without valid residency or work
permits, or workers caught working for an employer other than their
legal sponsor. As part of the campaign, police raided office buildings
and set up checkpoints on main roads. Following an outcry from
businessmen and foreign missions, King ‘Abdallah suspended the expulsion
campaign. He announced a “grace period” for workers to correct their
status or leave the country, which he extended on July 2 for another
three months.
On November 4, Saudi authorities resumed raids and mass arrests,
detaining at least 20,000 workers in the first two days alone, according
to the Jidda-based Saudi Gazette. Several Somali deportees
said they had handed themselves over to the police, fearing that they
would be beaten up if they did not.
The government effort also precipitated several attacks on undocumented
workers. The most violent assaults occurred on the evening of November 9
in areas around the Manfouha neighborhood of southern Riyadh, which
hosts a large Ethiopian population.
Two Ethiopian migrant workers told Human Rights Watch they saw a group
of people armed with sticks, swords, machetes and firearms, apparently
Saudi Arabian citizens, set upon foreign workers that night. “On the
first night it was both the police and shabab [“young men” in
Arabic] who were attacking and beating Ethiopians. When we went out of
our homes to protect them, the police were there, but they didn’t let us
to do anything,” one worker said. He also said he saw a large circle of
Ethiopians crying around several dead and wounded migrants. Another
migrant from Manfouha said that a group of 20 men with machetes and
pistols broke down the door of a house in which he had taken refuge and
attacked the people inside.
The Saudi Interior Ministry announced on January 21 that it had
deported more than 250,000 people since November, including workers from
Somalia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, the Philippines, Nepal, Pakistan
and Yemen.[1]
Undocumented Workers
It is easy for foreigners to end up undocumented in Saudi Arabia. Human
Rights Watch research indicates that Saudi Arabia’s labor system fuels
exploitation and abuse and ultimately drives many foreign workers to
seek under-the-table work in violation of labor laws.[2]
“Ra’id,” a 24-year old Yemeni worker, told Human Rights Watch that he
entered Saudi Arabia legally after receiving a visa to work for a cargo
company. After he arrived, he said, he could not find his sponsor and
had to take up off-the-books work at a gas station. He finally located
his sponsor, who demanded 4,000 Saudi riyals ($1,066) for a residency
and work permit, telling “Ra’id” that the cargo company was a legal
fiction. After “Ra’id” paid the money, he said, the Saudi Arabian
sponsor failed to provide him with a residency card, and threatened to
report him to authorities if he called back. “Ra‘id” eventually decided
to leave, paying another 4,000 riyals for an exit visa. “I waited ten
months with no residency,” he said. “I feel so depressed. This is no
life.”
Under the kafala (sponsorship) system, an employer assumes
responsibility for a hired migrant worker and must grant him or her
explicit permission before the worker can enter Saudi Arabia, transfer
employment or leave the country. An employer is also responsible for
keeping workers’ work and residency permits up to date. If the employer
fails to take these measures, the worker pays the price.
Employers often abuse this power over workers, in violation of Saudi
law. Employers confiscate passports, withhold wages and force migrants
to work against their will or on exploitative terms. Over the past ten
years, Human Rights Watch has documented numerous cases in which workers
were unable to escape from abusive conditions or even to return home
after their contracts ended because their employer denied them
permission to leave the country.[3]
It appears that many workers, unwilling to remain in an abusive
situation, choose to violate labor laws by seeking work under better
terms with another employer. Others are simply stuck in Saudi Arabia,
unable to leave due to exit visa requirements, as they work to sustain
themselves and their families back home.
Rampant corruption within the kafala system makes the
situation worse. Thousands of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia work
illegally under the “free visa” arrangement, in which Saudi Arabians
posing as sponsoring employers import workers to staff businesses that
do not exist, as in the case of “Ra’id.” Workers who enter Saudi Arabia
under this scheme work from the beginning outside the regulatory system
for companies that are happy to avoid official scrutiny while the worker
pays regular “fees” to the free-visa “sponsor” to renew residency and
work permits.Authorities consider these workers as undocumented, and
they therefore have no ability to seek redress for abuses they
suffer.Migrants caught working under this scheme are subject to arrest
and deportation. It is unknown whether authorities have prosecuted any
Saudi Arabians posing as employers for visa corruption, but in December
Labor Minister ‘Adil Faqih announced that those who hire foreign workers
but do not provide a job will face prosecution and be classified as
“human traffickers.”[4]
Ongoing Violence in Somalia
The plight of Somalis being deported from Saudi Arabia is particularly
alarming given the situation on the ground in Somalia, especially the
fighting in many south-central parts of the country, where al-Shabaab
continues to control much of the territory. A new offensive by African
Union forces against al-Shabaab is underway. Many civilians in those
areas remain in dire need and the UN has raised concerns that renewed
fighting could hamper access of humanitarian relief workers to combat
zones.
In Mogadishu, hundreds of thousands of people live in grim conditions
in camps for internally displaced people. Abuses in these camps are
rampant.[5]
Members of state security forces and armed groups have raped, beaten
and otherwise maltreated displaced Somalis, particularly since an influx
of people into the capital during the 2011 famine.
In January 2013 the Somali government announced plans to relocate tens
of thousands of displaced people in Mogadishu to better accommodations.
These plans stalled primarily due to the government’s inability to
provide basic protection in the planned relocation sites. The abuses
persist. A February Human Rights Watch report documents high levels of
rape and sexual abuse against women and girls in Mogadishu in 2013,
particularly among displaced women who are attacked inside and near
camps for displaced people.[6]
Al-Shabaab carries out bombings and other attacks in Mogadishu. On
February 13, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the car bombing that
day outside Mogadishu’s airport, apparently targeting a UN convoy, that
killed at least six people, including two civilians recently deported
from Saudi Arabia. Such attacks either directly targeting civilians or
killing civilians are not unusual, but are often overlooked by the
international media unless the casualty figures are particularly large,
like an April 2013 bombing of a Mogadishu courthouse that killed more
than 30 people, or aimed at foreign targets, like the June 2013 attack
that devastated the UN compound.
In areas under its control, al-Shabaab commits serious abuses against
civilians, including forced recruitment of children and attacks on
people perceived to support the Somali government.[7] On March 5, al-Shabaab publicly executed three alleged spies in Barawe, one of the group’s strongholds.
Many of those being deported from Jidda are not from Mogadishu but from
other parts of south-central Somalia.Twenty-six-year-old Salad, for
example, was deported from Jidda to Mogadishu in mid-January. Originally
from Bakool, a region that is still largely under al-Shabaab control,
he spent his first night sleeping on the streets in the capital.
The risks to people sent to Mogadishu without a local support network
and lacking the survival skills needed in today’s Somalia are very
real.In November, Said, a 26-year old who was sent back by the
Netherlands, was injured in an attack on a hotel in central Mogadishu
days after his return. Said, who was born in the embattled city of
Kismayo, in southern Somalia, had tried unsuccessfully to seek asylum.
He had not set foot in Somalia for two decades and had never been to
Mogadishu.
Legal Standards
Saudi Arabia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not
have an asylum system. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),
which has a small office in Riyadh, is not allowed by the Saudi
government to receive or review refugee claims, a process known as
“refugee status determination.” The Saudi authorities have no other
formal procedures allowing Somalis or others who fear persecution or
other harm in their home countries to seek protection in Saudi Arabia.
No country, Saudi Arabia included, is permitted to round up tens of
thousands of people and expel them to a country wracked by violence
without giving them the opportunity to seek protection. Customary
international law prohibits refoulement, the return of anyone
to a place where their life or freedom would be threatened or where they
would face persecution, torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment.The
protection from refoulement is not weakened in any way if
persons left their home country for economic or other reasons besides
war. On January 17, UNHCR issued guidelines on returns to Somalia,
stating in particular that “south-central Somalia is a very dangerous
place.” The international body called on countries not to return anyone
to Somalia before interviewing them and ensuring that they face no
threat of persecution or other serious harm if returned. Both UNHCR and
the International Organization for Migration say that Saudi Arabia made
no such determination before sending the Somalis back. UNHCR itself does
not have access to detainees prior to deportation.
At a minimum, Saudi Arabia should immediately introduce procedures
allowing refugees, including those from Somalia, to seek asylum or other
forms of protection. If Saudi Arabia identifies anyone at risk of harm
in Somalia, the authorities should give these Somalis secure legal
status and should work closely with UNHCR, if needed. Children should
not be detained because of their immigration status, and unaccompanied
children—those traveling alone without caregivers—shouldnot be held with
unrelated adults.
It would not take much for the Saudi authorities to ensure that people
from countries in the midst of conflicts do not bear the brunt of
restrictive policies toward foreigners. As Salad, the young man from
Bakool, eloquently put it: “Even though we are a country still in
conflict, we still deserve to be treated humanely.”
Friday, March 21, 2014
The unholy coalition of Christian Neocons and secessionists in Northern Somalia
Somalia's continued political instability has for years provided resources and space for secessionists to pursue their agenda almost completely unhindered. Indeed the lack of peace and governance country wide has affected Somalia's sovereignty in more ways than one. For the Somali federal government, this loss of independence affects their ability to project power into Northern Somalia.
With secessionists taking advantage of the weak central authority, the encroachment on Somali territory continues with little to no resistance. It was just a week ago when secessionist officials provokingly went to Lasqooray, a port city in the Sanaag province that has so far been spared the violence and oppression much of Sanaag's unionists live under today. This provocative and dangerous expansionist policy employed by "Somaliland" is being aided and supported by some lobbyists in the United states. One such lobbyist is J. Peter Pham.
So who is this Mr. Pham? The Strategic studies institute has a comprehensive profile of Mr. Pham which reads as follows:
Dr. J. Peter Pham is Director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC. Previously, he was tenured Associate Professor of Justice Studies, Political Science, and African Studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, where he directed the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. He has also regularly lectured at the Foreign Service Institute, the Joint Special Operations University, the Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management, and other U.S. Government professional education institutions. Dr. Pham has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions and conducted briefings or consulted for U.S. and foreign governments as well as private firms. In May 2008, at the invitation of General William Ward, he gave the keynote address at the first Senior Leaders Conference of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) in Mainz, Germany, and subsequently served on AFRICOM’s Senior Advisory Group. Dr. Pham is the incumbent Vice President of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), an academic organization chaired by Professor Bernard Lewis representing over 1,300 scholars of Middle Eastern and African Studies at more than 300 colleges and universities in the United States and overseas. He regularly appears in numerous national and international media outlets. Dr. Pham is also Editor in Chief of ASMEA’s flagship Journal of the Middle East and Africa. A specialist on U.S. foreign and defense policy, African politics and security, and terrorism and political violence, Dr. Pham is the author of over 300 essays and reviews and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books—most recently, Somalia: Fixing Africa’s Most Failed State, co-authored with Greg Mills and David Kilcullen.
Mr. Pham's long resume can simply be summarized as someone who has a keen interest in what goes on in Africa. His interference in Somalia goes several years back and he is even frequently quoted by various prestigious news outlets on anything concerning the country. It is safe to say that he has convinced many in the international arena of being the "go to" guy when it comes to the far away country of Somalia.
Mr. Pham has a consistent track record of what can only be described as attempts to strip legitimacy of any government in Somalia and either promote the status quo, or strategies that will ultimately lead to further deterioration in Somalia. Indeed he has consistently argued for the dismantling of Somalia, which you can read here and here , and the downgrading of relations between the US government and Somalia's federal government which you can also read here.
Mr. Pham has among other things compiled and actively promoted a document titled "African game changer?",detailing how to recognize "Somaliland" and permanently divide Somalia. The document explicitly argues for forcibly re altering Somalia's borders with the financial assistance of European countries as well as the political from regional African countries. According to Ali H. Abdulla, someone that has researched and written about Mr. Phams "African game changer" project.
Mr. Pham and his colleagues believed the
recognition of "Somaliland" would "kill" the Greater Somalia project by
arguing that:
" Recognition would also ensure that the ambition of a ‘five-star’ Somali nation incorporating Djibouti, Somaliland, Ethiopia’s Region Five, and the north-east of Kenya along with south-central Somalia would be even less likely. This is, of course, especially in the interests of Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti "
Although this has not been taken seriously by most foreign officials nor international policy makers, it certainly has a very receptive audience in the horn of Africa.
It is not often mentioned that J. Peter Pham is a former priest from the Catholic Diocese of Peoria in Illinois and has written several papers for religious institutes. The fact that he went from being a dedicated priest two decades ago, to a lobbyist today is very strange and peculiar. Mr. Pham is also a senior fellow at the "foundation for the defense of democracies", which source watch describes as a "neoconservative think tank and lobbying organization that claims to conduct research and education on international terrorism". Upon a closer look you will notice that the think tank on its leadership council includes well known Zionists such as Louis J. Freeh, Newt Gingrich, Bill Kristol, and Joseph Lieberman.
While it seems that religious fundamentalism shapes the worldview of Mr. Pham. That does not necessarily mean that Peter Pham is consistent nor transparent. Indeed while Mr. Pham advocates for dissolving Somalia, he is equally lobbying against the same for Morocco. Mr. Pham has feverishly been against the independence of west Sahara and has written extensively on why the west Saharan's don't deserve freedom, which can be read here, here and here. Not only does this show the hypocrisy of Mr. Pham, but also the neocolonialist attitude that guides his actions. Men like Mr. Pham see Africa and the third world in general as their playground. Independence and sovereignty only matters when it benefits them.
Another aspect of the work Mr. Pham is carrying out, is the financial aspect. As a lobbyist, Mr. Pham is most likely receiving payment for his articles on Somalia from the "Somaliland" political leadership. Unfortunately i have not been able to find any source that discloses this amount publicly. But any financial transaction to Mr. Pham, is most likely coming out of local revenues in Northern Somalia. Specifically tax revenue from the Berbera port, Hargeisa airport and whatever local Somali businesses pay. Such irresponsible and non transparent use of public funds lends credence to the recent allegations of pervasive corruption.
In the end, we come back to the sad fact that Somalia has many detractors, and while this arises from the fact that Somalia is experiencing instability and war, we much unite as Somalis to condemn whatever foreign interests that try to use Somalia's instability for their nefarious agenda. To this end, i really see no difference between Al Shabaab and men like Mr. Pham. Both sides are foreigners and both of them are ultimately fighting Somalia's sovereignty and independence.
27-year jail sentence for Somali journalist in Ethiopia a "travesty of justice"
From: Ifex
The African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a continental body of
African free expression organisations, condemns in the strongest terms
the 27-year sentence imposed on veteran Somali journalist, Mohamed Aweys
Mudey, aged 48, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Ethiopian prosecutors accused Mudey of having information about Al-Shabaab operations in Ethiopia and charged him with participating in terror activities. Mudey, who was persecuted under Ethiopia's anti-terror law, was arrested in Addis Ababa in November 2013. In February this year, when the 4-month period prescribed by anti-terror law to investigate a suspect elapsed, he was found guilty of the charges and given this harsh sentence.
At least three people detained with Mudey at Ethiopia's Crimes Investigations Sector (CIS) witnessed him being tortured and having difficulty walking. Demands were repeatedly made of him to provide information he does not know. He did not have a lawyer or family member with him during his trial and was later moved to a secret place dedicated for people accused of “terrorism” to serve his jail term.
AFEX calls the harsh sentence against Mohamed Aweys Mudey a travesty of justice, and notes with worry how the Ethiopian media environment has recently been characterized by arrests and prosecution of journalists. Mudey's conviction is clearly a mockery of justice and an evidence of Ethiopia's move towards complete disregard for fundamental human rights.
Ethiopia's anti-terrorism law, under which a number of journalists were prosecuted in recent years, is overly broad and ambiguous; and deprives suspects of the right to be presumed innocent. The law undermines international guarantees of freedom of expression, especially through its broad definition of “terrorism”. In its enforcement of the law, the government of Ethiopia's actions have fallen far short of international standards and protocols, including the Vienna Declaration on Terrorism, Media and the Law.
AFEX thus appeals for the immediate and unconditional release of Mohamed Aweys Mudey, and calls on for the rescinding of Ethiopia's anti-terrorism law, which violates African and international laws. Detaining journalists as if they are terrorists is the hallmark of authoritarian regimes and deserves to be condemned by all.
Mindful that Ethiopian journalists are still detained in Ethiopia and were persecuted under the anti-terror law, AFEX reiterates its call for the immediate release of all journalists currently imprisoned in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia currently detains Reyot Alemu of Fitih newspaper; Woubeshet Taye of Awramba Times; Shiferraw Insermu of Ethiopian Television (ETV); Saleh Idris Gama and Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi of Eritrean TV; and Eskinder Nega, a freelance journalist.
Background
Mohamed Aweys Mudey fled to Ethiopia for safety reasons after he was wounded in an Al-Shabaab suicide bombing at Shamo Hotel in Mogadishu on December, 3, 2009. The bombing killed at least 25 people, including three journalists. Mudey was among some 100 Somalis arrested in November 2013 under the suspicion of a terror attack in Addis Ababa.
Mudey had worked with several media organisations, providing news reports on Somalia-related events and issues.
Mudey had also previously worked for numerous media houses in Mogadishu, namely Radio Shabelle, Somaliweyn Radio and Radio Banadir.
Ethiopian prosecutors accused Mudey of having information about Al-Shabaab operations in Ethiopia and charged him with participating in terror activities. Mudey, who was persecuted under Ethiopia's anti-terror law, was arrested in Addis Ababa in November 2013. In February this year, when the 4-month period prescribed by anti-terror law to investigate a suspect elapsed, he was found guilty of the charges and given this harsh sentence.
At least three people detained with Mudey at Ethiopia's Crimes Investigations Sector (CIS) witnessed him being tortured and having difficulty walking. Demands were repeatedly made of him to provide information he does not know. He did not have a lawyer or family member with him during his trial and was later moved to a secret place dedicated for people accused of “terrorism” to serve his jail term.
AFEX calls the harsh sentence against Mohamed Aweys Mudey a travesty of justice, and notes with worry how the Ethiopian media environment has recently been characterized by arrests and prosecution of journalists. Mudey's conviction is clearly a mockery of justice and an evidence of Ethiopia's move towards complete disregard for fundamental human rights.
Ethiopia's anti-terrorism law, under which a number of journalists were prosecuted in recent years, is overly broad and ambiguous; and deprives suspects of the right to be presumed innocent. The law undermines international guarantees of freedom of expression, especially through its broad definition of “terrorism”. In its enforcement of the law, the government of Ethiopia's actions have fallen far short of international standards and protocols, including the Vienna Declaration on Terrorism, Media and the Law.
AFEX thus appeals for the immediate and unconditional release of Mohamed Aweys Mudey, and calls on for the rescinding of Ethiopia's anti-terrorism law, which violates African and international laws. Detaining journalists as if they are terrorists is the hallmark of authoritarian regimes and deserves to be condemned by all.
Mindful that Ethiopian journalists are still detained in Ethiopia and were persecuted under the anti-terror law, AFEX reiterates its call for the immediate release of all journalists currently imprisoned in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia currently detains Reyot Alemu of Fitih newspaper; Woubeshet Taye of Awramba Times; Shiferraw Insermu of Ethiopian Television (ETV); Saleh Idris Gama and Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi of Eritrean TV; and Eskinder Nega, a freelance journalist.
Background
Mohamed Aweys Mudey fled to Ethiopia for safety reasons after he was wounded in an Al-Shabaab suicide bombing at Shamo Hotel in Mogadishu on December, 3, 2009. The bombing killed at least 25 people, including three journalists. Mudey was among some 100 Somalis arrested in November 2013 under the suspicion of a terror attack in Addis Ababa.
Mudey had worked with several media organisations, providing news reports on Somalia-related events and issues.
Mudey had also previously worked for numerous media houses in Mogadishu, namely Radio Shabelle, Somaliweyn Radio and Radio Banadir.
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Somali literature: Old patterns and new perspectives
From: alimoussaiye
The
particular richness of Somali oral literature, and especially Somali
poetry is widely known and relatively well documented. One of the first
foreigners who noticed this particularity is the famous British
traveler, Sir Richard Burton who made this fine observation in his book
First Footsteps in East Africa: “the country teems with poets,
poetasters, poetitos, poeticcios. Every man had his recognized position
in literature as accurately defined as though he had been reviewed by
century of magazines – the fine ear of his people causing them to take
the greatest pleasure in harmonious sounds and political expressions,
whereas a false quantity or a prosaic phrase excite their violet
indignation”
However, the legitimate respect that Somalis pay to their rich poetry has led them to mystify it as the most noble mode of expression and to idealize its principal source of inspiration: the pastoral life and nomadic environment. This glorification has not only produced poetic stereotypes that encourage conformism and elitist pedantry; it has also developed a recurrent nostalgia for the good old days, the so-called “barisamaad”, the lost era of innocence, purity and correctness. The disenchantment and frustrations that followed the independence and the horrible legacy of civil war have reinforced this reference to this “lost paradise”.
The ghetto of orality and the ghost of writing
This nostalgic relationship with poetry has had serious effects on Somali literature and cultural behaviors at large. It endangers the process of cultural transmission by widening the gap between the young urbanized generation - for whom this highly praised poetry is often beyond their own capacities of understanding - and the “memory generation” – who is imprisoned by the symbolic imaginary of oral tradition. For many Somalis, the exclusive attachment to poetry has become a sort of psychological shelter from the insecure modern world, which is governed by written references. On the one hand, it leaves many of the older generation in a ghetto of orality that contributes to their social marginalization in modern societies. On the other, the younger generation has been barred from their cultural roots.
These communication technologies could even help fill the gap between
written and oral literature. The possibility of simultaneously using the
written and spoke word permits to communicate with different
audiences. For instance, poets could create Web Poetic Chains to renew
the old tradition of Poetic Chains (silsilad) and address the burning
issues of their societies. Internet which has replaced the other means
of communication permits to reach public throughout the world without
any the control and censorship of State or other power. Writers could
explore new written literary genres such as the web novel, web serials
or stories that will allow sharing their writings and overcoming the
constraints of publishing. Free Cyber publishing houses and libraries
could mushroom and thereby helping unknown writers to disseminate their
work.
I am convinced that, if appropriately used, the Internet could contribute to the emergence of literary movement similar to the one facilitated by Radio in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Somali- speaking countries of the Horn of Africa. With one additional asset : a wider space of freedom of expression, beyond the control and censorship of any government.
Ali Moussa Iye
The
particular richness of Somali oral literature, and especially Somali
poetry is widely known and relatively well documented. One of the first
foreigners who noticed this particularity is the famous British
traveler, Sir Richard Burton who made this fine observation in his book
First Footsteps in East Africa: “the country teems with poets,
poetasters, poetitos, poeticcios. Every man had his recognized position
in literature as accurately defined as though he had been reviewed by
century of magazines – the fine ear of his people causing them to take
the greatest pleasure in harmonious sounds and political expressions,
whereas a false quantity or a prosaic phrase excite their violet
indignation”However, the legitimate respect that Somalis pay to their rich poetry has led them to mystify it as the most noble mode of expression and to idealize its principal source of inspiration: the pastoral life and nomadic environment. This glorification has not only produced poetic stereotypes that encourage conformism and elitist pedantry; it has also developed a recurrent nostalgia for the good old days, the so-called “barisamaad”, the lost era of innocence, purity and correctness. The disenchantment and frustrations that followed the independence and the horrible legacy of civil war have reinforced this reference to this “lost paradise”.
The ghetto of orality and the ghost of writing
This nostalgic relationship with poetry has had serious effects on Somali literature and cultural behaviors at large. It endangers the process of cultural transmission by widening the gap between the young urbanized generation - for whom this highly praised poetry is often beyond their own capacities of understanding - and the “memory generation” – who is imprisoned by the symbolic imaginary of oral tradition. For many Somalis, the exclusive attachment to poetry has become a sort of psychological shelter from the insecure modern world, which is governed by written references. On the one hand, it leaves many of the older generation in a ghetto of orality that contributes to their social marginalization in modern societies. On the other, the younger generation has been barred from their cultural roots.
As a result, this nostalgic relationship jeopardizes both collective and
individual efforts to develop a critical approach to Somali literature,
which could facilitate its renewal while addressing the needs and
challenges of a post-pastoral and nomadic society. Finally, this
relationship affects the way literate Somalis perceive and handle
written materials in their everyday life. Although Somalis are known for
absorbing modernity quite rapidly due to their spatial and social
mobility, they show a peculiar conservatism towards writing. Even the
precocious use by Somalis of the new technologies of communication such
as the Internet, has not yet diminished their resistance to communicate
their views or emotions in writing.
Of course, Somalis neither like to read, nor do they appreciate those who dare spend more time with books than in the company of other Somalis. Popular Somali culture tends to marginalize individuals who are devoted to reading and writing. There is an exception and that concerns the “wadads”, the religious men, who are supposed to reveal the secrets of the Holy Book, the Quran. The other readers and writers of profane literature are subject to fierce criticism. The overestimated self-confidence of Somalis pushes them to say their word about everything, even about writings that they have not read at all. It is not rare to hear an illiterate Somali making the exegesis of a book without any restrain
My own experience illustrates some common misunderstandings between authors and readers in Somali context. In one of my books, in which I have attempted to revisit some Somali oral legends about the genealogy of tribes, I questioned certain beliefs in order to show that they do not correspond to the historical reality of the tribal formation. I queried certain mythological claims regarding the genealogical affiliation and unity within Issa tribal family. When the book was published in Djibouti, it provoked some members of the concerned groups to accuse me of offending their memory, of casting doubt on their origins and of denying them blood affiliation with their kinship. I thus learned at my cost that nobody, not even scholars, could question in writing the founding myths of the Somalis with impunity. I understood that I was accused of not so the interpretation of an important legend - but of attempting to enshrine my view in a book forever. In other word, I was accused of being unfair to my oral culture, by challenging in writing a legend and transforming my heretic opinion into “written-like-Quran” truth.
The transcription of Somali language into the Latin alphabet and its instrumentalisation by the late regime of Syad Barre, did not help Somalis reconcile themselves with writing. On the contrary, the State propaganda that presented the transcription of Somali language as an incontestable achievement of the “October Revolution”, has developed an ambivalent attitude, which made the necessary transition from oral tradition to the modern culture of writing even more complicated to Somalis.
It has been taken for granted that the mere fact of being literate is sufficient to access the promises of writing. Alas, the passage appears to be much more challenging than expected. Writing is not simply the transcription of words and memories, of images and ideas; it suggests a different way of thinking and organising thought, a different method of analysing reality and of transmitting knowledge. It involves the development of other intellectual, emotional and communicational skills. In other words, there are psychological and cultural constraints that peoples of oral tradition have to overcome in order to become integrated into the “world of writing ”.
Therefore, Somali peoples seem to be caught in a kind of “literary no man’s land” between the mirage of the sweet mother language and the frightening promises of the foreign territory of writing.
These boundaries run across all of Somali literature . Even the experts of Somali culture divide themselves along this line and they introduce an artificial dichotomy between oral literature and written literature, which has led them to separate specializations. Scholars generally divide themselves in two different camps, according to the type of literature considered. Oral literature often attracts foreign anthropologists, linguists and historians willing to capture the “essence” of Somali culture, in line with the primordialist approach inherited from the colonial ethnology. Those who are interested in Somali written literature are mostly literary critics, journalists or writers whose principal motivation is to understand how Somali authors express the turmoil of their society.
The Somali scholars themselves are divided in two groups with different approaches in terms of goals, methodology and expected results. The orality is generally the business of traditionalists or oral eulogists, who are not very familiar with written materials. They mainly seek to perpetuate the nostalgic view and to mystify the uniqueness of Somali oral tradition, without assessing critically the condition and process of its production. Written literature is reserved for the “modern intellectual elite” interested in demonstrating how Somali writers deal with the influence of oral literature, without placing Somali written literature in the context of other contemporary literacy movements.
It is interesting to notice the different meanings that Somali give to the term of “author” in their language. The concept of “abwaan” is used to designate the author of an oral piece, such as poems, theatre, and songs. By extension, the term also refers to the ideas of wisdom and leadership. The “abwaan” is synonymous of a visionary, of a philosopher, in accordance with the antique meaning of “the man of knowledge”. For the author of written materials, Somalis have the more simplistic term of “goraa”, which means “the one who writes”. This example illustrates the ethical and political distinction that Somalis make between those who generate oral wisdom and those who just produce writings materials. In the past few decades new approaches have emerged that attempt to analyze Somali literature as a whole, in its globality to understand the sociological, socio-cultural, political and psychological process of Somali literary production throughout history.
It is, nevertheless, useful to recall that the relation of Somali peoples with writing has not always been the same throughout their history. Contrarily to common belief, Somalis seem to have been more familiar with the writing culture in their pre-colonial past, than they are now. Firstly, Somali are descendants of populations who were closely linked with the ancient Egyptian civilization that invented different kind writings as demonstrated by Cheikh Antha DIOP and his followers. Furthermore, Somalis, like other peoples of the Horn of Africa, live by the Red Sea, a location generally considered as the cradle of the three “Religions of the Book”: Judaism, Christianity and Islam which were introduced in this region from the very outset and influenced the culture of the peoples of the Horn.
During the rise of prosperous Islamic City States on the coast of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, important universities and centres of knowledge flourished in places like Zeila, Mogadishio and Merca. Peoples of Somali origin lived in these cities and it is highly probable that their elites had access to this writing culture.
The nostalgic relationship with orality and their current ambiguous attitude towards writing are symptomatic consequences of the identity crisis that Somali people have faced since their forced integration into modern world, as imposed by Western hegemony. Like many other pastoral peoples, Somalis were confronted with a process of double alienation in their modern history. The accelerated process of permanent settlement in urban environment changed the fundamental references of their culture based on a pastoral worldview and the introduction of foreign languages and written communications challenged their oral literature. If the economic, political and socio-cultural consequences of these processes have been studied and documented, the psychological transformations of Somali society and individuals has not been sufficiently addressed. Thus, the critical analysis of Somali literature and specifically its ambivalent relationship with orality and writing, offers an opportunity to understand aspects of the identity crisis of Somalis.
We have chosen two characteristics of Somali literature, which could help understand its inability to address this crisis and new challenges.
The trap of politics
From the beginning, the Somali literature has been subjected to politics and political polemics. Didier Morin, a sharp analyst of Somali literature, rightly stressed, “ In a country that has always managed its language as a political mean, the production of writers, considered as militants of the national construction, became one of the indicators of the political evolution …. and the sign of its progressive entropy” . Somali poetry, in particular, quickly became the main vehicle of political expression and a direct gateway to the avenue of power. It is worthwhile to remember that the greatest figure of Somali poetry, Sayid Muhammad Abdillah Hassan, is also the father of Somali nationalism, who fought to death against foreign domination and partition of Somali territories. He not only influenced strongly Somali politics from the end of 19th Century; he had also a long-lasting impact on the production of Somali literature. Nowadays, the Sayid is celebrated both as a literacy reference and as a political model in Somali history. Somali analysts have even invented the concept of “Gobayssane” that refers to the year of 1865 (the year the Somali hero is born) as “the year of the nobles”, which is supposed to inaugurate the era of Somali nationhood and literature. Ali A. Mazrui, the famous Kenyan thinker, who wrote the chapter on African literature in the UNESCO Collection on the General History of Africa, considered that “Sayid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan combined the characteristics- to take a British equivalent, of William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill”
Like Sayid Abdillah Hassan, almost all Somali leaders have made use of poetry in order to publicize their political visions and electoral programmes. Furthermore, Somali authors also have developed literary formulas, figures and allegories, which have had an important influence on politics. For instance, in order to influence the socio-political debates, and to create a space for free exchange of ideas and for popular transmission of political thoughts, they invented the so called poetic chains “ Silsilad”, such as the “Siinley” or “Deelley”. Through these chains of poetic “editorials”, Somali poets have from time to time engaged in critical dialogue on burning issues of their societies (nationalism, social progress, identity, confrontation between modernity and tradition etc). One consequence of this legacy is that Somali poets are given great importance as potential national figures, whose role is not as much to entertain peoples, but rather to provide guidance in social and political life. Poets are even given a spiritual function as noticed by Ali Jimale Ahmed “ Poetry has become associated with almost divine powers so that poets are accorded a status equivalent to that that given to wadads (religious men)”
The relatively horizontal and egalitarian character of Somali society, which considers the power as everybody’s business, may also explain this tendency of Somali creators to become involved in political polemics. Even songwriters and authors of dramas or comedies, who normally work as entertainers, try to claim this political status as a means of escaping from the negative prejudices against artists in Somali traditional culture. These patterns may finally justify the suspicion that those in power have nourished against Somali poets and writers, whose literature is always accused of hiding political messages. Since in Somali society any act and word leads to politics, most Somalis believe that behind every love song or humoristic verse, there is probalbly a second or third level of interpretation.
This systematic affiliation of Somali creators with the political sphere has had important consequences on the process of literary production and on the definition of its status in modern post pastoral society. It has discouraged the development of autonomous literature, free from political demands and capable to address the complexity of social life.
The monopoly of poetry and its formalism
As mentioned above, Somali literature has, to some extent, become a victim of the richness and variety its oral tradition. This oral heritage, which includes almost all kinds of models (such as tale, stories, epics, chants, etc), has suffered from the monopoly of poetry. The particular structure and complexity of this poetry became the tree that hides the forest of Somali literature. Mohamed Daher Afrah, a Somali literary critics, regretted this domination, stating that “Its is time to correct the widely held and over-simplified view that Somali literature is the oral poetry….It is time to recognize the existence of other important genres of Somali literature and art such as the prose fiction and the theatre”.
The rich poetic heritage itself has been reduced to few poetic genres, such as the “gabey”, the jiifto, the geraar, that are mainly male productions. Such arbitrary selection of Somali literature had led to the marginalization and folklorization of other literary interesting poetic creations, such as women poetry (buraanbur), work songs, and children’s literature, which play a crucial role in the socialization of youth.
Mohamed D. Afrah recalled “in traditional Somali society itself, it was the oral narratives, and not the poetry, that used to play the major role in the psychological and cultural formation of Somali child during the early and most sensitive years of his/her life. It is by means of this very rich form of verbal art that Somali parents extensively and consciously use to entertain their young children and, at the same time, educate them with certain set of cultural and social virtues”
This monopoly of poetry and the overvaluing of some poetic genres have imposed a rigid formalism that has jeopardized internal evolution. Didier Morin, one of the few foreign analysts to have critically analyzed Somali literature noted that “the consensus reached today by Somali intellectuals and foreign experts on Somali literature, which considers the metric complexity as the criteria of” poetryness is the result of the encounter of two academism in search of a rhetoric. Stylistically, and politically, the ‘Somali verse is not free”
The formalism of Somali oral literature does not help creators to address the expectations of new generations. Somali creators continue to use old metaphors from the pastoral world. The systematic references made to figures like camels, caravan, artefacts of nomadic settlement, acts carried out in a pastoral context, to describe facts of modern day life, makes this kind of poetry difficult to understand. This is particularly true in the case of young urban Somalis that have little idea of the lost world of their ancestors. Somali creators, instead of filling this gap between generations continue to think that the artistic quality of their creation is measured according to the number of references they have made to the lost era of barisamaad.
As the poetry of Sayid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan has been erected as the standard of any literary production, all authors try to imitate him, to compete with him. Every creator is invited to use precious words and a worldview inspired by the “Father of Somali verb” in order to convince the public about his talent. The results of these mimetic patterns is the “quettoizsation” of Somali literary creation and its failure to adapt to new contexts of its public.
Ironically, by doing so, Somali poets abandon the democratic and popular status of Somali poetry and turn it into an elitist art. Scholars studying Somali literature have also contributed to the mummification of the Somali oral traditions. John William Johnson remarks “Traditions exhibits two major characteristics, those of continuity and change. In much of academic thought in the past, scholarly studies concentrated on continuity and sometimes completely ignored change. Indeed, older views of tradition in the Historical-Geographical School of Folkloristics considered change to be a negative and corrupting influence of tradition, the deterioration of an older, purer form. Continuity was seen not only as the most important aspect of tradition but the only legitimate aspect of it. Change was described with negative concepts, such as forgetfulness and misunderstanding during the diffusion of tradition”
The search for the purity and classicism of Somali literature by literary creators explain partly why they have generally failed to address the moral crisis of Somali people. However, in the latest decades, some creators have tried to promote some forgotten genres of Somali oral literature, such as children’s literature, humoristic stories, and free poetry. They have tried to develop new literary forms such as prose fiction and experimented unconventional models thereby placing focus on more accessible words and references such as the so-called “Suugaan dhuljeef” (literally “ground literature”).
In the past decade, we have also witnessed a development of another literary form of expression that describes individual itineraries in the turmoil of the region, that is the autobiographical writings. Lee Cassanelli rightly notices, “This form of autobiographical writings on the recent past represents a new genre of Somali literary production, not a part of the older oral or written literary culture. It has been promoted in part by foreign publishers eager for first hand ”inside” narratives of what went wrong with the country and was aimed at an audience of foreign readers who may have heard about Somalia for the first time in the 1990’s, as well perhaps as at the rapidly growing community of Somali exiles overseas. Even if many Somali readers continue to interpret these individual reflections as veiled apologies for particular clans, there is little question that they represent a new form of Somali intellectual activity, a new historical subjectivity, which was born in the womb of the Diaspora”
These timid and yet marginal experiences lack the conceptual framework needed to facilitate the emergence of an autonomous movement of Somali literature.
New Challenges and perspectives for Somali literature
The Somali literatures has not yet engaged in a critical self-examination of its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in the current national, regional and international contexts. For that to happen, the literary producers (poets, dramatists, storytellers, novelists, comics etc) should first question the claimed uniqueness of their culture. They should also compare their destiny with other African literary experiences. Beyond the particularity of their history, they ought to understand that they are, after all, confronted with the same questions that have preoccupied their peers since the development of African modern literature. They need to rethink and redefine their role and status in our contemporary society. Moreover, they should clarify their relationship with other holders of “symbolic power” in society (religious persons, political leaders, journalists, sorcerers) as defined by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.
Somali literary producers are invited to find their own responses to the old-aged dilemmas that continue to preoccupy African modern literature. Ali Mazurui has identified some of those “conflicts of value” that are of relevance to our debate namely the opposition between the past and the present and the related contradiction between indigenous heritage and modern legacy: In my view, it is crucial for Somali creators to free themselves from the nostalgia of lost innocence and overcome their tendency to misrepresent the characteristics of both worldviews.
Neither “Somality”, nor Modernity can be reduced to a few conflicting stereotypes. Far from being passive victims of cultural alienation or simple consumers of imported cultural products, Somali people should be considered as active and creative subjects of their own modern fate. It is time for Somali literary creators to stop mystifying their culture and opposing the “change-resistant” character of their indigenous traditions to the perpetual movement of change of modern societies.
Somali modern literature has arrived today at a crossroads. Time came for literary producers to make the appropriate choices in order to cope with the new living conditions and respond to the current expectations and aspirations of their respective public. In this perspective, they should learn how to negotiate independence from old “oraliture” and invest in new literature.
As elsewhere, Somali literatures should free itself from the dictatorship of traditional literary models without breaking the link with the richness of oral roots. It should find new references, new symbols, new metaphors and new logic adapted to the actual world without renouncing to the ethics and aesthetics of the oral culture.
Oral literature should challenge the domination of poetry and explore the possibilities offered by neglected genres and models like the ones mentioned above (oral narratives, work songs, women poetry, dance and game lyrics). Among these less-explored arts, theatre is one of the most promoting. In Somalia and Djibouti, theatre has become the most paramount art, which has contributed to the development of critical social thought. It is an urban oral production, which was developed very rapidly without any public support. Professor Andrzejewski, who understood the potential of this art form very early and translated into English two Somali classic plays, commented that “what particularly impresses any outsider who comes into contact with the Somali theatre is the strong emotional involvement of the audience”
Somali literature needs to open new spaces of freedom in order to regain legitimacy. It should move from the world of certainties proposed by oral tradition and explore new territories of imagination. It needs to pass from an idealistic search of lost virtues to a description of the ambivalent lives and realities of Somali people. The possibilities offered by novels and other modern prose, could help writers respond to the new aspirations of their public.
Somali literature should take advantage of the information and communication technologies which offer possibilities of renewing content and strengthening impact. Digital recording and the potential of Internet have opened new ways to create, exchange and disseminate oral literature that should be explored more efficiently.
Of course, Somalis neither like to read, nor do they appreciate those who dare spend more time with books than in the company of other Somalis. Popular Somali culture tends to marginalize individuals who are devoted to reading and writing. There is an exception and that concerns the “wadads”, the religious men, who are supposed to reveal the secrets of the Holy Book, the Quran. The other readers and writers of profane literature are subject to fierce criticism. The overestimated self-confidence of Somalis pushes them to say their word about everything, even about writings that they have not read at all. It is not rare to hear an illiterate Somali making the exegesis of a book without any restrain
My own experience illustrates some common misunderstandings between authors and readers in Somali context. In one of my books, in which I have attempted to revisit some Somali oral legends about the genealogy of tribes, I questioned certain beliefs in order to show that they do not correspond to the historical reality of the tribal formation. I queried certain mythological claims regarding the genealogical affiliation and unity within Issa tribal family. When the book was published in Djibouti, it provoked some members of the concerned groups to accuse me of offending their memory, of casting doubt on their origins and of denying them blood affiliation with their kinship. I thus learned at my cost that nobody, not even scholars, could question in writing the founding myths of the Somalis with impunity. I understood that I was accused of not so the interpretation of an important legend - but of attempting to enshrine my view in a book forever. In other word, I was accused of being unfair to my oral culture, by challenging in writing a legend and transforming my heretic opinion into “written-like-Quran” truth.
The transcription of Somali language into the Latin alphabet and its instrumentalisation by the late regime of Syad Barre, did not help Somalis reconcile themselves with writing. On the contrary, the State propaganda that presented the transcription of Somali language as an incontestable achievement of the “October Revolution”, has developed an ambivalent attitude, which made the necessary transition from oral tradition to the modern culture of writing even more complicated to Somalis.
It has been taken for granted that the mere fact of being literate is sufficient to access the promises of writing. Alas, the passage appears to be much more challenging than expected. Writing is not simply the transcription of words and memories, of images and ideas; it suggests a different way of thinking and organising thought, a different method of analysing reality and of transmitting knowledge. It involves the development of other intellectual, emotional and communicational skills. In other words, there are psychological and cultural constraints that peoples of oral tradition have to overcome in order to become integrated into the “world of writing ”.
Therefore, Somali peoples seem to be caught in a kind of “literary no man’s land” between the mirage of the sweet mother language and the frightening promises of the foreign territory of writing.
These boundaries run across all of Somali literature . Even the experts of Somali culture divide themselves along this line and they introduce an artificial dichotomy between oral literature and written literature, which has led them to separate specializations. Scholars generally divide themselves in two different camps, according to the type of literature considered. Oral literature often attracts foreign anthropologists, linguists and historians willing to capture the “essence” of Somali culture, in line with the primordialist approach inherited from the colonial ethnology. Those who are interested in Somali written literature are mostly literary critics, journalists or writers whose principal motivation is to understand how Somali authors express the turmoil of their society.
The Somali scholars themselves are divided in two groups with different approaches in terms of goals, methodology and expected results. The orality is generally the business of traditionalists or oral eulogists, who are not very familiar with written materials. They mainly seek to perpetuate the nostalgic view and to mystify the uniqueness of Somali oral tradition, without assessing critically the condition and process of its production. Written literature is reserved for the “modern intellectual elite” interested in demonstrating how Somali writers deal with the influence of oral literature, without placing Somali written literature in the context of other contemporary literacy movements.
It is interesting to notice the different meanings that Somali give to the term of “author” in their language. The concept of “abwaan” is used to designate the author of an oral piece, such as poems, theatre, and songs. By extension, the term also refers to the ideas of wisdom and leadership. The “abwaan” is synonymous of a visionary, of a philosopher, in accordance with the antique meaning of “the man of knowledge”. For the author of written materials, Somalis have the more simplistic term of “goraa”, which means “the one who writes”. This example illustrates the ethical and political distinction that Somalis make between those who generate oral wisdom and those who just produce writings materials. In the past few decades new approaches have emerged that attempt to analyze Somali literature as a whole, in its globality to understand the sociological, socio-cultural, political and psychological process of Somali literary production throughout history.
It is, nevertheless, useful to recall that the relation of Somali peoples with writing has not always been the same throughout their history. Contrarily to common belief, Somalis seem to have been more familiar with the writing culture in their pre-colonial past, than they are now. Firstly, Somali are descendants of populations who were closely linked with the ancient Egyptian civilization that invented different kind writings as demonstrated by Cheikh Antha DIOP and his followers. Furthermore, Somalis, like other peoples of the Horn of Africa, live by the Red Sea, a location generally considered as the cradle of the three “Religions of the Book”: Judaism, Christianity and Islam which were introduced in this region from the very outset and influenced the culture of the peoples of the Horn.
During the rise of prosperous Islamic City States on the coast of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, important universities and centres of knowledge flourished in places like Zeila, Mogadishio and Merca. Peoples of Somali origin lived in these cities and it is highly probable that their elites had access to this writing culture.
The nostalgic relationship with orality and their current ambiguous attitude towards writing are symptomatic consequences of the identity crisis that Somali people have faced since their forced integration into modern world, as imposed by Western hegemony. Like many other pastoral peoples, Somalis were confronted with a process of double alienation in their modern history. The accelerated process of permanent settlement in urban environment changed the fundamental references of their culture based on a pastoral worldview and the introduction of foreign languages and written communications challenged their oral literature. If the economic, political and socio-cultural consequences of these processes have been studied and documented, the psychological transformations of Somali society and individuals has not been sufficiently addressed. Thus, the critical analysis of Somali literature and specifically its ambivalent relationship with orality and writing, offers an opportunity to understand aspects of the identity crisis of Somalis.
We have chosen two characteristics of Somali literature, which could help understand its inability to address this crisis and new challenges.
The trap of politics
From the beginning, the Somali literature has been subjected to politics and political polemics. Didier Morin, a sharp analyst of Somali literature, rightly stressed, “ In a country that has always managed its language as a political mean, the production of writers, considered as militants of the national construction, became one of the indicators of the political evolution …. and the sign of its progressive entropy” . Somali poetry, in particular, quickly became the main vehicle of political expression and a direct gateway to the avenue of power. It is worthwhile to remember that the greatest figure of Somali poetry, Sayid Muhammad Abdillah Hassan, is also the father of Somali nationalism, who fought to death against foreign domination and partition of Somali territories. He not only influenced strongly Somali politics from the end of 19th Century; he had also a long-lasting impact on the production of Somali literature. Nowadays, the Sayid is celebrated both as a literacy reference and as a political model in Somali history. Somali analysts have even invented the concept of “Gobayssane” that refers to the year of 1865 (the year the Somali hero is born) as “the year of the nobles”, which is supposed to inaugurate the era of Somali nationhood and literature. Ali A. Mazrui, the famous Kenyan thinker, who wrote the chapter on African literature in the UNESCO Collection on the General History of Africa, considered that “Sayid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan combined the characteristics- to take a British equivalent, of William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill”
Like Sayid Abdillah Hassan, almost all Somali leaders have made use of poetry in order to publicize their political visions and electoral programmes. Furthermore, Somali authors also have developed literary formulas, figures and allegories, which have had an important influence on politics. For instance, in order to influence the socio-political debates, and to create a space for free exchange of ideas and for popular transmission of political thoughts, they invented the so called poetic chains “ Silsilad”, such as the “Siinley” or “Deelley”. Through these chains of poetic “editorials”, Somali poets have from time to time engaged in critical dialogue on burning issues of their societies (nationalism, social progress, identity, confrontation between modernity and tradition etc). One consequence of this legacy is that Somali poets are given great importance as potential national figures, whose role is not as much to entertain peoples, but rather to provide guidance in social and political life. Poets are even given a spiritual function as noticed by Ali Jimale Ahmed “ Poetry has become associated with almost divine powers so that poets are accorded a status equivalent to that that given to wadads (religious men)”
The relatively horizontal and egalitarian character of Somali society, which considers the power as everybody’s business, may also explain this tendency of Somali creators to become involved in political polemics. Even songwriters and authors of dramas or comedies, who normally work as entertainers, try to claim this political status as a means of escaping from the negative prejudices against artists in Somali traditional culture. These patterns may finally justify the suspicion that those in power have nourished against Somali poets and writers, whose literature is always accused of hiding political messages. Since in Somali society any act and word leads to politics, most Somalis believe that behind every love song or humoristic verse, there is probalbly a second or third level of interpretation.
This systematic affiliation of Somali creators with the political sphere has had important consequences on the process of literary production and on the definition of its status in modern post pastoral society. It has discouraged the development of autonomous literature, free from political demands and capable to address the complexity of social life.
The monopoly of poetry and its formalism
As mentioned above, Somali literature has, to some extent, become a victim of the richness and variety its oral tradition. This oral heritage, which includes almost all kinds of models (such as tale, stories, epics, chants, etc), has suffered from the monopoly of poetry. The particular structure and complexity of this poetry became the tree that hides the forest of Somali literature. Mohamed Daher Afrah, a Somali literary critics, regretted this domination, stating that “Its is time to correct the widely held and over-simplified view that Somali literature is the oral poetry….It is time to recognize the existence of other important genres of Somali literature and art such as the prose fiction and the theatre”.
The rich poetic heritage itself has been reduced to few poetic genres, such as the “gabey”, the jiifto, the geraar, that are mainly male productions. Such arbitrary selection of Somali literature had led to the marginalization and folklorization of other literary interesting poetic creations, such as women poetry (buraanbur), work songs, and children’s literature, which play a crucial role in the socialization of youth.
Mohamed D. Afrah recalled “in traditional Somali society itself, it was the oral narratives, and not the poetry, that used to play the major role in the psychological and cultural formation of Somali child during the early and most sensitive years of his/her life. It is by means of this very rich form of verbal art that Somali parents extensively and consciously use to entertain their young children and, at the same time, educate them with certain set of cultural and social virtues”
This monopoly of poetry and the overvaluing of some poetic genres have imposed a rigid formalism that has jeopardized internal evolution. Didier Morin, one of the few foreign analysts to have critically analyzed Somali literature noted that “the consensus reached today by Somali intellectuals and foreign experts on Somali literature, which considers the metric complexity as the criteria of” poetryness is the result of the encounter of two academism in search of a rhetoric. Stylistically, and politically, the ‘Somali verse is not free”
The formalism of Somali oral literature does not help creators to address the expectations of new generations. Somali creators continue to use old metaphors from the pastoral world. The systematic references made to figures like camels, caravan, artefacts of nomadic settlement, acts carried out in a pastoral context, to describe facts of modern day life, makes this kind of poetry difficult to understand. This is particularly true in the case of young urban Somalis that have little idea of the lost world of their ancestors. Somali creators, instead of filling this gap between generations continue to think that the artistic quality of their creation is measured according to the number of references they have made to the lost era of barisamaad.
As the poetry of Sayid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan has been erected as the standard of any literary production, all authors try to imitate him, to compete with him. Every creator is invited to use precious words and a worldview inspired by the “Father of Somali verb” in order to convince the public about his talent. The results of these mimetic patterns is the “quettoizsation” of Somali literary creation and its failure to adapt to new contexts of its public.
Ironically, by doing so, Somali poets abandon the democratic and popular status of Somali poetry and turn it into an elitist art. Scholars studying Somali literature have also contributed to the mummification of the Somali oral traditions. John William Johnson remarks “Traditions exhibits two major characteristics, those of continuity and change. In much of academic thought in the past, scholarly studies concentrated on continuity and sometimes completely ignored change. Indeed, older views of tradition in the Historical-Geographical School of Folkloristics considered change to be a negative and corrupting influence of tradition, the deterioration of an older, purer form. Continuity was seen not only as the most important aspect of tradition but the only legitimate aspect of it. Change was described with negative concepts, such as forgetfulness and misunderstanding during the diffusion of tradition”
The search for the purity and classicism of Somali literature by literary creators explain partly why they have generally failed to address the moral crisis of Somali people. However, in the latest decades, some creators have tried to promote some forgotten genres of Somali oral literature, such as children’s literature, humoristic stories, and free poetry. They have tried to develop new literary forms such as prose fiction and experimented unconventional models thereby placing focus on more accessible words and references such as the so-called “Suugaan dhuljeef” (literally “ground literature”).
In the past decade, we have also witnessed a development of another literary form of expression that describes individual itineraries in the turmoil of the region, that is the autobiographical writings. Lee Cassanelli rightly notices, “This form of autobiographical writings on the recent past represents a new genre of Somali literary production, not a part of the older oral or written literary culture. It has been promoted in part by foreign publishers eager for first hand ”inside” narratives of what went wrong with the country and was aimed at an audience of foreign readers who may have heard about Somalia for the first time in the 1990’s, as well perhaps as at the rapidly growing community of Somali exiles overseas. Even if many Somali readers continue to interpret these individual reflections as veiled apologies for particular clans, there is little question that they represent a new form of Somali intellectual activity, a new historical subjectivity, which was born in the womb of the Diaspora”
These timid and yet marginal experiences lack the conceptual framework needed to facilitate the emergence of an autonomous movement of Somali literature.
New Challenges and perspectives for Somali literature
The Somali literatures has not yet engaged in a critical self-examination of its strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in the current national, regional and international contexts. For that to happen, the literary producers (poets, dramatists, storytellers, novelists, comics etc) should first question the claimed uniqueness of their culture. They should also compare their destiny with other African literary experiences. Beyond the particularity of their history, they ought to understand that they are, after all, confronted with the same questions that have preoccupied their peers since the development of African modern literature. They need to rethink and redefine their role and status in our contemporary society. Moreover, they should clarify their relationship with other holders of “symbolic power” in society (religious persons, political leaders, journalists, sorcerers) as defined by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.
Somali literary producers are invited to find their own responses to the old-aged dilemmas that continue to preoccupy African modern literature. Ali Mazurui has identified some of those “conflicts of value” that are of relevance to our debate namely the opposition between the past and the present and the related contradiction between indigenous heritage and modern legacy: In my view, it is crucial for Somali creators to free themselves from the nostalgia of lost innocence and overcome their tendency to misrepresent the characteristics of both worldviews.
Neither “Somality”, nor Modernity can be reduced to a few conflicting stereotypes. Far from being passive victims of cultural alienation or simple consumers of imported cultural products, Somali people should be considered as active and creative subjects of their own modern fate. It is time for Somali literary creators to stop mystifying their culture and opposing the “change-resistant” character of their indigenous traditions to the perpetual movement of change of modern societies.
Somali modern literature has arrived today at a crossroads. Time came for literary producers to make the appropriate choices in order to cope with the new living conditions and respond to the current expectations and aspirations of their respective public. In this perspective, they should learn how to negotiate independence from old “oraliture” and invest in new literature.
As elsewhere, Somali literatures should free itself from the dictatorship of traditional literary models without breaking the link with the richness of oral roots. It should find new references, new symbols, new metaphors and new logic adapted to the actual world without renouncing to the ethics and aesthetics of the oral culture.
Oral literature should challenge the domination of poetry and explore the possibilities offered by neglected genres and models like the ones mentioned above (oral narratives, work songs, women poetry, dance and game lyrics). Among these less-explored arts, theatre is one of the most promoting. In Somalia and Djibouti, theatre has become the most paramount art, which has contributed to the development of critical social thought. It is an urban oral production, which was developed very rapidly without any public support. Professor Andrzejewski, who understood the potential of this art form very early and translated into English two Somali classic plays, commented that “what particularly impresses any outsider who comes into contact with the Somali theatre is the strong emotional involvement of the audience”
Somali literature needs to open new spaces of freedom in order to regain legitimacy. It should move from the world of certainties proposed by oral tradition and explore new territories of imagination. It needs to pass from an idealistic search of lost virtues to a description of the ambivalent lives and realities of Somali people. The possibilities offered by novels and other modern prose, could help writers respond to the new aspirations of their public.
Somali literature should take advantage of the information and communication technologies which offer possibilities of renewing content and strengthening impact. Digital recording and the potential of Internet have opened new ways to create, exchange and disseminate oral literature that should be explored more efficiently.
These communication technologies could even help fill the gap between
written and oral literature. The possibility of simultaneously using the
written and spoke word permits to communicate with different
audiences. For instance, poets could create Web Poetic Chains to renew
the old tradition of Poetic Chains (silsilad) and address the burning
issues of their societies. Internet which has replaced the other means
of communication permits to reach public throughout the world without
any the control and censorship of State or other power. Writers could
explore new written literary genres such as the web novel, web serials
or stories that will allow sharing their writings and overcoming the
constraints of publishing. Free Cyber publishing houses and libraries
could mushroom and thereby helping unknown writers to disseminate their
work.I am convinced that, if appropriately used, the Internet could contribute to the emergence of literary movement similar to the one facilitated by Radio in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Somali- speaking countries of the Horn of Africa. With one additional asset : a wider space of freedom of expression, beyond the control and censorship of any government.
Ali Moussa Iye
Aden Ibrahim shows Somali art is more than war and famine in Kingston Arts Centre
From : HeraldSun
FOR three years Aden Ibrahim has been scouring the globe to find art
from Somalia to show his beloved homeland has more to offer than just
war and famine.
Now he is putting his collection of paintings, drawings, photos and artifacts on display at the Kingston Arts Centre.
He was inspired to begin the collection when his young son asked him if there were any artists in the now war-torn country.
“I couldn’t believe that all he could imagine about the country was war, famine and destruction,” Mr Ibrahim said. “When I was growing up I couldn’t think that there was anywhere
better than Somalia, so I wanted to provide a glimpse into a version of
the country that was beautiful.”
It has been a tough time tracking down all the pieces and the Somali
Cultural Association president has spent countless hours on the phone
and rummaging through garages in an effort to track down art works.
Some of the pieces even had to be quarantined and sprayed to make but
he said he has had a lot of help from the community and Kingston
Council and all the work had finally paid off.
“To finally present it here in Melbourne is a giant step.”
Somalis Down Under runs until March 25 at the G1, Kingston Arts Centre, Moorabbin. Admission is free.
Speaker of the Italian parliament releases files involving the Toxic waste controversy in Somalia
From Hiiraan
Rome - House Speaker Laura Boldrini on Wednesday announced she has moved
to have the government release secret case files into the 1994 slaying
in Somalia of Italian TV journalist Ilaria Alpi and her Slovenian
cameraman Miran Hrovatin. Boldrini said she had asked the government "if
the case continues to meet requirements" for the country's secret
service.
Investigators have long suspected the pair was deliberately killed to
prevent them revealing a high-level conspiracy to divert Italian aid to
an organisation trafficking in weapons and toxic waste.
Alpi, 32, and Hrovatin, 45, were ambushed and shot in their jeep in
Mogadishu by a seven-man commando unit on March 20, 1994. A Somali
citizen, Hashi Omar Hassan was sentenced to 26 years in prison for the
double murder.
A parliamentary committee, working from July 2003 to February 2006,
concluded that Alpi and Hrovatin died in a kidnapping attempt that went
wrong.
However, the panel stated that there were many attempts by military
and diplomatic authorities to minimise or suppress certain aspects of
the case. The centre-left opposition called the committee's findings
"unacceptable", saying there was not enough evidence to suggest the two
were the victims of a kidnapping.
No autopsies were performed in the
immediate aftermath of the two murders. Instead, photos were taken of
the dead body of Alpi, who worked for state broadcaster RAI's third
channel.
Those photos and the medical report, along with other key evidence
including Alpi's notes, camera and video cassettes, mysteriously went
missing on the journey back from Africa to Italy, fuelling suspicions of
a cover-up.
Initially, it was thought that the journalist's murder was simply revenge for clashes which had broken out between the militias of Somalia's warlords and Italian peacekeepers. But a 1999 book by Alpi's parents called The Execution speculates that Alpi and Hrovatin were killed to stop them revealing what they knew about an international arms and toxic-waste traffic ring implicating high-level political, military and economic spheres in both countries.
Initially, it was thought that the journalist's murder was simply revenge for clashes which had broken out between the militias of Somalia's warlords and Italian peacekeepers. But a 1999 book by Alpi's parents called The Execution speculates that Alpi and Hrovatin were killed to stop them revealing what they knew about an international arms and toxic-waste traffic ring implicating high-level political, military and economic spheres in both countries.
The book, which was later turned into a film, accuses the Italian
secret service SISMI, later renamed as AISE, of playing a major part in
this ring. Hashi Omar Hassan, who came to Italy in 1998 to give evidence
into a probe into brutality by Italian soldiers, was acquitted of
involvement in the two murders at the end of a first trial in July 1999.
But he was found guilty by an appeals court in 2000 and sentenced to
life in prison.
Italy's Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict in October 2001 but reduced the sentence from life to 26 years because it said the crimes were not premeditated. Hassan's lawyers say he was not even in Mogadishu at the time of the killing, and say he was tricked into coming to Italy. Hassan was sentenced on testimony given by two witnesses, Alpi's Somali driver Abdi Ali, who died in Somalia several years ago, and a local policeman who never testified in court.
Italy's Supreme Court upheld the guilty verdict in October 2001 but reduced the sentence from life to 26 years because it said the crimes were not premeditated. Hassan's lawyers say he was not even in Mogadishu at the time of the killing, and say he was tricked into coming to Italy. Hassan was sentenced on testimony given by two witnesses, Alpi's Somali driver Abdi Ali, who died in Somalia several years ago, and a local policeman who never testified in court.
A former member of the 'Ndrangheta mafia claimed in 2009 that the
pair were assassinated because they had seen toxic waste shipped by the
'Ndrangheta arrive in Somalia.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Somali journalist seeking asylum records refugees' plight in Hong Kong
From Hiiraan
When investigative journalist Maahir and his television crew went undercover into a refugee camp in East Africa to investigate allegations of soldiers raping women, it was the start of a nightmare he has yet to wake up from.
After interviewing the women the soldiers kidnapped them.
"When they found out we were journalists they seized all our gear and took us to a detention centre," Maahir said. "I was blindfolded" and endured 20 days of torture and interrogation.
He said he was given just a cup of milk and a few biscuits every day.
More than a year later, Maahir is now claiming asylum in Hong Kong and has decided to turn his camera on the city's demoralised and downtrodden refugees.
"Many people think of this city as New York - rich with golden opportunities - but it's not," the Somalian said.
"Now I am working on my own project to talk about the real life of refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong.
Armed with a digital camera, he said: "I want to share my feelings and other people's experiences because every single picture has a story to tell."
Maahir, 26, said he wanted to keep his identity hidden to protect his family back home. He believes that his captors think he is dead.
His body bears numerous scars and burns, the result, he said, of his 20 days of torture and injuries received while reporting from the front line on battles involving an Al-Qaeda supported Islamic terror cell and the military.
As a stringer for international news organisations, Maahir said local journalists would die for US$100 a day just to get the story for foreign correspondents.
He said he escaped during a skirmish between the military and militants but feared his family could be detained if he returned home.
With the help of an uncle, he paid US$20,000 to escape the country through a network of smugglers. His plan was to seek asylum in the Netherlands, but from Dubai he managed to reach Hong Kong in the belief it was a safe haven.
Confused and not knowing where he was, he fainted going through immigration at Chek Lap Kok airport.
After claiming asylum, he was detained for 107 days at Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre at Tuen Mun.
"I then started another miserable life," Maahir said.
Upon his release, he was told that he could not work or enrol in higher education.
"I could not do anything. I was not really free," he said.
Maahir asked the officials: "How am I going to live here if I'm not allowed to do anything. What are my rights?
"Being at the immigration centre was better. At least you can eat, you can sleep, but here outside, it's very hard for you to eat even with social welfare food."
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