Image via Wikipedia

In this fast moving 21st Century of information superhighway, you should feel obliged to expose yourself to the rest of the world so that your presence in words and deeds can be felt by others. 

Long time ago, it was the Europeans who studied our languages and cultures and then published them in their lands while making hefty profits from these publications for the future of their grandchildren. Today, it is quite different as the computer enables anyone with the will to write to do so without much stress as information about the whole world has been fed into search engines and libraries for quick retrievals. That means, anyone who is computer literate can write exhaustively in almost any language and yet reap the same hefty profits or more than the Europeans made in their heydays. 

Watch out what I'm about to reveal. It is nothing new to you since these are words in our wonderful Somali language that revolve around in our daily conversations. But first let's have a glimpse of where in the world the Somali language is mostly spoken.

The Somali language, spoken by over 15 million worldwide, is popular in Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia; it is also spoken by immigrant Somali communities living in North America, the EU, and the Middle East, and quite a number living in some African countries and other parts of the world. It was first written in Latin in 1972 during the reign of Mohamed Siyad Barre (deposed and deceased).

Language is the method people communicate with each other using gestures, sounds, disarticulation, and good organization while phonology is the study of sounds and sound structures in a language and incorporates phonetics and phonemics. Differences abound in dialect or accent among speakers of the Somali language depending on where one lives.

Dialect means a language composition spoken among people of different social and regional defining features due to sexual characteristics, ethnic group, and background. The intermingling of the Somali with other societies has brought about changes in accent, dialectical composition, sounds, and pronunciations. So far, many dictionaries have been printed in Somali that circulate in many parts of the world, though; further work and additions may be needed to accommodate all speakers.

Consequently, many polyglots attest to the strangeness of the Somali language and its abundance in ideophones used instead of words. These sounds describe peculiar actions as they happen and may also be found in Bantoid, Hamitic, Cushitic or Omotic, and other Nilotic langauages. 

Sounds or ideophones are few in the English language with the exception of a few you may have heard many times like: the ding dong of a church bell or the tick tock of a clock. In contrast, it is quite different in Somali as sound sciences commence from the time a child is conceived when it is referred to as mujuq, munjuq, or munjuluq-meaning delicate in nature and appearance.

Buluq, which may be described as the sound composed during delivery that evolved as a result of the baby's contact with amniotic fluid-the transitional period from the womb to the hands of the gynecologist and baq when it is laid to rest on a hard surface which could be the skin or hide of an earlier sacrificial lamb reverberating with a qabac sound.

The waaq of ducks; caac of crows; baj or tufoo from the act of spitting; fiif or fuuf from the act of nose blowing; quxu and qax qax from coughing; bac which denotes a baby's flimsy blow; taw meaning to jump or spring up; fag or fagax means to run; fiiq describes the action of sipping tea; nac nac being useless talk; baf which implies to break or dislocate a bone; kaf is to separate two co-joined things or raf to pull with sheer force; yac or yoo being regret; ruq which means to uproot and jiiq from door lacking lubrication are sounds entirely used as describing actions as they happen instead of words.

Wab, wish, or nash all mean to whip or cane as punsihment; haw and fash indicate flow of blood or liquid; with ham being baby feeding technique; buc buc means a baby is stomach full; dhuq dhuq and fajaq are romantic acts; dhaq dhaq and dhiq dhiq all mean uncontrolled laughter; biq is anger; wac is a blow; qac is someone of low intelligence; kaw is demise while naf means being at the brink of death; biiq is being a coward or may also mean the act of breaking wind or furting.

Murux means laceration; bash is the breaking of glass; wiif is a stray bullet and qish or qash is to plagiarize. Wir or car is to dare something that will have consequences; muluq is recuperation; dhaw or dhac is a slap; wagagac is the flash of lightning; baq is fermentation or being frightened; bul is a blaze; jiq is like an impenetrable forest; juuq and jaaq means keep quiete and say nothing; dhub or dhukub denotes one is deaf or hearing impaired; jaf is to peel; uu and aa all mean a war cry or groan in pain; qajac is chuffing of feet; kadh, qadhab, and kadhaw mean to staple together while baw is the beating of drums.

Jug means a blow or to swallow with force; juq or nuq is to penetrate or insert; tatatac is to walk lamely; dalaq means to enter without aim or knowledge of or to swallow as in food; qub though meaning to spill or maize cob, it also denotes the sound emanating from players of certain past time games; while qab is echo from a door shutting or closing.

Haakah is sound emitted by one bitten by an insect or serpent while it also may be the alarm sounded by one scared of injections or thorns; hodhodho implies empty or useless talk; xuf and xaaf is speed; manaq manaq is being mischievous; bodh bodh connotes bubbling; bidh bidh represents radiance or an object appearing from a distance; fagax is to race; buq is the sound made when a lid is removed from a container; balaq means to collapse though it also means the male organs; jaw is a continuously reverberating sound; fatalaq is to tumble; jaq is to suckle while ciic is to use sheer force to emit excretion.

Fud and foq all mean to spring out as from a hole or enclosure; faq is to scramble; fashuuq is to squeeze as lemon or orange; fash indicates gushing liquid or blood; bash again means to splash; daf is to snatch; rif means shearing or jerking of hair; kud iyo kir means "back off with your aggression"; kaf is to rip off; quuq and qaaq is a form of crying; qiiq which means smoke also is the abrupt application of car brakes; damug and dam refer to total darkness or blindness; qumbuluq is to fall in to a ditch; qajajac is to crush under the feet or unsubstantiated talk; huuhaa implies talking senselessly; hayaay is an exclamation; shiiq applies to frying; shab denotes spraying or splashing while bariiq is to trip over, stuck in mud or fail an exam or quiz.

Fuuq is to drink heavy drinks like milkshake or creamy liquid; bacaac is the cry of the lamb while baac is a fool; fadfad is the bubbling of sticky cornmeal on a cooking pot; xaax is to feel cold; xuux is to instill fear in children; yaq is something nasty in appearance; aq is uttered when smoke disturbs one's visibility; yar is astonishment; uf is bad smell; bash is for any object that split into pieces when dropped while bush is when a jelly-like substance falls on the floor then splits in to bish; shabaax is sound from sea waves or meandering river water; dhibiq is for falling droplets; dhaw dhaw and qaw qaw is scrubbing of metals; hatishow is to sneeze; qabac qabac is when an object is blown by the wind; qab qab and dhow dhow is a knock on a door; brrr can be sounded with lubricated lips and is commonly used by livestock herders when watering their animals with ish and cay sounded when driving livestock.

Hag is used to move a donkey faster; haah is sounded when bringing goats to a resting place; tuuw enables a camel to kneel down; heey and jac is to scare away wild animals especially at night while jooh is to restrain a camel or bull.

Nig, dhag or rig is a slight blow or slap; nag means impossible; dhab is to tighten or hold tightly and tuss is the release or escape of air from a balloon. Qalaw qalaw is the ringing of a bell or like nature; "wii is the sound made by a wounded or dying Dik-dik and way is an exclamation of distress or disappointment (Professor Georgi Kapchits) while qar-rac is to tear apart. "Wii Sagaaro iyo way Sokeeye midna lagama soo waaqsado" (Somali proverb). 

Such is the simplicity of sounds in the Somali language and that communication in clicks is possible among select groups without resorting to words; therefore, allowing them create exceptional form of conversation that flows ceaselessly and flawlessly more or less similar and of the same wavelength with some Southern African click languages. 

In the absence of a strong central government and the collapse of our educational systems, our beautiful mother tongue is headed for extinction. The only way to resuscitate it is through the formation of a strong national government before 2010 slips away. 

By Adan Makina

GARISSA MASSACRE IN 2015 VS WAGALLA MASSACRE OF WAJIR IN 1984

April 20, 2015

By Mohamed Yabarag

While the condemnation of the recent cruel killings of innocent students in Garissa is pouring from the four corners of the world, the people of the Northern Frontier District (NFD) – a region exclusively and historically inhabited by ethnic Somalis but ceded to Kenya by the British – have been suffering at the hands of successive Kenyan governments in the past five decades with impunity. The Wagalla massacre of ethnic Somalis by Kenyan forces on 10 February 1984, in Wajir county where more than five thousand men and women were taken to an airstrip (Wagalla airstrip) and prevented from accessing food and water for five days before being summarily executed by Kenyan forces did not draw a whimper from the international community. Literally, nobody shed tears for them (looma ooyaan). Only a handful of countries friendly to the then government of Somalia made some feeble remarks on the matter. The so-called international community has simply turned their backs. Even though Wagalla massacre represents the worst human rights violations in Kenya’s history, no government official was ever indicted for this heinous crime and the whole episode was eventually swept under the carpet.

Kenya security at Garissa University College, Garissa, Kenya

Similar crimes with lesser barbarity were committed by the Kenyan forces against ethnic Somalis in Kenya during the Shifta war (1963 – 1967) when ethnic Somalis unsuccessfully tried to join their brothers in Somalia. In the Shifta war, the Kenyan counter insurgency units forced civilians into what they described as “protected villages”, or concentration camps if you call by their proper names, where their livestock was burnt down to ensure a slow death of Somali pastoralists. The history of the Somali region in current-day Kenya is littered with such horrible stories committed against ethnic Somalis. And yet we hardly see or hear any condemnations labelled against successive brutal Kenyan regimes. 

The Background of NFD

The Northern Frontier District (NFD) came into being in 1925, when it was curved out of Jubbaland region in current-day southern Somalia. On June 26, 1960, four days before granting British Somaliland independence, the British government declared that all Somali-inhabited areas of East Africa should be unified in one administrative region, which in the end turned out a broken promise and another betrayal of the Somali people. However, after the dissolution of the former British colonies in the region, Britain granted administration of the Northern Frontier District (NFD) to the newly-decolonized Kenyan government despite an informal plebiscite demonstrating the overwhelming desire of the region’s population to join the newly-formed Somali Republic and the fact that the NFD was almost exclusively inhabited by ethnic Somalis. Once again, Somalis was dealt with yet another hammer blow by Britain following the giving away of the grazing land of Hawd and Reserved area (Ogaden) to Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia nine years earlier. As a result, the Somali nomads were brought under the cruel administration of a government that has little in common with its new subjects. With NFD now gone, the successive Kenyan governments enacted a number of repressive measures intended to frustrate and dissuade Somalis from joining their brethren in the north of the border. Consequently, Somali community leaders suspected of involvement in the so-called Shifta war were apprehended and routinely placed in preventative measures where most of them remained well into the late 1970s.

Despite all those hard measures imposed on them, the people of the region continued to maintain their brotherly relationship with their fellow Somalis on the other side of the colonial border. Their loyalty was never taken for granted despite late improvements in some aspects of their lives. The relationship between the brotherly people even grew stronger following the collapse of the Somali state in 1991 when hundreds of thousands of fleeing Somalis sought refuge in Kenya, particularly in former NFD.

Kenyan Invasion of Somalia

Following several high profile incidents in Lamu island resort where Western tourists were kidnapped and killed, Kenya Defense Force (KDF) invaded Somalia on the pretext of fighting Al- Shabaab on its turf – southern Somalia. Many experts, including members of IGAD warned the Kenyan government against such an invasion, voicing their fears that a prolonged and messy war will throw the whole region into chaos. I myself wrote an opinion piece on the issue in Wardheernews. It was obvious to many the presence of Kenyan forces in Somali soil, seen by majority of Somalis as their eternal enemies, will stir up more hatred towards the invading army and bring back old memories from a community reeling from past Kenyan transgressions. According to the original plan, or at least what was told to the world, the invasion should have been short and quick, but that theory has short-lived. With the Kenyan invasion now well into its fourth year and the fact that there is no exit strategy in sight, at least for the foreseeable future, the fear of Somalis that their country may succumb to Ethio-Kenyan conquest under the guise of AMISOM is fast becoming a reality. People of southern Somalia have suffered immensely under the KDF occupation where a low-paid and ill-disciplined force harass, torture and rape local women with impunity almost on a daily basis. This has created resentment among the local population and subsequently emboldened the terrorist group Al-Shabab who found a breeding ground for more recruits in the Somali-inhabited lands on both sides of the border. The Garissa slaughter may have a correlation with the marginalization of Somalis in the NFD as one of the perpetrators was a highly-educated local boy from the region whilst the other three are confirmed to come from Mombasa and the far western district of Bungoma in proper Kenya according to Daily Nation newspaper.

Conclusion

The Garisssa killing should be condemned by everyone with an ounce of humanity in their blood. It is despicable and cowardly act on the part of the perpetrators whoever they may be. But my fear is that this would be an excuse for the Kenyan Defense Force (KDF) to trample on the rights of ethnic Somalis in Kenya as has always been the case when such incidents take place. The omen is not looking good: Kenyan forces have already started bombing Somali villagers in Gedo indiscriminately where Al-Shabab has no permanent or visible camps to target for such punitive bombing. One can imagine the damage such a low-paid and ill-disciplined force could do to the local Somali community. As a result of the Garissa massacre, Kenyan authorities have taken measures that will have a severe economic impact on the vibrant, tax-paying Somali community in Eastleigh, Nairobi.

They already shut down the accounts of many Somali businesses and individuals in what is purely a kneejerk reaction and a collective punishment that was always the hallmark of the Kenyan authorities. Moreover, the largest Somali refugee camps in Dabaab and Kakuma are now facing a forceful eviction without due process. The current Somali government led by President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud is not expected to say much about the plight of Somalis in Kenya as most of his ministers and many high government officials made their second homes in Nairobi – the de facto Somali capital. Nor do the Somali-Kenyan representatives in Nairobi who, judging by their public statements, seem to be more Kenyan than the Kenyans. The prospect of Somalis in Kenya, whether they are refugees or the long suffering local residents in NFD, is indeed very bleak. The Garissa massacre may have all the world talking about it and condemning in loud voices, but the Wagalla massacre in 1984 where thousands upon thousands of ethnic Somali villagers perished was far worse in terms of death and human suffering, not to mention psychologically, than the Garissa one. The difference is simply being that while Wagalla victims were Muslim Somalis, the Garissa victims were largely Kenyan Christians. The Mohamed Adow’s recent Aljazeera documentary on the region was a reflection of this painfully reality. The international community shall call evil by it is proper name wherever it resides.

Mohamed Yabarag
Email:Myabarag@gmail.com

This article previously appeared on www.wardheernews.com 

Garissa: Biggest City between Nairobi and Mogadishu By Adan Makina  Oct. 18, 2010

The City of Garissa in Kenya’s North Eastern Province (NEP) has been on the top list of the most peaceful cities in East and Central Africa for over twenty years. It is the provincial headquarter of NEP as well as the administrative center for Garissa District. Named after a riverine local Pokomo elder or farmer called Karisa, Garissa became a recognized settlement in 1936.  Majority of the inhabitants of Garissa are ethnic Somalis. Besides subsistence and small scale farming and local business initiatives by urbanites, livestock raring remains the major sustainer of the region’s economy.

From 1963 when Kenya became a sovereign republic until the late eighties, the region suffered chronic insecurity resulting from tribal warfare, recurring banditry, poaching, and cattle-rustling.
However, regardless of the insecurity, Garissa District has continuously for years recorded the highest concentration of livestock in East and Central Africa. Traders in Garissa get their surplus livestock from Somalia’s southern regions thus making Garissa a haven for livestock merchants primarily between the months of January and April when the volume of cattle substantially increases. Cattle trading in Garissa attract traders from as far as Machakos, Nairobi, Nyeri, Mombasa and other coastal towns during this time of the year consequently transforming the city into a beehive of activity.

Despite generating enough revenue from the taxation of cattle sales, Garissa city has lagged behind other cities of Kenya in all aspects of development. The district’s markets in southern Somalia include Baidoa, Dinsor, Qorioley, Jowhar, Afgoi, Salagle, Bardhere and Afmadow, among others. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that 60-80% of livestock in Garissa originate from the Somali region in Ethiopia, Somalia, and other divisions within NEP. In the past, the district experienced remarkable government involvement after health concerns related to the epidemiological outbreaks of Rinderpest (cattle plague or steppe murrain) and other devastating foot and mouth diseases necessitated in the enforcement of veterinary regulations leading to abrupt closure of cattle markets.

Despite being the major supplier of beef to major cities in Kenya and to as far as Tanzania and despite being the largest city between Nairobi and Mogadishu, Garissa greets its visitors with grim reality. With the exception of a teachers’ training college and one Islamic university founded by mindful businessmen and overseas-based organizations, the city has no secular university; it has no feasible infrastructure; the only visible tarmac located in the city center measures a few kilometers; its dusty potholed streets transform into lakes during rainy seasons; the municipality and the city council have no refuse collection systems in place thus making inhabitants susceptible to waterborne and airborne diseases; it has no manufacturing industries; unemployment is rife; drug addiction among the youth continues to skyrocket; poverty, beggary, and street children remain an eyesore and a social menace, and worst of all poor land allocation strategies riddled with corruption has been the major cause of civil skirmishes among the tribal-minded inhabitants resulting in government application of emergency laws such as extended curfews and deployment of the dreaded General Service Unit (GSU) together with the rapid Deployment Unit (RDU) to quell disturbances.

The city has a long history of election rigging; harassment of electors and opposition groups is common-dirty tricks and techniques inherited from past fallen autocratic regimes. Just like their cousins across the border, Somalis in Garissa and other parts of NEP have over and over again championed clan domineering approaches by unconventional means especially by rampant warring and ethnic animosities.

Reminiscent of Somalia’s “Guulwadeyaasha” or revolutionary youth during the military junta, Kenyatta and Moi era governments relied on a force that recklessly represented the Kenya African National Union (KANU) Party-a consortium of embellished, underfunded youth wingers whose arguments rested on the just war doctrine of “kill or be killed”. Such political plunders ensured the uninterrupted reclamation and continuation of political structure and extension of inheritance for the old guards.

The trouncing of Moi’s single-party regime and the birth of multiparty democracy in 1992 did little to alter the pervasive past odious events. In fact it exacerbated the political scenario when new contestants found their ambitions obstructed by the same old guards who jumped on the bandwagon using the same old tricks inherited from their past masters of deception.

Causes of Underdevelopment

Sir Evelyn Baring, Governor of Kenya in the 1950s, greeting local tribal leaders in Garissa

If we are to understand the circumstances leading to the region’s underperformance, discriminatory practices, and developmental retardation we will need to understand the past inhuman practices by the Kenya government. The district has suffered poor county representation since Kenya’s attainment of independence in 1963. Because of their adroitness at accumulating wealth, majority of the region’s uneducated councilors have promoted their self-esteem and thus harbor elitist mentality such that even those who bowed out of politics remain a force to reckon with. These men have the power to imprison, kill or regain one’s freedom. While the poor suffer dental decay due to unhygienic eating habits coupled with shortage of dentists, the uneducated honorable councilor displays sparkling white teeth because of abundance of money at his disposal.

Even though the foremost social security benefits for civic leaders and high-ranking government employees is measured by the number of children one has for future retirement, the tendency to loot enough money before withdrawal from the service remain the major objective. It is saddening to see a civic leader whose tenure of office is a mere five years and whose monthly salary is about $300 residing in a personal mansion worth $100,000. Unquestionably, such wealth has been accumulated through the use of corrupt practices. Misuse of Community Development Fund (CDF), exploitation of budgetary allotments, and stealing of taxation from sales add up to the accumulation of wealth. For a long time, stealing from state treasury has been a hallmark of African politics and Kenya, because of its corruption ranking profile, is no exception.

A cross-section of Residents of Bulla Mzuri (Fiican)-Garissa

The Offspring of a Snake is a Snake

The above phrase is a translation of the Kiswahili saying “mtoto wa nyoka ni nyoka”. It has been used by corrupt Kenya leaders as a rallying cry to provoke non-Somalis to hate and oppress Kenya-Somalis. The saying inspired Kenya leaders after the succession of past Somali governments instigated political irredentism and supported the repossession of what used to be the Northern Frontier District (NFD) from the Republic of Kenya. This idiomatic expression and phraseologically provocative aphorism applied to almost every Kenyan-Somali and that its widespread use slackened only after the collapse of the Somali central government in 1991.

The bitter territorial dispute that kicked-off between Kenya and Somalia in the 60s has gone down in history as the “Shifta War”. The word Shifta (or “shufta”) implies a bandit, outlaw, or rebel. The name became an allusion andnom de guerre for every Kenyan-Somali regardless of whether one was a law-abiding citizen or a contextually sadistic law-breaking criminal. Thus, Kenya-Somalis saw themselves wedged between two diametrically opposed forces with profound conflicting ideologies-one a civilian authoritarian government (Kenya) with western inclinations and a dictatorial regime (Somalia) -espousing a plethora of political dimensions. Thousands of families lacking guidance or controlling force or influence crossed the border into Somalia to escape extensive hostilities on the Kenya side. Leaders of the Northern Province People’s Progressive Party (NPPP) incorporated Somalis, Borana, Rendille, and others.

Damaliscus hunteri-this animal is listed as an endangered species and a few remain in conservation in Kenya's Garissa District

For decades, Garissa had been under the radar of Kenya security and intelligence agencies primarily because the region was under martial law decreed immediately after Kenya’s proclamation of independence.

Besides the insecurity that came with the shifta menace, widespread illegal poaching by Somalis scavenging for better living conditions decimated-if not-drastically reduced wildlife concentration in Kenya ’s internationally-acclaimed national parks and game reserves. Besides the hazards of wildlife plundering, poachers stealthily brought with them dangerous small arms that endangered the lives of government game wardens whose task implied the protection of wild game and the preservation of Kenya’s vigorous tourist industry. Since independence and till this day, tourism has been a cornerstone and sustainer of Kenya’s economy.  The best the Kenya government can do for the moment and in the future is to fully integrate Kenya-Somalis and give them a share of the national cake.

Adan Makina
WardheerNews Contributor
E-Mail:adan.makina@gmail.com