THE NORTHERN FRONTIER DISTRICT: The Struggles of Deghow Maalim Sambul

Authored By Adan Makina

Published By: Audi Publishers, Nairobi, Kenya

August 5, 2022.

A Book Review

The book, “The Northern Frontier District: The Struggles of Deghow Maalim Sambul” by author Adan Makina and published by Dr. Audi Publishing based in Nairobi, Kenya is an intermixture of descriptive, narrative and expository composition of recollections of tales of Somalis, even though it mainly focuses on the major events that occurred during Somalia’s claim to the Northern Frontier District (NFD) that was handed over to Kenya by the British colonial administration before its final departure in the early sixties. Among the legendary figures who took part in the struggle for NFD were a group of men hailing from different Somali clans together with the Boran–the first born of the nine sons of the Oromo plus the Rendille. While the main biographical character is the living octogenarian Sultan Deghow Maalim Sambul, the book carries captivating historical events that will hopefully give the reader the urge to keep on reading it to the end. With over 500 pages, the book brings together different topics such as anthropology, paleontology, ornithology, toponymy and etymology, history and historiography, theology, comprehensive pronunciamentos, botany and ethnography and other defining factors that are unique to Somalis only.

 

A hardcover book with colored picturesque, it took the author over five years to bring it to its current feature. From ancient times when Abyssinia and Somalia were both ruled by the Egyptians of aforetime, the book traces the history of Somalis in order to evade the fictional research penumbration (from penumbra) of foreign contemporary writers whose penmanship remain engrossed in suspicion to this day. According to Sultan Deghow Maalim sambul–an octogenarian who is loaded with tons of previously unrevealed hair-raising narrations, “Somali history is either in par with ancient Egyptian history if not older.”

 

Jailed by the British colonial administration in Kenya at the infamous Manyani (baboon) Prison that is surrounded by wild baboons like the Papio hamadryas–the baboon that inspired Queen Hatshepsut during her voyage to the “Land of Gods” or the “Land of Punt” and currently known as Manyani Maximum Prison, he was also placed behind bars by the new Republic of Kenya in Kajiado Prison after the British departure and likewise incarcerated in complete isolation by the military regime of Somalia. The prison that resembles the infamous Devil’s Island in French Guiana that held famous men like the innocent French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus in 1894 on trumped up charges of spying for Germany even though he was later exonerated, the surroundings of Manyani Prison is also home to the African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). While in incarceration at Kajiado Prison in 1966, one night, the Kenya government hatched a plot to execute Sultan Deghow and his Deputy Wako Hapi Taro of the Boran/Oromo.

However, since there were dedicated Somalis who worked with the British administration, a young Somali man who hailed from the Sheikh Isxaaq clan of the Habr Yunis sub-clan, upon getting the security details, immediately took action to save them from the intended murderous acts. Sofe rescued them from the hands of Geel Qaad (camel rustler)–a Somali and cousin of Deghow and a Kikuyu by the name Kigandi. Both men were responsible for extra-judicial killings since they were from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The young man’s father worked for Karen Blixen, meaning Sofe was just like Karen’s child. Karen was a Danish lady from Copenhagen and it was Farah Aden, Sofe’s father, under instructions from his White male employer and coffee farmer who instructed him to travel to Kilindini Harbor in Mombasa and bring her to his farm in the White Highlands. On seeing him, Karen was overtaken by admiration for Farah because she mistook him for an Indian since he was handsome, tall and wore a turban on his head. Currently in Nairobi, there is a suburb named after her.

The reason behind constructing impenetrable maximum prisons like that of Devil’s Island by the French and Robben Island of South Africa by the Dutch that housed men like Imam Abdallah ibn Qadi Abdus Salaam (1780-1793) for his anti-colonial activities and Sayed Abdurahman Moturu– a former Prince of the Madura and one of Cape Town's first imams who was imprisoned in 1740 until his death in 1754, was to dissuade the prisoners from escaping and if it so happened, they would have been devoured by sea carnivores like the Killer Whales, Great White Sharks, and Barracudas and on land, Polar Bears would be in waiting. Others who were kept in solitude included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Jacob Zuma, and Ahmed Kathrada etc. As for Manyani Maximum Prison, it was within the Tsavo National Park that was known for Man-Eaters like lions, leopards, cheetahs and other carnivores. Jailed with Deghow and Wako Hapi was Alex Kolkolle from the Rendille–an ethnic group known to Somalis as RerDiid, meaning those who abandoned their relatives but are currently RerDoon, denoting seekers of those they abandoned in the past.

 

The biographee, a man who has a degree in political science is also a military strategist trained abroad. Prior to the outbreak of the 1977-78 War between Somalia and Ethiopia over the Somali-occupied region in Ethiopia that was handed over to Ethiopia in 1957 by Britain, France and Italy who were referred to as Allied Powers after the Ethiopian Emperor complained that he was “surrounded by an ocean of Pagans”–a term implying Muslims from different ethnic groups, the first batch of fighters sent by Somalia’s military were primarily taken forcefully from Qoryooley Refugee Camp that was home to the former Northern Frontier District Liberation Front (NFDLF), the Somali Abbo or the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), formerly the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). Since the biographee was against the misuse of his guerilla fighters in the run up to the Somalia-Ethiopia, Major General Mohamed Siyad Barre, seeing the sultan as an opposition to his militaristic ideals, indefinitely placed him in total incarceration for a complete year.

 

Regardless of the torturous detention by President Barre, Sultan Deghow narrates that in later years, the president transformed in to a Fidus Achates. In one encounter between the two men after the president tendered him an invitation, to avoid dying intestate, the leader of the military regime revealed to Deghow information that required dissemination to the Somali people in case he died before him. It was information related to the bloodless coup d’état of 1969 and how he mischievously took over power from the inheritor to-be. However, it was when SNM captured Hargeisa in 1991, that Barre sought the help of Sultan Deghow.

 

“In a face-to-face conversation between Barre and Deghow, the main agenda of the meeting centered on getting military help from Deghow since he had a strong guerrilla force inside Somalia who, had he accepted, would have energized the ailing Somali Army and denervated the forces that had complete control over the northern territories. By then the Somali army had fragmented tremendously with military desertions, indiscipline and disloyalty becoming the norm. Feeling defeated and on the verge of collapse, Barre did everything he could do to convince Deghow to provide him the necessary assistance to subdue the SNM that transformed into a force to reckon with. However, Deghow who was a man who believed in Somalinness without regard to clan moiety, totally opposed Barre’s militaristic obsessions.

In response to Barre’s request, Deghow reminded him that his forces were guests of Somalia and that their presence in Somalia had nothing to do with Somali internal affairs. Tempers cooled down after Barre’s son, General Maslax intervened by siding with Deghow on the issue of military assistance. By then, Deghow, who was a military strategist and also trained in political science had already made up his mind not to support Barre because he was well aware of the general injustices and the hardships, he imposed on the people of Somaliland who, voluntarily for the love of Somalinness, accepted the July 1, 1960 unification with southern Italian Somaliland to form what became known as the Somali Democratic Republic.

Furthermore, Deghow felt perturbed and flabbergasted every time he recalled how Barre placed his own Somali loving fighters from the NFDLF in the frontline during the Ogaden War of 1977-78 that exacerbated Somalia’s approaching collapse.”[1] It was the Ogaden War that set the stage for Jimmy Carter’s first foreign policy assignment and the demise of détente.[2]

On the other hand, Deghow met Muamar Qaddafi of Libya after a delegation from South Africa that was headed by Nelson Mandela left earlier even though he met delegates from Gibraltar and Liberia with Charles Taylor as the head of the delegation. After leaving Sirta in Libya, Deghow flew to London to meet with a half-dozen men from Mwakenya–an opposition movement from Kenya that wanted to have unity with NFDLF so they could topple the twenty-four years reigning President Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi (deceased). Deghow bluntly told them that he could not reach a decision alone without the presence or knowledge of his companions. The Mwakenya delegation was led by a famous professor from the Kikuyu ethnic group of Kenya–the same professor who described in one of his books the sultan’s cousin millionaire Mahat Kuno Roble “intelligent illiterate millionaire.”

With Somalis being the toughest in Africa in terms of business entrepreneurship and political participations especially by the Somali diaspora in foreign lands, and other sectors such as education and even sports, you may be surprised to learn that even among Somali mothers, historian and Canadian Professor Ray Beachey (deceased 2010)–a man who taught prominent leaders like Benedicto Kiwanuka, Uganda's first prime minister; Yusuf Lule, the country's provisional president in 1979 and Kenya’s former President Mwai Kibaki (deceased), at the former Makerere University of Uganda–later Makerere University–in his book The Warrior Mullah, 1990, recorded that, one of the three wives of Seyid Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, Xasna Dhoorre, commanded one of his nine well-armed divisions. Though we do not have her photo, the book contains the photo of her brother Commander Abshir Dhoorre and credit goes to Mohamed Nuh who provided the author of the book the photo of the male dervishes’ commander. Usually, a military division ranges from 10,000 to 25,000 well-armed soldiers and commanded by a Major General while assisted by two Brigadiers. For Xasna Dhorreh, she was short of attaining only three ranks to head a nation’s army: Lieutenant General, General and Field Marshall respectively.

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[1] Makina, A. (2022). The Northern Frontier District: The Struggles of Sultan Deghow Maalim Sambul (5^th edition). Dr. Audi Publishing. ISBN 978-9914-40-480-7.

[2] Jackson, D. R. (2010). The Ogaden war and the demise of detente. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 632(1), 26-40.

 

RESEARCH PAPER ON HINDUISM

 

Hinduism

Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent and is often referred

to as Sanātana Dharma (सनातन धर्म) by its followers, a phrase from Sanskrit meaning ‘eternal law’. Having no single founder, “Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion after Christianity and Islam, with approximately a billion adherents, of whom 905,000 live in India. Other countries with large Hindu populations include Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, and the United States.” i The name Hindu has its origin in Old Persian word ‘Hindu’–a reference to the Indus River. Muslim writers of Arab origin referred Hindu to include “the land of the people of modern day India.”ii

Hindu reform movements and revivalists started using the term Hinduism in the 19^th century. Its widespread forbearance to differences and inflexible ingenuousness make it complicated to be classified as a religion according to conventional Western ideas. Hinduism is an Eastern religion, is non-missionary, belief in life is cyclical, and that god is ultimate reality and “immanent.” iii

In Hinduism, “God so conceived is called Saguna Brahman, or God-with-attributes as distinct from the philosophers’ more abstract Nirguna Brahman, or God-without-attributes. Nirguna Brahman is the ocean without a ripple; Saguna Brahman the same ocean alive with swells and waves.” iv

With Brahman being the absolute, this religion of 33 million gods, has its scriptural knowledge preserved in the Vedas written in Sanskrit-the language of the Hindu scriptures. The gods of Hinduism include Brahman who is the creator god, Vishnu the preserver god with 10 avatars, and Siva or Shiva who is the god of destruction. The Hindu path of knowledge is identified as Jnana Yoga with yoga being discipline or yoke. Hindus believe in Karma which entails cause/effect actions while Dharma implies law, duty, or correct behavior.

Denominations of Hinduism

Hinduism may be categorized into four denominations: Saivism, Shaktism, Smartism, and Vaishnavism.

• Saivism. The followers of this denomination who believe in Shiva as ‘All and in all’ is the oldest of all the sects of Hinduism. They believe that Shiva is the creator, preserver, destroyer, revealer, and concealer of all that is.  Adherents can be found throughout India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka and most notably in Southeast Asia especially in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.
• Shaktism. This sect focuses on the worship of the Hindu divine mother Shakti or Devi as the absolute, ultimate godhead. They regard Shakti as the supreme Brahman and the “one without a second”, having all forms of divinity, female or male, as divine expression. The most fundamental and crucial text of Shaktism is the Devi Mahatmya, compiled almost 1,600 years ago. Other important canonical texts include the Puranic literature and Devi Gita. Shaktism has transcended borders and is no longer restricted to India alone. Shakta temples can be found in Southeast Asia, the United States of America, Europe, and Australia where Indian Diaspora Hindus have become deeply rooted. Despite Hinduism being regarded a non-missionary religion; two major temples in the confines of major U.S. cities include the Kali Mandir in Laguna Beach, California, and the Sri Rajarajeshwari Peetam, a Srividya Shakta temple in rural Rush, New York. The proliferation of Shaktism in the U.S. and the East-West synthesis of ideological interchange have endeared many doubting agnostics to embrace it causing troubling and intricate enlightening appropriation.
• Smartism. Worshippers of the six signs (Ganesha, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu, Surya, and Skanda) or the resemblance of all the deities as the unanimity of godhead and the conceptualization of the myriad deities of India, Smartans believe Brahman is essentially without attribute or is attribute-less. Described as liberal or non-sectarian, Smartans “…follow a philosophical, meditative path, emphasizing man’s oneness with god through understanding.” v
• Vaishnavism. This is the fourth branch of Hinduism. Adherents believe in reincarnation, samsara, karma, and various yoga practices with emphasis on bkati yoga (devotion) to Vishnu.

The Hindu Caste System

“The Hindu caste system is unique in the world, but resembles in some ways Plato’s ideal society of philosophers, warriors and commoners. A caste is a division of society based on occupation and family lineage. Hindu caste system recognized four distinct classes or divisions among people based on these criteria and enforced it through a rigid code of conduct that was specific to each class and rooted in the dharmashastras (law books) of the later Vedic period.” vi

From the cry of the author of above article, we learn that in Hinduism, caste is an important factor in determining where one belongs as categorized below:

• Brahmins. These are the priestly class or caste that enjoys the highest degree of honor. They dedicate their entire lives to learning and preserving the Vedas, perform rituals and procedures, and observe self-punishment. They show exemplary behavior and are the caretakers of knowledge and traditions. As recorded in the Dharma (sacred tradition), a Brahmin is raised to look after and serve the Dharma. The Brahmins are regarded as a noble class endowed with knowledge and intellect.
• Kshatriyas. They belonged to the warrior and landowner caste and were empowered to protect the people, shower the Brahmins with gifts, abstain from sensual cravings, present sacrifices to the gods and the ancestors, learn the holy texts, and bestow righteousness.
• Vaishyas. Though not allowed to marry women of higher castes, they enjoyed the advantage of merchants and peasants, they studied the Vedas, they were traders and money lenders, and were allowed to participate in certain rituals.
• Shudras. Their main duty was to serve the three higher castes. Traditionally, they were looked upon as laborers and were not duty bound to read or study the Vedas.
• Chandalas. The lowest of all castes, they were considered impure and unholy. Living on the fringes of society, they were regarded as untouchables because they practiced magic and had unclean habits, were considered loathsome and despicable by the upper castes. Perhaps, seeing the living disparities of the Indian people and the abject poverty this group lived in is what drove Mahatma Gandhi to classify them as “Harijans” or “god’s people.” 

Regardless of the existence of Bhakti (love/devotion) in the Vedas, and the prevalent categorization of society as a result of Karma, the visual focus known as Tantra, the daily reverent gesture of Namaste and the all-encompassing overall responsibility of Ahimsa (non-injury), if we are go by the admonitions of the Vedas, exclusively for the unconditional observance of the Mantra which is the sacred word or formula, we are led to the conclusion that Hinduism will undergo revivalism if equality and justice is to be attained before the revered Brahma regardless of equanimity of Samsara (cycle of birth). Many in India see their mode of governance as far from being a democracy but a ‘castocracy’-a system of administration where people vote for the leader in observance of the caste system that is so ingrained in the mental make-up of the general population.

Hinduism Goddesses

• Ganesha. “All Tantric and spiritual worship in the Hindu tradition begins with the invocation of Ganesha (Ganesh), the elephant-headed god.” vii There are many historical versions regarding how Ganesha got her elephant head. One version relates how Parvati (Shiva’s wife) created Ganesha in the absence of Siva (Shiva) to watch over her quarters. When Shiva wanted to see Parvati, Ganesha objected to which Shiva cut off her head. Later on, Shiva gave Ganesha the head of an elephant because there was no replacement.
• Annapurna. She is the Hindu goddess of food and cooking. An incarnation of the Hindu goddess Parvati, wife of Shiva, Annapurna is said to have the power to nourish indefinite number of people.
• Saraswati. She is described as the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, and the creative arts. Also called the goddess of speech, Saraswati is often seen dressed in white, riding on a swan and sometimes on a peacock, and is depicted holding a palm leaf-an indication of knowledge.

 NB: This paper was first written on October 11, 2008

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i http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism

ii Thapar, R.1993. Interpreting Early India. Delhi: Oxford University Press. P. 77

iii Encarta Dictionary: English (North America). Existing in all parts of the universe. Describes God as existing in and extending into all parts of the created universe.

iv Huston Smith: The World Religions. Harper Collins Publishers Inc. 10 East 53^rd Street, New York, NY 10022

v http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2003/10-12/44-49_four_sects.shtml

vi http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/h_caste.asp

vii http://www.santanasociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/ganesha.htm

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