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.

 

A Comprehensive History of Somalia: A Book Review

Adan Makina

June 14, 2012

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history-Mahatma Gandhi

When Ismail Ali Ismail started writing his newly published book that synchronously details the history of Somalia and the Somali people, he had one thing in mind: the delivery of a sequence of events that is free from preconceived notions, preferential treatments, tribal inclinations, and irrelevant gossip. The book, Governance: The Scourge and Hope of Somalia, is a comprehensive history of Somalia and the Somali people and traces the root causes of the miasma and mendacity that have become the hallmarks of the ongoing irremediable Somali intransigence that is like a malignant cancer consuming the very core of Somali political fabric to this day. The book was published by Trafford Publishing in 2010 with the assigned International Standard Book Numbers being ISBN 978-1-4269-1980-0 for its soft cover and ISBN 978-1-4269-2099-0 for the hard cover. An academic, a public servant of previous Somali governments, and a long time diplomat assigned to various official responsibilities, Ismail’s knowledge of the Somali people and their political ideals may be described as unrivalled and as well unparalleled.

Unlike litigious historical chronicles penned down by past and present opinionated foreign or Somali writers, Ismail’s penmanship will remain evident in its nature of journalism and scholarly research for quite some time. His energy to write has been fuelled by a passion to expose the truth about a people and a nation whose history has become negligible.

What makes the book most attractive is the magnificence and eloquence of language and its cheerfulness and eagerness to marvelously calibrate undiagnosed historical phantasms. Like a camel herder traversing a desert storm in search of sustenance, the author perilously struggled to scramble through bookshelves and internet sites with the sole aim of unearthing and putting together a historical exegesis of profound importance to anyone interested in deciphering the circumstances surrounding Somalia’s exhaustive political entanglement. Voluminous and over four-hundred pages, Governance: The Scourge and Hope of Somalia, has a lot to tell the reader from the beginning chapter to the end.  It is a well researched book that has been written with good intentions. Almost every chapter begins with an ayah (verse) from the Holy Qur’an followed by eye-catching remarks by distinguished historical figures espousing unblemished character, dignity, and great wisdom. In giving a broader meaning to the term clash of civilizations, the author explains how the struggle between Islam and Christianity affected the people of the Horn of Africa. 

The might of Somali pastoral democracy and Somali past history stretch back several millenniums as opposed to the unfounded and untested lexicon of exaggerations that populate imperial libraries. The author illuminates the might of former sultans whose tutelage, according to territorial and ethnographic location, varied in the manner of their sovereignty and hierarchical applications across the expansive Somali peninsula.

The author uses numerous scholarly references to disentangle causes of past Somali obduracy and other malevolent historical dynamics that accelerated the rupturing of the once homogeneous Somali pastoral society. It is quite painful and mind-blowing for modern Somalis to experience the worst form of divisions, tribalism, and shocking forms of slaughter using all avenues of destruction including the application of modern war machinery while during the Somali Youth League (SYL) era there was little or no resistance among the few concerned nationalists whose unity rested on getting rid of the shackles of colonialism. Somalis are volatile, violent, and virulent when fighting among themselves and peaceful, graceful, and generous, when dealing with foreigners sharing equal thoughts and processes.

Somali volatility preceded the colonial administrations of Britain and Italy respectively. For centuries, tribal animosity and blood feuds have been the hallmarks of the unmarked greater Somali tribal territories where violence triggered by flimsy altercations led to unstoppable virulence spreading like wildfire and consequently consuming inhabitants of homesteads and kraals scattered countrywide. Periods of peace and prosperity allowed peripatetic nomads in search of pasture to traverse extensive territories and open a path for European explorers dedicated to charting avenues for future jingoistic imperialism followed by malevolent colonization. News of Somali valor and perseverance against European colonialism pilfered through Somalia’s southern neighbors Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania resulting in the historical events that became known as Mau Mau, Maji Maji, and Hehe rebellions. To the Arabs of South Arabia, the message was simple and clear: “if Somalis are free, why not us”.

The first chapter of the book scrutinizes the near century of colonial governance where Somalia was divided along colonial powers England and Italy leading to the pitiless British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland mandates that resulted in the partition of Somali territories the same time leaders of the mighty African continent were engaged in struggles for self-determination. In making comparative investigations of the two distinct administrations, the author pinpoints the lugubrious nature of the Italian colonial administration and the noninterference of the British in the Somali social makeup. The Italians callously manipulated Somali sovereignty by imposing a variety of restrictions that were meant to dismantle existing Somali social structure.

Thus, the very authoritarian fabrics of Rome transcended the borders of Italy finally arriving as anarchical condiments in areas of the mighty African continent where Italian totalitarianism reigned supreme. Italy’s loss of Libya and Eritrea culminated in Italian ersatz imperialism to grab the agriculturally fertile southern Somalia territories straddling the meandering Juba and Shebelle rivers. Despite pilfering Somali natural and human resources for close to a century, colonial powers Britain and Italy did little to diffuse to the Somalis the virtues of democratic organization, authority and control, and the principle and conduct of governance. Naturally, Somalis are an egalitarian society and it is incomprehensible for the British and Italians to abandon Somalia without injecting an iota of reliable governance.

Perhaps, what southern Somalis inherited from the Italians is nothing but pasta di semola di grano duro and pasta di soia. And as for the northern Somalis, what they inherited from the British is nothing but the leaves of Camellia sinensis, otherwise known as tea that was introduced in East Africa by British barons who oversaw the cultivation of vast tracts of land around the White Highlands-land that straddles the lush green Rift Valley in Kenya. The Rift Valley originates in Jordan and ends in the lower Zambezi Valley Mozambique in southern Africa.

Somali stiff resistance to colonialism paved the way for self-determination and complete independence for the northern British Somaliland and the southern Italian Somaliland territories that had been separated for quite some time. The proclamation of independence on the 1^st of July, 1960 heralded an era of unification a

nd the intermingling of two homogeneously related communities but ideologically clothed in contorted English and Italian administrative styles. The sudden separation from British and Italian apathy led the two Somalis to chart a new avenue for a honeymoon that would last less than a decade. Unfortunately, Africa’s first democratic government headquartered in Mogadishu-“the seat of the Shah”-crumbled after a coup d’état orchestrated by a group of military officers took the nation by surprise at a time when military leadership was a political fashion in Africa and some parts of Asia.  

There is a lot to learn from Ismail’s penmanship. The book is comprehensive in context as it dwells into the historical aspects of the collapse of the military junta in 1991 consequently plunging Somalia into myriads of problems that include foreign interference in the form of humanitarian missions, warlord supremacy, extremism and religious anarchy, tribal hostilities, maritime depletion, armed insurrections, prolonged droughts and environmental degradation, political obscurantism in almost every conceivable canton, piracy, assassinations, and the meteoric rise of Islamists.

If you are writing a paper for your college on Somalia or if you are in the process of preparing a thesis or dissertation that is exclusive to Somalia, the book, Governance: The Scourge and Hope of Somalia, is one important document you would want to consult and reference before embarking on your erudite and scholarly journey to academic success. Adding it to your exotic library for future use could be an added advantage.

Adan Makina

WardheerNews

adan.makina@gmail.com  

Nomad Diaries Rekindles Old Memories

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In a country like Somalia where communal structural composition is dictated by patriarchalism, confounding sedentary lifestyles, ferocious intertribal violence, political obscurantism, wife-beating and wife-inheritance, polygamous and arranged marriages, and recurring rivalry, prospective female writers often find themselves in troubling situations that plight their struggle for scholarly recognition.

Undoubtedly, such inhuman and belligerent literary blockades riddled with explosively unwarranted hate towards our female partners by cynical males contribute to gender segregation. However, for many optimistic and fortunate female Somali writers in the Diaspora, female abhorrence and negative perceptions have become tales of the ancients as many have found literary succor in distant lands-lands whose governing styles repudiate male domineering, authoritarianism, and insensate jungle laws.

Shockingly, freedom of press has opened the gates for tarantula of controversial male and female writers who unabashedly and publicly denigrate African and Islamic values, renounce the Islamic faith, and proclaim atheism. Hateful utterances jotted down in the lines of a book will never change concerted societal political resolve nor deter steadfast adherents from following their religious beliefs nor dissuade committed aspirants from plotting their ambitions.

Unlike writers driven by Islamophobia, ethno-nationalism and ethnocentrism, color bar, and malevolent speechifying propaganda, Nomad diaries (NomadHouse, 2009), a new book that gracefully and radiantly towers above other publications in major bookstands and internet sites, is a contemporary novel detailing incredible social, political, and economical events in clangorous pre and post-Somalia. The author, Yasmeen Maxamuud- a Somali- is an erudite essayists and editor of the portal WardheerNews. Yasmeen spent four painstakingly concrete years with one thing in mind: the final delivery of a captivatingly fine-tuned and well-rehearsed fictional narrative full of drama, euphoria, and absolute tribulation that jolts the nerves of the reader. It is a book full of ordeals depicting characters primarily overwhelmed by a potpourri of conditions that include violence and drug abuse, despondency and illegitimacy, rejection and consanguinity, pessimism and optimism, circumlocution and loquaciousness, magnetism and vivacity in war-ravaged Somalia, in cross border jungles teeming with beasts, in the hostile and inhospitable refugee camps of Kenya, and in cosmopolitan America.

From the 1960s to the present day, African scholars belonging to the literary world-whether writers of fiction or nonfiction, journalists, poets, dramatists, essayists, children’s writers, or novelists-have been in the forefront producing a plethora of literary works related to various genres: particularly on topics related to culture, gender, dictatorship, colonialism, and neocolonialism. Some novels have been written prior to any African country gaining independence. Others came rolling out of print immediately after 1957 when Ghana and Libya proclaimed independence from England and Italy respectively. Chinua Achebe’s celebrated novel, Things Fall Apart was first published in 1958 while his other novel Arrow of God came out of print in 1964. Things Fall Apart has been adapted into a novel and so is The Concubine by Nigerian writer Elechi Amadi. Peter Abrahams, the South African born (but of Ethiopian father and a colored South African mother) whose novel Mine Boy rekindled the old sores of apartheid remains on the shelves of many libraries and bookstores worldwide despite coming out of print in 1946. His other works include the story collection Dark Testament (1942) and the novels The Path of Thunder (1948), A Wreath for Udomo (1956), A Night of Their Own (1965), the Jamaica-set This Island Now (1966, the only one of his novels not set in Africa) and The View from Coyaba (1985).
Our own Nuruddin Farah had his first novel, From a Crooked Rib, written in 1970 followed by a succession of wide-ranging scholarly publications, anthology of poems, trilogies, and novels. Africa has produced some of the best writers in the world with Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, and Nuruddin Farah capturing internationally acclaimed awards.

Besides being a novelist, Soyinka is known as a recipient of the acclaimed Nobel Prize in literature. When a pro-democracy political rally by angry demonstrators denouncing Olusegun Obasanjo’s rigging of elections turned violent in Lagos in 2004, Nobelist and literary doyen Soyinka found himself teargased and then thrown behind bars by Nigeria’s police. Some of Africa’s novelists never trained in literature. A case in point is Elechi Amadi of Nigeria who majored in Physics and Mathematics and was at one time a member of the armed forces of his country. Guinean novelist Camara Laye trained as a motor mechanic.

Some novelists departed the world young while others continue to live at advanced ages viewing political events of their nations from the sidelines; some remain in academia as distinguished professors for the sake of serving humanity.

West Africa has produced many inspiring and talented writers with Nigeria dominating the scene. Depending on a nation’s inclination toward colonial rule, most works by West Africans have either been written in French or in English. A prominent novel written in French recounting the youthful voyage of novelist Camara Laye is L’Enfant noir (1953; Dark Child). With the advancement of contemporary printing techniques, modern novelists have conscientiously taken to writing in local languages in order to educate their underserved mass reeling under autocratic leaderships.

Growing up in Africa when the level of secondary education was in par with either the British or American systems of education-in an era when kindergartners sang “twinkle, twinkle little star” and when high school students voraciously devoured novels consisting of hundreds of pages within a matter of days-regardless of whether they were written by Charles Dickens-the English novelist of the Victorian-era or by an African, the most fortunate in Africa’s post colonial educational establishments have been those who benefited from a curriculum untouched by post-independence African dictators. Surprisingly, post-colonial African academics have been the first to off-set the current trend known as “brain drain” where the most educated left the continent in large numbers in search of greener pastures. The most enticing destination for African academics was in the western hemisphere. Since most African dictators did not entertain criticism of their new administrations, writers and novelists who felt dismay at how their governments operated produced poems, plays, and critical publications denouncing specific leaders. In retaliation, authorities embarked on confiscation of literature, banning of plays, closure of theaters, and conviction of suspects without representation of attorney. Those writers fortunate enough to escape the terrifying dragnets chose self-exile.

Ugandan novelist and former university lecturer Okot P’Bitek may be remembered for his hair-raising novels written in the truest African taste. Song of Lawino (1966), originally written in Acholi was later rendered into English. It is about a tediously long and uninterrupted speech by a wife lamenting her husband’s adoption of western ideals and manners. In response to his wife’s dramatic monologue, Okot P’Bitek wrote Song of Ocol (1970) in support of his wife’s predictions.

With the shortage of African-owned printing presses, nations that emerged out of colonialism relied heavily on curriculums and printing presses of their colonial masters for educational instructions. Assumingly, in English-speaking Africa, from kindergarten to college, school equipment schemes had their textbooks printed by either McMillan, Heinemann or by Oxford University Press. These publishers remained pioneers in the provision of books, multimedia, and classroom materials until the emergence of government-owned printing presses.

Several post-colonial African leaders like Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga of Kenya wrote books during their lifetimes. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, father to the current prime minister of Kenya, Raila Odinga, may be remembered for his book Not Yet Uhuru (Heinemann, 1967), a 340-page autobiography of Oginga Odinga and published by Heinemann in 1968. Jomo Kenya, Kenya’s first post-colonial president, wrote the anthropological book Facing Mount Kenya (Vintage Books, 1962) with introduction by Bronislaw Malinowski-his mentor at the London School of Economics. A Long Walk to Freedom (Little, Brown & Co., 1995) by Nelson Mandela is an autobiography relating the life and times of one of the world’s longest serving political prisoner. Mandela spent seventeen years of his twenty-seven years behind bars in the notorious Robben Island Prison in South Africa. A recipient of the Nobel Prize, Mandela became South Africa’s first post-apartheid president and served just one-term (1994-1999).
Undoubtedly, Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal remains Africa’s most prolific writer and president. Some of his celebrated works written in French include:
• Prière aux masques (Circa 1935 - Published in collected works during the 1940s).
• Chants d'ombre (1945)
• Hosties noires (1948)
• Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache (1948)
• Éthiopiques (1956)
• Nocturnes (1961)
• Nation et voie africaine du socialisme (1961)
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin et la politique africaine (1962)
• Lettres de d'hivernage (1973)
• Élégies majeures (1979)
• La poésie de l'action : conversation avec Mohamed Aziza (1980)
• Ce que je crois (1988)

Surely, Nomad Diaries has rekindled old memories. Without it, recollecting the line-up of books published by Heinemann and written by literary behemoths like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, Buchi Emecheta, Okot p'Bitek and others, would have been impossible.

Book Reviews: Comparisons and Contrasts

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Summarized herein in the form of an essay is a review of two books written by two distinguished authors of European origin. The books, Eternal Egypt: the Civilization of Egypt from Earliest Times to Conquest by Alexander the Great by Frenchman Pierre Montet translated from the original French by Doreen Weightman and Africa: a Biography of the Continent by Anglo-Saxon, John Reader.

In his book, Africa: A Biography of the Continent, John Reader, eulogizes the prevalence of domesticated plants and animals, technological innovation, the establishment of villages and increasing level of social interdependence in the now empty and waterless Sahara desert even before the pyramids were built (Reader, p. 151). On the other hand, he articulately and meritoriously adduces evidences regarding the cultivation of food-crops such as wheat, barley, peas, and lentils along the Nile River despite these crops being cultivated earlier some 9,000 years ago in the “fertile crescent” of the Near East in reference to “the land between the two rivers”, formerly in the ancient nation of Mesopotamia and currently in the modern state of Iraq. Thus, cultivation of indigenous African plants did not begin in Egypt but rather in the south, an indication of the ancient nation of Nubia. Nubia, a vast land straddling the Nile valley to the south of Egypt was once a colony of Egypt. Both authors unanimously confirm the colonization of Nubia by Egypt. Pierre Montet further explicates how Nubians had their own form of arts and crafts and at the same time borrowed Egyptian artistic traditions (Montet, p. 118).

Rich in natural resources, Nubia was, for over 1,000 years, a major supplier of gold, ivory, timber, animal products, and slaves to Egypt until the emergence of powerful Nubian rulers who instituted a centralized authority that would have severe repercussions on the dwindling pharaonic empires. The arrival of powerful invading Assyrian armies wielding weapons of iron eventually led to the collapse of the once powerful Cushitic kingdom in Nubia. Both authors acknowledge the majesty of the civilization that thrived in Meroe. “Yet the Kingdom of Meroe can be given credit for having carried Egyptian civilization further south than the pharaohs themselves had ever succeeded in doing”, says so Pierre Montet while John Reader concludes its downfall accordingly: “Meroe was effectively an expression of Egyptian civilization rooted in what the pharaohs had called the land of punt-indigenous black Africa.”

The absence of genuine documentation, as Montet claims, is convincing evidence that Egyptians did not reach the confluence of the two Niles. Perhaps, by the two Niles, the author is referring to the two tributaries the Blue Nile originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and the White Nile which originates in Lake Victoria and is at the confluence of the Bahr al-Ghazal and Bahr al-Jabel Rivers.

At least the two authors agree on the name “punt” to which they separately refer to as “the land of the God” (Montet, p. 120) and “God’s land” (Reader, p. 196). On the other hand, the authors fail to agree on the exact location of punt in our modern world map. Pierre Montet suggestively assumes the location of punt to have been in the Bay of Hafun figuratively pointing it to the south of Cape Guardafui. In a nutshell, he is of the view that the incense-bearing tree Queen Hatshepsut sought after to exploit is plentifully found in Africa and Arabia Felix respectively.
Pierre Montet, despite employing persuasive historical and scientific research methodologies gained from his many years of distinguished career as an Egyptologist and his accumulated experience during work at the German Archaeological Institute of Berlin, fails to garner convincing consensus to uncovering the validity of the Land of Punt. He implausibly postulates two unrelated localities and as a final point fails to make amends with the reader. In their pursuit of literary reputation, no wonder, many writers tend to huggermugger. On the contrary, John Reader, relying on available evidence, easily recapitulates without making mangled assumptions by placing the location of punt “between the Red Sea and the southern Kordofan province of the Sudan”. Several African tribes and states lay claim to the historical Cush kingdom.

Most notably, Somalis, Amhara, Tigre, Nubians, Oromo, and Sudanese-Arabs place profound hereditary and historical inclination to the Cushitic kingdom of old. Currently, in the modern state of Somalia, there is a region known as Puntland located on the eastern corner of Somalia bordering the Red Sea and closest the Gulf of Aden where frankincense and myrrh -the two most prominent products sought after by ancient Egyptian pharaohs abundantly grow in the wild to this day.

Whichever claim is true; our reliance on historical inscriptions found in the tombs and pyramids of Nubia and Egypt and information gathered from archeological excavations should be enough to serve as concrete and compelling evidence for the moment simply for educational purposes until novel exposures reveal otherwise in the future.

What amuses the skeptical reader is the paragraph in John Reader’s book that state, “the concept of the Nile as a corridor through which the civilizing influence were conveyed to sub-Saharan Africa is the basis of an essentially Eurocentric interpretation of African history, implying that Africans were incapable of developing their own versions of civilization. It has an appealing simplicity, but is contradicted by the evidence.” (Reader, p.195). In one way one or the other, the author himself seems not to the point as regards whether Africans were civilized or not. The judge who could arbitrate on the flimsy and much-debated issue of who-was-who in African civilization is the infant and tender baby archeology whose distinct brushes and micro-blades have failed to go beyond the borders of America, North Africa, and Europe. John Reader reports that, according to the high official Henu, the expedition was undertaken on behalf of Montuhotep III c.1975 BC. On the other hand, Pierre Montet states that the ships were built in Chaldea and that they “sailed down the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, went round the enormous Arabian Peninsula and eventually reached the land of Punt.” Reader tries to make a case in point by claiming the ship was carried piece by piece across 150 km of desert to the Red Sea coast. (Reader p. 196)
Cited Sources
Pierre Montet, Eternal Egypt: The Civilization of Egypt from Earliest Times to Conquest by Alexander the Great, 5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EA
John Reader, Africa: A Biography of the Continent, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1998
Ibid. (Montet, p. 118)
Ibid. (Reader 197)
Ibid. (Montet, p. 120)
Ibid (Reader p. 199)
Ibid (Reader, p. 196)
Ibid (Reader p. 195)
Ibid (Monetet p. 124)

Book Review: No More Lies About Africa

Best selling author of "Lords of Slavery", Chief Musamaali Nangoli is a Ugandan and a prolific writer whose pen revolves around the days of slavery and colonialism in the African continent. A self-educated lecturer and a gifted researcher who travelled the world extensively in search of Africa's concealed past antiquities, Chief Musamaali Nangoli has produced and re-written a reliable history fitting today's African literary taste. 'No More Lies About Africa' is a must read for any African yearning to uncover the credible truth about Africa's distorted and hidden historical facts.

Full of humor, the book, 'No More Lies About Africa', has been described by the New York Post as unputdownable. It is exhilarating, well researched, educative, captivating, controversial to some readers, entertaining and articulately written. Born under a Mango tree many, many years ago in his native Uganda, Chief Musamaali Nangoli does not know his exact age and begs the reader not to ask how old he is. The only thing he remembers about his coming to the world is on a rainy season when circumcision ceremonies were going on.

'No More Lies About Africa' covers details of European slavery of Africans and colonialism-two inhman practices that underdeveloped and brainwashed many Africans. He has lost trust in those who undermined African prosperity, stole African resources, and plundered African heritage. He is proud of African ways of life; he showers praise on select African leaders who fought for African unity and freedom. He is much obsessed with the struggles of Marcus Garvey whom he considers to be a historical figure and a doyen in the struggle for black freedom.

To him, Egyptians are African and that Egypt is the craddle of human civilization. He makes note of past African kingdoms the likes of Abyssinia, the Great ruins of Zimbabwe, the Kingdom of Mali; he traces the footsteps of Mansa Musa and how the 'once in a lifetime' Islamic pilgrimage he made to Mecca affected the economy of the regions he traversed. The BBC, in its commentary of the book, described it as "skillfully written, intricately woven and meticulously executed". One reader engraved it with better a comment by observing how "Chief Nagoli's pen fires like the French G3".

The long held view by Europeans that Africa was a "Dark Continent" before the white man came meets with bitter challenge from the author who unearths the superiority of African civilization and African cultures. He finds relief in African lifestyles: African customs, African family, artwork, and African hospitality. In essence, the White man abused African generosity by stealing Africa's properous lands and substituted them with religious scriptures.

To the author, circumcision is an act of courage and a gateway to manhood; polygamy helps deter homosexuality; believe in the creator and creation is ingrained in African minds; he believes there was law and order even before the arrival of the so-called European discoverers and explorers.

He gives credit to the courageous leaders of Africa who fought European injustices. Mention is made of Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Marcus Gravey of Jamaica, Martin Luther King Jr., Kinte Kunte, and Julius Nyerere of Tanzania. He feels disturbed by the traces of colonialism and how oppressor-trained African leaders continue to put Africa in jeopardy by singing the same old tunes.

For the thousands of Africans who fled the West causing brain-drain to the African continent, it is time you use your literary talent decently and embark on ways to salvage the continent from distorted and perverted foreign literature. Revival can only come about when the might of the pen is meticulously executed so as to create awareness in every corner of the globe. "No More Lies About Africa" is a must read for anyone seeking African humor and African historical facts.