A massive forest fire has been raging in Somaliland’s mountainous region of Sanaag for the last two days. Although authorities have not announced what and how the fire started, the terrain, elevation, dense vegetation, and lack of resources are making it difficult to bring under control.
The original site of the fire appears accessible by Tab’a road, a treacherous road that winds through Sanaag’s scenic mountains, but NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System shows the fire spreading into a second location not far from the original fire, and both sites seem to be spreading.
Somaliland government has ordered all armed forces including police, military and coastguard to head to the site to combat the fire in coordination with the governor, the local governments in the area and Sanaag population in general.
Somaliland’s is still reeling from the massive fire that consumed Waheen Market which has wiped an estimated two billion dollars worth of property. It is unclear if Somaliland government will appear for international assistance to help bring the forest fire raging in Sanaag region.
This is a developing story and we will update as we know more.
Since Russia deliberately violated international law by invading Ukraine, the EU has adopted six packages of sanctions against Moscow. Our measures now target nearly 1,200 individuals and 98 entities in Russia as well as a significant number of sectors of the Russian economy. These sanctions were adopted in coordination with the G7 members. Their effectiveness is enhanced by the fact that over forty other countries (including traditionally neutral countries) have adopted them or taken similar measures.
By the end of 2022, we will have reduced our Russian oil imports by 90% and we are rapidly reducing our gas imports. These decisions are gradually freeing us from a dependence that has long inhibited our political choices in the face of Vladimir Putin’s aggressiveness. He probably believed that Europe would not dare to engage in sanctions because of its energy dependence. This is not the most insignificant of the Russian regime’s many miscalculations during this conflict. Of course, weaning ourselves off Russian energy so rapidly also creates serious difficulties for many EU countries and for several economic sectors. But this is the price we have to pay for defending our democracies and international law, and we are taking the necessary steps to deal with these problems in full solidarity.
Some may ask do these sanctions really have an impact on the Russian economy? The simple answer is yes. Although Russia exports a lot of raw materials, it also has no choice but to import many high value-added products that it does not manufacture. For all advanced technologies, it is 45% dependent on Europe and 21% on the United States, compared with only 11% on China.
In the military field, which is crucial in the context of the war in Ukraine, the sanctions limit Russia’s capacity to produce precision missiles such as the Iskander or the KH 101. Almost all foreign car manufacturers have also decided to withdraw from Russia and the few cars produced by Russian manufacturers will be sold without airbags or automatic transmission.
The oil industry is suffering not only from the departure of foreign operators but also from the difficulty of accessing advanced technologies such as horizontal drilling. The ability of Russian industry to bring new wells on stream is likely to be limited. Finally, in order to maintain air traffic, Russia will have to withdraw a majority of its aircraft from circulation in order to recover the spare parts needed to allow the others to fly. Added to this there is also the loss of access to financial markets, being disconnected from major global research networks and a massive brain drain.
As for the alternative offered by China for the Russian economy, in reality it remains limited, especially for high-tech products. To date, the Chinese government, which is very dependent on its exports to developed countries, has not assisted Russia in circumventing Western sanctions. Chinese exports to Russia have fallen in line with those of Western countries.
Will these significant and growing impacts lead Vladimir Putin to modify his strategic calculations? Probably not in the immediate future: his actions are not guided primarily by economic logic. However, by forcing him to choose either butter or guns, the sanctions lock him in a vice that is gradually tightening.
Regarding the impact of these sanctions on third countries, particularly African countries, which depend on Russian and Ukrainian wheat and fertilisers, where responsibility lies in terms of the food crisis is clear. Our sanctions do not in any shape or form target Russian wheat or fertiliser exports, while Ukraine is prevented from exporting its wheat by the Black Sea blockade and destruction caused by Russian aggression. If such issues linked to our sanctions were to arise, we are ready to put in place the appropriate mechanisms to address these. I have informed my African counterparts of this and asked them not to be fooled by the Russian authorities’ untruths regarding our sanctions.
The real answer to the difficulties on the world energy and food markets is an end to the war. This cannot be achieved by accepting the Russian diktat, it can only be achieved by Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine. Respect for the territorial integrity of states and the non-use of force are not Western or European principles. They are the basis of all international law. Russia is blithely trampling on them. To accept such a violation would open the door to the law of the jungle on a global scale.
Contrary to what we thought rather naively just a few years ago, economic interdependence does not automatically imply a pacification of international relations. This is why the transition to a Europe as a power, which I have been calling for since the beginning of my mandate, is imperative. Faced with the invasion of Ukraine, we have begun to move from intention to action by showing that, when provoked, Europe can respond. Since we do not want to go to war with Russia, economic sanctions are now at the core of this response. They are already beginning to have an effect and will do so even more in the coming months.
Josep Borrell Fontelles
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Archaeologists spend a lot of time examining the remains of distant pasts, which includes the study of rock paintings. This is largely visual work – but sometimes we can “hear” the ancient past using acoustic methods.
Our archaeoacoustic research is focused on bringing to life sounds made by people living in the past. No aural record remains but people did dance, sing and clap. Instruments either no longer exist or are extremely rare. One exception are the gong rocks, known as lithophones, which ring when struck and produce purposeful, percussive sounds. Occasionally, unfamiliar and rare musical instruments are depicted in rock paintings.
In a new study we turned our ears to a rock painting in the Cederberg Mountains in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The human figures in this painting have previously been interpreted as healers holding fly-whisks and doing a trance-dance. Fly-whisks were an important accessory for the dance because they were thought to keep arrows of sickness at bay.
But our results suggest that the fly-whisks are in fact musical instruments of a type known as a !goin !goin – a name that only exists in the now extinct ǀXam language that was spoken by hunter-gatherers in central southern Africa. The !goin !goin is an aerophone; these instruments produce sound by creating vibrations in the air when they are spun around their axes.
To reach this conclusion we combined digital image recovery techniques with instruments created from life-size templates based on our findings. The eight instruments were played in a Cape Town sound studio and the sounds were recorded. Sound produced by the recreated instruments convincingly matches the sound spectrum (90 – 150 Hz) produced by a similar 19th century model of the !goin !goin aerophone, which is archived in the Kirby Collection of Musical Instruments, curated by the University of Cape Town’s College of Music.
Our results suggest that !goin !goin type aerophones were used around or before 2000 years ago. This conclusion is based on the age of the image that is painted in the fine-line technique, which is a style of painting that disappeared with the arrival of pastoralists in the southern Africa region 2000 years ago.
The Cederberg painting is one of only four known examples of aerophone playing depicted in rock paintings in the southern Africa region. By contrast many paintings are identified as illustrating fly-whisks. Our findings suggest the need for greater nuance when studying rock paintings. Perhaps some of the fly-whisk depictions should be revisited with a “listening ear”?
Composition
The !goin !goin generates a distinct pulsating sound (visualised in the image below) due to the circular rotation of the player’s arm and the twisting and untwisting of the cord that attaches the rotating blade to the stick.
Spectrogram illustrating the pulsating charater of !goin !goin sound. Orange and yellow areas represent frequencies of high intensity, and blue the low intensity.
An unexpected finding was the compositional possibilities offered when two or more !goin !goin were played at the same time. Speeding up and slowing down the rotation subtly changes the sound. Two instruments, one played fast and the other slow, creates a composition. Playing in sync and out of sync adds another layer of musical creation.
It was not possible to play eight instruments in the sound studio at one time. An eight-instrument performance requires more space than the studio could provide. But a sound recording of three !goin !goin playing together suggests what group music-making with the !goin !goin may have sounded like.
A sound recording of three !goin !goin playing together. Neil Rusch, Author provided (no reuse)309 KB (download)
This compositional aspect of the instrument was not well known at all so we delved deeper. In the Special Collections archive at the University of Cape Town we found an obscure description of the !goin !goin which confirmed, as does the Cederberg painting, that groups did play the instruments together.
ǀXam-speaking hunter gatherers associated the sound of the !goin !goin with honey bees. They even went so far as to say that with the !goin !goin they could “move bees”. This complements the previous statement linking the instrument’s sound with “causing rain”. The archive statement also confirms that both men and women worked with rain, using the sound of the !goin !goin for this purpose.
Trance links
What of the trance healing dance suggested by earlier interpretations of the Cederberg painting? It is well known that all senses, not just vision, hallucinate in trance and that the aural hallucination of buzzing is construed as the sound of bees, rushing wind or falling water. So the painting does link to trance because of the association with bees and buzzing – but the items depicted in the painting are musical instruments, not fly-whisks.
Since Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland established in August 2020, the “Maternal and Infant Health Care Improvement Project” plays key role of bilateral medical cooperation. This project aims to increase the accessibility of maternal and infant healthcare services and is cooperating together with Somaliland’s Ministry of Health Development, the Taiwan ICDF and Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital.
In order to strengthen the healthcare referral mobility, this project hands over two ambulances to Hargeisa Group Hospital and Gabiley General Hospital for integrating case management between different facilities to refer and track reported cases, as well as increasing healthcare mobile capacity.
Capacity building is crucial for the project, the first batch of 8 experienced health professionals currently are in Taiwan for a 3-month training. The second batch of the seed trainers are scheduled to go to Taiwan in Oct 2022.
Ambassador Allen C. LOU of the Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland remarks that according to the Health Care Index 2022 released by Numbeo, Taiwan’s healthcare system has been ranked number 1 in the world four years in a row. Taiwan can help and is willing to share what we have and what we are good at with Somaliland and like-minded countries. We believe this project will catalyze a win-win-win situation to benefit the people directly, hospitals and the Government.
In a series of escalating steps by the government and electricity providers following the massive hike in electricity prices, the Somaliland Electricity Association, an umbrella organization whose members are electric providers in Somaliland, informed the public of a five-hour electricity blackout beginning from 11 PM to 4 AM starting on August 1st, 2022.
The electric association stated rising fuel costs and an attempt to conserve their fuel reserves as the reason for the five-hour blackout.
In addition, the association stated that its members have agreed to a ten-cent hike per unit instead of the 85 cents per unit that customers were billed without warning. The average rate per kilowatt was around 50 cents prior to the hike.
Somaliland government’s attempt to negotiate with the electricity providers to prevent the steep price hike at a time of major inflation of essential commodities has failed. The cost of fuel in Hargeisa was 12,000 Somaliland Shillings, or $1.4 US dollars as of today.
Letters from the Ministry of Interior and Energy Commission did little to sway the electricity providers to back off the 35% price hike. In a previous statement, the electricity association stated that their fuel reserves are running short and may be unable to provide electricity to their customers.
Yesterday, the government’s Economic Council consisting of President Bihi’s cabinet members, including the Minister of Finance Dr. Saad Ali Shire, issued a similar statement that the Energy Commission and electricity providers have agreed to a ten cent hike and that the cost of electricity will be reviewed in October 2022. The statement did not mention the five hour electricity outage the electricity providers have announced.
Courtesy: Somaliland National TV
On June 19th, Somaliland Parliament announced that the decision by the Energy Commission to halt the electricity price hike was unlawful and invalid, and the disbandment of the Energy Commission and asked the President to appoint new commissioners.
The Chairman of the Energy Commission, Mr. Ahmed Farah Adarre, has accused members of Parliament of being shareholders of electricity providers and that they lacked the authority to disband the Energy Commission.
Despite tens of millions of aid and foreign funding pouring into the energy sector and electricity providers, Somaliland’s electricity is unregulated and counts among the most expensive in the world.
It is unclear if the five-hour blackout is part of the agreement between the government represented by the Energy Commission and Economic Council and Somaliland Electricity Association. Efforts to reach government officials and electricity providers were unsuccessful.
Human Rights Center chairperson and staff met with a 16-year-old rape victim, in Caynabo this week. According to her statements, the person responsible for the brutal act is the police commissioner of Caynabo, Hassan Ismail (Gacmayare), along with another police officer who works as a taxi driver as a second job, Mustafe Yusuf Dheere. She traveled to Oog to visit her family on 4/6/2022 and used a taxi provided by Mustafe in the morning. Eventually, Mustafa Yusuf Dheere came to her around in between Maghreb and Isha prayers, which is between 6:30-7:45 Pm local time. The timing the event occurred is maghreb time 4/6/2022- 5/6/2022. She recalls and remembers that the police commissioner raped her two times in Oog. Mustafe pressured and insisted on picking her up to return to Caynabo. Hesitantly, she told him it was too late. Despite her refusal, Mustafe told her he would take her back to Caynabo after a detour, using his car tire malfunctioning as an excuse. He then took her to a house, and the individual inside. She noted the individual was the police commissioner of Caynabo. What transpired in thirty minutes of being in his presence from what she recalls is loss of consciousness, as she was given a beverage. Human Rights Center cannot determine if the beverage contained date rape drug or alcohol was used as an inebriation. Despite the loss of consciousness, she was alert and recognized what was happening to her. She told Mustafe about the situation, and he declared “May Allah forgive your sins and our sins” and raped her on their return home. She tried to report the case twice, in Burco and Caynabo, however, she was sent back and was not allowed to report the rape incident. Thus, the family turn to media to talk about the issue in the hopes of getting justice.
Human Rights Center has learned that there are other rape allegations against the police commissioner, and that this was not an isolated incident or a onetime event. The allegations
against him occurred in different towns and cities, and when the acts can not be concealed, the police commissioner is transferred from his post. His past allegations transpired in Erigavo and LasAnood cities. Human Rights Center staff have spoken to other people who can corroborate the allegations. What we have discovered is that the threaten to harm her has prevented her from going to the doctor for evidentiary purposes and for her safety. Despite alerting officials and doctors, the doctor in charge of her case, Dr. Hamze told her to keep quiet because of her honor and to forget pressing charges, thereby preventing her from giving further physical evidence and for DNA collection.
Somaliland government pledged its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030 in 2018. SDG #16 signifies the need for peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, to provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels. However, this concept is missing from our government.
Conspiracy to commit crimes, then conceal, then use these same institutions to subjugate the citizens to use their power. SDG # 5 indicates gender equality, and to empower women and girls. However, this seems impossible when girls and women are seeking justice for crimes committed against them. Violence against women in Somaliland has risen exponentially without a solution on hand and a legal system that perpetuates further violence.
Human Rights Center condemns this brutal rape against her and all the other victims that have not come forward against Police Commissioner Hassan Ismail (Gacmayare). In seeking accountability and answers, we are calling for his resignation as well stripping him of his post and honors, so that he will not be able to commit further crimes. We call for a formal investigation into the reasons for concealing his past allegations and why he was transferred from his posts in Erigavo and LasAnod and to hold those responsible for this concealment. These are serious allegations, and we implore Somaliland government to take the next action seriously and most importantly, we ask for the legal system to provide justice for her and the countless other victims that were scared to come forward and report his crimes.
Yasmin Omar H. Mohamoud Chairperson of the Human Rights Center Hargeisa Somaliland hrcsomaliland@gmail.com Twitter: @hrcsomaliland
Somaliland Parliament voted today to approve four out of seven new commissioners slated to replace the recently dissolved Election Commissioners. Three proposed Election Commissioners did not garner enough votes from the parliament. President Bihi has submitted the list of proposed election commissioners to the Parliament on June 11.
The three rejected candidates include Mr. Muse Haji Hassan Yusuf, the current Chairman of Somaliland’s Quality Control Commission who has received the lowest votes. Several members of parliament who spoke to the media after the vote indicated their opposition to Mr. Yusuf’s appointment to the commission is due to his current position. It is unclear if Mr. Yusuf has resigned as the Chairman the Quality Control Commission.
Despite speedy constitution of the new election commission, the rejection of the three candidates is a set back for election logistics as several important precursor steps for presidential election such as voter registration are on hold.
Two of the three rejected candidates for the election commission were appointed by President Bihi. It is unclear who or how quickly President Bihi will submit replacement candidates for the three slots to complete the commission’s quorum.
The approved commissioners include one female, Ms. Fadumo Ismail Abi who received the second highest votes of 67.
According to diplomatic and government sources, the UK government has suspended its support for Somaliland Police and has asked the Somaliland government to investigate allegations of police brutality following the opposition-led protests in Hargeisa on Thursday, June 9th, 2022.
The International Partners, which includes the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Scandinavian countries, support Somaliland in the areas of democratization and provide capacity-building programs to various government entities, including the Somaliland Police.
On Thursday, June 9th, Somaliland Police clashed with demonstrators in Hargeisa following what the opposition called a rehearsal and an orientation for demonstrators for a nationwide demonstration on the political standoff with the President on whether the presidential election will be held on November 13th.
Opposition parties have accused the government of using excessive force, live fire, tear gas, and unlawful incarceration of opposition figures, journalists, and protestors.
Somaliland government denies the accusation and stated that the protestors attacked the Police, and the security detail of Mr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdillahi Cirro, the former Chairman of the Waddani Party and presidential candidate, has fired on the Police.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued multiple statements explaining the demonstration and placed the blame on the opposition parties for conducting what the government called unwarranted protests and firing on the Police have shown maximum restraint.
In addition, Somaliland Police stated they will investigate the injuries reported by members of the opposition party, including Member of Parliament Mr. Barkhad Batun, who stated that he has been shot in the lower extremities.
Detained politicians from the opposition parties and journalists appeared before the Marodijeh Regional Court in Hargeisa since they were arrested on June 9th and subsequent days. No charges were brought against them, and the government was granted an additional seven-day remand in custody for additional investigation. Courts routinely grant additional remand to police to hold suspects without charges.
“International partners following Somaliland’s democratization process are very concerned by the violent incidents that occurred during the political protests in Hargeisa today. We urge restraint from all sides in order to de-escalate the situation and prevent harm & injury” said a statement issued by the international community on June 9th.
In 2019, the UK government has suspended operational support of Somaliland intelligence services and the counter-terrorism police units known as the RRU. The impact of the UK government suspending its support to Somaliland is unknown as Somaliland spends heavily on its security.
Major General Mohamed Adan Saqadhi (Dabagale) who we contacted for this report, denied the UK government has suspended support for Somaliland Police, but other government officials who spoke on background stated that there are still ongoing talks with the UK government. Officials from the British Office in Somaliland did not comment.
The Somaliland National Human Rights Commission has distanced itself from a statement made by one of its commissioners on Facebook that called for a harsher treatment of Thursday’s opposition-organized protests.
Mr. Omar Mohamoud Hussein (Godad), a lawyer by trade and a staunch supporter and an appointee of President Bihi mused that “They speak of injuries, perhaps they should’ve been shot in the heart as they contribute nothing but chaos to the nation”.
Mr. Omar Mohamoud Hussein (Godad)
The Somaliland Human Rights Commission stated its regrets regarding Mr. Godad’s statement and that it does not represent teh commission, and reiterated the independent nature of the commission and that Mr. Godad’s statement was detrimental to the commission’s reputation and its relationship with the public. In addition, the statement indicated that Mr. Godad has been repeatedly warned against actions contrary to the commission’s bylaws.
Although the government’s watchdog rarely finds faults in government actions including a major uptick in extrajudicial arrests of citizens and journalists, the Human Rights Commission was established by Parliamentary Act No. 39/2010 and its commissioners are jointly appointed by the President, Guurti and Chief Justice, and have immunity to ensure their impartiality and independence. The prime directive of the commission is to ensure civil liberties and human rights are safeguarded in Somaliland.
At the helm of the Agency is Mr. Mohamed Barud Ali, a veteran and highly educated politician who was severely tortured and spent years in solitary confinement under Dictator Barre’s regime for being a member of UFO. Mr. Barud’s ordeal is chronicled in this NPR story.
Chances of you hearing of Mr. Omar Mohamoud Hussein (Godad) are slim, but he has been around for a while and has exhibited a brazen pattern of corruption and outright theft dating back to his days as a District Court Judge under former President Ahmed Mahamoud Siilaanyo.
When Mr. Godad served as a District Court Judge, he was accused and subsequently fired for stealing court-mandated alimony funds known as Nafaqo in Somaliland. Nafaqo is part of a divorce settlement in Islamic law that a husband is obligated to pay their former spouse and children, and in some circumstances of delinquency, the funds are paid directly to the court to be disbursed to the family to ensure compliance. According to sources familiar with the accusation and Mr. Godad’s judicial record, these funds went directly to him, and as a result, Mr. Godad was removed from office.
On August 3rd, the former Governor of Somaliland Central Bank Mr. Ali Ibrahim Jama (Baghdadi) wrote a letter to the Police, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Human Rights Commission to bring to their attention a check in the amount of 25 million Somaliland Shillings written by Mr. Godad with a forged signature of the Central Bank Governor and asked that they investigation the financial crime committed by Mr. Godad.
Mr. Ali Ibrahim Jama (Baghdadi, former Governor of Somaliland Central Bank
Sources add that following an investigation by the Police CID, the Attorney General’s Office has concluded that a crime has been committed and promptly submitted a request to the Office of the President to start the process to revoke Mr. Godad’s immunity to allow the criminal proceedings to begin. By law, Human Rights Commissioners, much like Election Commissioners, have immunity to ensure their impartiality and independence.
According to multiple sources close to the government body entrusted with safeguarding human rights, Mr. Godad has assaulted a random person at the Commission’s Head Quarters for allegedly parking in his spot. Sources add the unnamed civilian assaulted by Mr. Godad suffered a broken collarbone and has lodged a complaint against Mr. Godad to the Human Rights Commission. It is unclear if assault and injury was referred to law enforcement agencies or any disciplinary action was taken as a result.
Sources privy to the internal discourse at the Human Rights Commission about Mr. Godad stated that the other commissioners and especially the Chairman, Mr. Mohamed Barud Ali are distraught but are powerless to remove Mr. Godad as a commissioner due to his immunity and the fact that criminal complaint filed by the Attorney General on the forgery case is still pending with the President.
It is unclear if President Muse Bihi Abdi, who appointed Mr. Godad to the human rights watchdog, was aware of his misconduct as a District Court judge under his predecessor and why the President has not taken action after almost a year of receiving the criminal complaint from the Attorney General’s Office on Mr. Godad’s forgery allegation.
Efforts to reach Chairman Barud, Mr. Godad, and other members of the Human Rights Commission for comments on this incident and Mr. Godad’s past behavior, including the allegation of misappropriation of Nafaqo or alimony funds, forging of the Central Bank Chairman’s signature on a check, the pending case, and assault of a member of the public on the commissioner’s premises were unsuccessful.
There is no right way to grieve and each of us reacts in our own way to the loss of a friend. Today, we have lost a dear friend whose wisdom, wit and charm have deeply affected all who have had any association with his world. Said Jama Hussein died in London at the age of 80 and many people, belonging to different generations, are mourning his passing. I asked him in the last days of his life, his views on life, and he answered, “as a member of the humankind living on this earth, I have always – since my adulthood at least- maintained that the best legacy to leave behind was to take part in the process of human reproduction – giving birth to children, who hopefully might come up with brilliant ideas; but more importantly, to leave behind ideas that contribute to the progress of man on his journey on this planet.” Said was one in a million.
From left: Rashid Sh Abdillahi, Dr. Jama Musse Jama, Said Jama Hussein (RIP), Mohamud Sh Dalmar – London, 2016
Many people know Said Jama Hussein as a leading scholar and visionary Somali short story writer. He was beyond that. He was someone who was full of wisdom and eventful life. Even though I met him after I was a grown man, meeting him has shaped me in many ways. His independent thinking with his critical observation skills and playful but concrete advice is one of the qualities that made him stand out. His sharp observation skills and power of remembering details of events, not only those he was a participant in, but also those he is told of, are still a mystery to me. His connection with people across generations is another quality Said had. He was a great mentor to many young people, be it in life in general, or in the profession of short story writing for which he is praised as the “king of Short Story writing”.
A lover of all kinds of art, one day I sent Said Jama the photo of a painting exhibited in a hotel in Addis Ababa, by an anonymous artist, and as usual he was able to find a way to use the same painting to express his feeling about the sociopolitical state of Somali society. He wrote me back “This type of miniature art belongs to the era of impressionism in painting. Such a pathetic expression on her face must have been moved by a very disturbing spectacle, like seeing (a) Dante’s Inferno – a dreadful calamity or (b) the catastrophic precipice the Somalis are mindlessly heading towards.” He was an artist and art historian, who would tell you in his own words to discover the thought and emotion which the artist of the painting has portrayed.
Fluent in English, Arabic, and of course Somali, his mastery of six languages has made him have a wider world understanding and the capacity to express his thoughts beyond a language limit. His principle of tolerance and kindness is a human characteristic he wished the Somali community developed more for peaceful coexistence. For this, he has contributed immensely by bridging the language gap through the translation works he did.
There are many incidents I could write as a tribute to him, but I remember our conversation in 2016 in London. I was intrigued to know about his childhood and perspectives and asked him “who is your childhood role model that impacted your life?”. I remember the way he looked at me with a heartwarming smile and checked our surrounding if anyone was looking at us followed by saying in a very low tone “is it only us?”. I was surprised and thought it was a simple question and said “yes, it is only us”. Said laughed so hard and loud with my response which was still confusing for me. Then he reached out to his bag and brought out messy papers written all over them, and he said, “I have a gift for you”. It is some writing that I have been collecting and I call it “is it only us”. We both laughed aloud. He then said “it is not yet a book or something you can read. But try to read and make it look like a book, print it, and let it reach people.” He then added, “you have a look at it and you will find the answers to some of the questions you just asked me”. This is how the book “Ma innagii uun baa” came to be with my curiosity and interesting conversation with the great storyteller.
Someone very close to him characterized him by saying, “he is a nation on his own” which I agree 100% and will add that the nation he was is one of peaceful, tolerant land where everyone is accepted and heard. That is what he makes you feel when you are around him, and it doesn’t matter who and what you are; he had space and love for everyone. This is how he impacted many lives in the past 60 years. He embodies a person of civic virtues, creative writing, eloquent storytelling, hospitable, sympathetic, and considerate and many more things beyond words.
Though well-read and connected to the world of books and ideas, his love of soccer might be something a lot of people do not know. He played the game when he was young in Aden, Yemen, and his favorite number was No. 8.
Nabadgelyo macallin.
Hargeysa, 11 June 2022
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Jama Musse Jama has a PhD in Computational Linguistics, and has extensive research publications in mathematics, ICT and the role of art and culture in development. Founder of the Hargeysa International Book Fair, and currently Director of the Hargeysa Cultural Centre in Somaliland, Dr. Jama has also a Senior Research Associate position at DPU, University College London, UK. Dr. Jama can be reached @JamaMusse or email: jama[@]redsea-online.org
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints of Somaliland Chronicle, and its staff.
