The Rendille

The Rendille, as noted by William A. Chanler, who later on became a Member of the U.S. House of Representative from New York’s 14th District after completing a three-year stint in East Africa, described their physical characteristics as tall, slender, and soft-haired with reddish-brown complexion and narrow facial features. Physically peculiar in context, the man who would later on turn to become a novelist and anti-Semite, noticed that the Rendille had blue eyes. Such peculiarities were later on noted by Augustus Henry Keane in 1900, John Scott Keltie in 1904 and John Henry Patterson (1909).

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Abdirahman Mursal

Between 1915 and 1918, according to the East African Protectorate (EAP) colonial administrators’ perspectives , the Aulihan had been waging sacrilegious wars against the British and the Samburu. Under the command of Abdulrahman Mursal of the Wafate subclan–a man who vowed to turn a blind eye to any form of British sovereignty in his area of jurisdiction–finally, in 1916, succeeded in killing the Colonial District Commissioner (DC), Lieutenant Francis Elliot, at Serenli–a small settlement known to Somalis as Sarinley that is close to the current Somali border town of Bardere–named either after the towering Hyphaena compresaa or Commelina sp. trees that are common in that area. According to Sultan Deghow, almost all of Abdirahman Mursal’s fighters were from his clan and that there were no other Somali clans involved in his battles with the locals and the colonial administration. To many Somalis, Abdirahman Mursal was neither a criminal nor a cattle rustler, but a valiant fighter who was against any form of foreign influence especially Britain’s overwhelmingly unprecedented subjugation of his people. His hatred for foreign domination remains in record when he proclaimed as an oath of defiance, “By Allah, I will not be a slave to the Government.”

Sheikh Adan Bulhan

He was a man of unique character and among the best in terms of dress and fashion. A resident of Garissa, Adan had three brothers namely Sigat Bulhan, Dagane Bulhan, and Hakar Bulhan. Distinct from his fellow pastoral nomadic tribesmen, Adan symbolized a sophisticated imperturbable civilized character. He was a young broad minded and determined youth who was dedicated to accomplish his desired goals especially the pursuance of religious education in far distant lands.

Young Adan's historic departure coincided with an era when Somalia was placed under trusteeship that lasted from 1948 to 1958. That colonial legacy happened after the landing of the Four Powers Commission in 1948. The delegation of the powers came from Britain, Russia, France, and the United States respectively. To strangulate Somali fight for self-determination and ensure the powers of the Somali Youth League remained suppressed indefinitely, the trusteeship became a binding factor.

Around 1952, as was common with many Somalis in the former NFD craving for religious knowledge, young Sheikh Adan had no other option but to travel to Somalia or, if it would have been possible, to the Ogaden Region in current day Ethiopia where the best scholars could be found. Other places popular with religious propagation included Baidoa, Buur Hakaba, and Dinsor that were populated by the Rahanweyn Somalis--a clan known for unparalleled human generosity and for hosting seekers of Islamic education. The name Dinsor (Diinsoor) implies 'host of faith'.

Adan's religious pursuit coincided with a period of religious revivalism and the self pursuit of divine excellence. By then, there was stiff competition between the adherents of Ahmediya (founded by Sheikh Ahmed Idris al Fasi) and the Qadiriya (founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani). Regardless of the doctrinal thoughts of the two tariqas, Somalis romanticized both orders.

Unlike the few Somalis who traversed thousands of kilometers to Kismayu and surrounding forests to study the art of occultism or necromancy and hagiology from well versed sorcerers and sortilegers, young Adan set foot in Mogadishu, his preferred destination. It was the Mogadishu that served as "the Seat of the Shah", the city that hosted Ibn Battuta, and the maritime interconnector known to the Greeks and Romans as Sarapion as noted in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.

With approach of the demise of the trusteeship, young Adan got a free scholarship to study Arabic, Qur'anic exegesis and jurisprudence from the oldest university in the world--al- Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. It was an illuminating gesture Adan would never turn down.

By 1954, he sent a letter of introduction from Cairo to a new friend in Garissa. Imagine there was mail delivery system those days, administered by the British Colonial Administration in British East Africa!

Young Adan returned to Somalia after hoisting of the flag of independence. With multiple degrees in hand, he was now Sheikh Adan Bulhan. Sheikh Adan was the first Somali from northern Kenya to be conferred on with a degree from a prestigious foreign institution of higher learning. Some of the destinations many cadres of the new Somali administration got educated included Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia among others.

Excerpt From The Struggles of Sultan Deghow Sambul

Sultan Deghow had forty siblings of which fifteen females and males are currently living. With such a large and extended family, the Sultan has never been fortunate enough to see each and everyone for some passed away while he was in exile. His first wife was Maryan Mohamed Yusuf, an astute woman who conceived his first child and son Mohamed Deghow, an over six-foot tall and formerly a staunch soccer player. Before the collapse of the central government in Mogadishu in 1991, Mohamed Deghow was a Captain in the Somali Police Force–a rank equal to a police inspector. Sultan Deghow’s second wife, Halima Hassan Maaddey was the daughter of the Sultan of the Maqabul–a subclan of the Ogaden Confederation. Halima gave the Sultan four sons who all reside in the United States and a daughter who is married to a prominent Kenyan politician.

Maryan, his first wife, is the half-sister of Honorable Yusuf Hassan–a long time employee of the United Nations and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He is the current Member of Parliament for the sprawling, metropolitan Somali-populated Kamukunji Constituency in Nairobi and was first elected into office in 2011. Son of Hassan Abdi (Indho Gamuun or the sharp-eyed), Hon. Yusuf has brought much of the needed development to his electorates who are widely dispersed in the famous Eastleigh suburb of Nairobi that is second only to the Central Business District (CBD) in terms of business acumen and income generation in Eastern and Central Africa. Elected to office two terms by his electorates, Yusuf has been a victim of a well-orchestrated terrorist attack in December of 2012. He suffered a fractured leg and has so far recovered from the injuries. A soft-spoken man, Yusuf was named “Person of the Year” in 2012 by the Somali website Hiiraan.