Due to the many and mostly unproductive gatherings
that Diaspora Somalis hold in luxurious hotels in Western capitals, I rarely go
beyond the headlines of such stories unless I see the name of Prof. Ahmed
Samater in it. No matter how you view him, friend or foe; the man never fails
to grab your attention. However, in a meeting that recently took place in
Sweden, it was not the professor’s usual eloquence and insurmountable arguments
that attracted my attention but that of a rarely noticed comment made as a joke
by Said Jama Hussein, a man of letters and a veteran revolutionary.
While most of the speakers were engrossed in
the topic of the meeting which was “whether Somaliland should celebrate May 18
or June 26 as the top National Day”, Hussein had with a few well chosen words
tried to shift the audience’s attention to another direction. He started his statement with traditional
children’s riddle “ii cug (which I’d roughly translate as “guess what?), thus
skilfully changing the attendees’ focus. He repeated this for three times
before dropping his bombshell statement in the form of an old Byzantine
anecdote about the fall of Constantinople to the besieging Ottoman forces. Below
is the story which he told in Somali but I managed to glean it from an authentic
source:
“A
legendary but nonetheless tenacious anecdote relates that in May 1453, at the
hour when Constantinople was falling into the hands of the Turks, an assembly
of theologians had gathered in the very heart of the besieged city to debate
about the sex of the angels – a quintessential Byzantine dispute, typical of
the theology that was disconnected from reality.” Source, Angels and Demons, Serge-Thomas
Bonino, OP. Translated by Michael J. Miller, The Catholic University of America
Press, Washington D.C, English Translation Copyright 2016, Introduction, page 1.
Hussein related the story without any further
elaborations or embellishments except with his unique delivery that betrayed
his intended sarcastic lampooning of the debate issue which he saw as trivial
given the enormous dangers that face the Somali people and threaten their
existence as a sovereign nation. Obviously no one can say for sure what Hussein’s
real intention was for telling the anecdote but anyone who is remotely aware of
the geopolitical situation of this unfortunate Horn of African country will
undoubtedly draw the same conclusion.
Since the collapse of the Somali central
government in 1991, the country slipped into feuding tribal fiefdoms becoming easy
prey for neighbouring hostile nations who exploit the Somali people’s internal
divisions to their own strategic and economical advantage. Ethiopia and Kenya, who themselves have significant Somali territories
and populations; have traditionally seen Somalia
as a threat to their territorial integrity and Independence. The white
five-corned star in the middle of the blue Somali flag remained a constant
reminder for them of what they see as Somalia’s “irredentist” strategy of
bringing the whole Somali regions in the Horn of Africa under the umbrella of
Greater Somalia.
Liberation movements by Somalis in Kenya’s Northern Frontier
District, NFD, and Ethiopia’s Somali Western Region usually known as the Ogaden
and Reserved Areas have posed persistent nightmare to these two countries since
Somalia’s independence in 1960 to the collapse of the Somali state in 1991. But
it was Somali fratricide that followed the fall of Siyad Barre’s military
regime that placed the fate of the Somali people at the mercy of their
historical enemies. Not only do both countries have military presence in
Somalia under the cover of being part of the African Peace Mission of AMISOM
but both Kenya and Ethiopia have become instrumental in deepening the
disintegration of the country into tribal enclaves and dividing it between them
into their spheres of influence.
Today, Somalia exists only in name as the
country has broken up into tribal Bantustans that are not only slavishly
subservient to Ethiopia and Kenya but the puppet leaders of all the mini states
go on periodic pilgrimage to Addis Ababa and Nairobi for guidance and blessings
from their masters there. The Ethio-Kenyan domination of Somalia goes beyond the
expedience of short term political goals and includes long term economic and
strategic imperialism that will have dire consequences on the existence of the Somali
nation and eventually on the peace and stability of the Horn of African region
as a whole.
It must have been painful therefore for Saeed
Hussein to have this catastrophic situation in mind and see his countrymen
bickering about inconsequential issues while the fate of the whole nation was
at stake.
Absolutely, I can feel how Hussein, Somalia’s
Trotsky due to his long revolutionary history, and intellectual acuity, can
find himself out of place. His torment like that of Dr. Omar Rabi before him
reminds me of Nietzsche’s Parable of The Mad Man who kept running in the
streets shouting: “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” Here
Hussein was shouting: “Somalia is dead, Somalism is dead. And we have killed it.”
And I can find no more plainly expressive words to capture Hussein’s pain than
the final words of Nietzsche’s Mad Man who when he finds that no one understands
him says: “I have come too early. My time has not come yet. The tremendous
event is still on its way, still travelling - it has not yet reached the ears
of men. Lightning and thunder require time, the light of the stars requires
time, deeds require time even after they are done, before they can be seen and
heard. This deed is still more distant from them than the distant stars - and
yet they have done it themselves."
And finally let me throw back the riddle to
Mr. Said Jama Hussein and all Somalis by repeating his question: “ii cug!!!”