Upbringing and
Surrounding Natural Habitat
Sultan
Deghow was born around Wakaab Xaareey (Fecal Pond) in Garissa town that is
currently nonexistent as the entire area has been transformed into a sprawling
urban neighborhood. The result of human population explosion, town expansion,
and drastic metropolitanization are some of the factors that brought about the
unavoidable physical land feature transformations, ecological grafting or the unanticipated
fissures visible to this day. At the time of his birth, the natural habitat was
untouched having the semblance of an equatorial forest; it was purely an
ecological environment free from deforestation or desertization–unlike the
current uncontrolled, human-enforced encroachment and fast-paced transhumance
that has rendered the once natural picturesque denuded of the vital nutrients
that could support the surrounding ecosystem.
The piece of land that he once called home during his
childhood years is now a big farm producing mangos, bananas and other types of
farm produce. The farm contains palatial houses owned by distant relatives
while other portions have been turned into government offices. Gone are the
varieties of tree species he would climb and play hide-and-seek with his age mates
in the olden days. Tree species such as the Cordia
sinensis that is known in Somali as Mareer and the shady Dobera glabra (Garas), the thorny Acacia Senegal (Cadaad), and the
incredibly towering Hyphaene compressa
(Baar), and Ziziphus mauritiana (Gob)—a tree with substantial
horticultural importance, provided edible fruits and nuts while Acacia tortilis (Qurac)—also known as
Gum Arabic—whose dark and reddish sap had been a remedy for eye diseases for
centuries, grew in abundance where the Sultan-to-be resided from birth to
adolescence. For a long time, pastoral Somalis harvested Gum Arabic, an acacia
species whose ophthalmological benefits is mentioned in the famous book, Ten Treatises on the Eye, by the celebrated Nestorian Christian and Arab physician Abu Zayd
Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi (809-877 A.D.).[i]
Commiphora myrrha or simply Myrrh—a tree native to the Horn of Africa and
known to Somalis as Malmal or Dheddin, alleviated female Dysmenorrhea—a gynecological terminology pertaining
to menstrual cramps or painful periods during menstruation.[ii] In
Somali nomadic pharmacology, Myrrh has been used as an analgesic (pain killer) to
treat abrasions, bruises, and to tranquilize toothaches, and contain sprains. To
control or contain young bachelor males showing signs of Hyperspermia—an
abnormally excessive sex drive or semen ejaculation[iii], conservative
peripatetic parents consulted traditional herbalists to administer liquefied
Myrrh to overcome the horrors of unanticipated rape and sexual molestation of innocent
Somali girls and adult females.
Besides, Salvadora
persica (Cadey), a natural toothbrush that has been in use since the time
of the Babylonians as a preventive herbal medication against tooth decay and
plaque—a species unique to the ecological environment of that time, has been
replaced by the locally insignificant, little known Prosopis juliflora—an infuriating weed and a pernicious invader having
dreadful economic and negative environmental influence in many parts of the
world. Even to this present day where the majority of the urbanized global
human population use toothbrushes that are made from nylon bristles and plastic
and the varieties of irritating toothpastes that are readily available in every
store, Sultan Deghow’s constant use of Salvadora
persica before every salah (Islamic prayer) as admonished in the Hadith
(Islamic tradition), has enabled him to keep sparkling white teeth and endearing,
affectionate smile. Salvadora persica
is a common toothbrush in regions where its use is widespread and customary. The
historical significance of this natural toothbrush, has given it international
recognition such that the World Health Organization has recommended its daily
use for tooth cleaning.[iv]
Heavy
livestock and wildlife concentration metamorphosed the once crystal clear
manmade dam where young Deghow was born and raised by his loving parents in to a
pulverulent, murky, and fecal-soiled water catchment devoid of human glance and
praise. Thus, Somalis who are masters of nicknaming pejoratively gave it the
peculiar, funny name that became a permanent, irreplaceable epithet or mark of
distinction. In the olden days, Deghow’s birthplace teemed with friendly and
ferocious wildlife and untouched natural botanical gardens that were a delight
to the sightseer. Succulent roots and tubers that relieved the hunger pangs of
the obstreperous kids on exploratory missions experimenting on the techniques of
miniature wild game hunting, flourished in their natural habitat. Using bows
and arrows crafted from wood, kids hunted the Dik-dik, Guinea fowl, and smaller
antelopes. Beautiful sceneries and plenty of water and pasturage for the wild
and domesticated animals created an environment akin to the equatorial African
jungle.
The endangered, often mispronounced Hirola antelope
or the Hunter’s Antelope whose scientific name is Beatragus hunter, burgeoned
in their thousands around the Sultan’s neighborhood in his heydays. Carawle, as
it should be rightly called in Somali, is now an endangered species secluded in
a conservation resort far away from human encroachment.
Besides the Hirola Antelope, the white-stripped, irascible
Somali skunk thrived along the Tana River which was a stone throw away from the
young Sultan’s pastoral residence. Though primarily carnivorous, the Somali
skunk—an animal that feeds
on select fauna—has the tendency to supplement its diet with insects, birds’
chicks and even mice and cherries when beset by food scarcity. Polygamous
in nature, the skunk, whose scientific name is Mephitis mephitis, is an animal despised by Somalis
for its vociferous and ferocious attacks and braggadocious approaches when
agitated. Somali myth has it that the Somali skunk applies explosively
ballistic fart to blow up and fumigate the colonies of bees from their hives
before embarking on the strenuous effort of sucking honey out of trees.
While the
ecology of those days teemed with varying wildlife sharing identical or
opposing phylogenic specifications, one exemplary animal that is worth
mentioning for its gripping appearance and graceful look is the giraffe-necked
Gerenuk or the Litocranius walleri.
Undoubtedly, this animal is endemic to Somali inhabited regions and
surprisingly, it is the intimate friend of the reticulated giraffe. Since the
Gerenuk browses with the Somali Giraffa Camelopardalis
reticulata and that its position to the giraffe makes an
onlooker envision an act of feeding or suckling, the name Gerenuk should be
replaced with Geri-Nuug—which simply means suckling a giraffe.
Less than a mile from the meandering Tana River
that split the former NFD from the Tana River District, Deghow’s neighborhood
teemed with mammals of varying colors, shapes, sizes and distinct taxonomies. The
Tana River, Kenya’s largest and longest river that originates in the Aberdare
Mountains, drains into the Indian Ocean near the town of Kipini. Somalis and the
Orma or Oromo and other ethnic groups, call this river Webi Galana or Galana
Maro. Overgrazing and deforestation were uncommon those days; domesticated and
wild game, amphibians and reptiles and a plethora of bird species flourished in
their thousands. The deadly spitting cobra and the venomous puff adder
zigzagged through the forests and surrounding arid areas while the massive hippopotamus
and the crocodile waded through the reddish waters of the nearby river.
The largest and the most beautiful flightless bird
in the world—the Somali ostrich (Struthio molybdophanes)–a bird species phylogenetically portraying
distinct heritable traits after mitochondrial DNA testing in 2014[v] separated
it from other living and extinct species–danced in the wild while the gregarious
Marabou Stork or Leptoptilos crumeniferus, either
flew heavenwards or hideously perched on select acacia tree species to evade
alien encounters. By hiding its eggs and newly-hatched chicks from human and
animal infiltrations, the Marabou Stork has experienced exponential growth in
numbers in recent years.
Education and Mental Healing
As the Sultan reminisces, education in the former NFD
collectively started in 1946 in all the six districts that included Garissa,
Wajir, Mandera, Moyale, Marsabit, and Isiolo. However, according to Turton,
Wajir, which falls to the north of Garissa where the Sultan was born, had its
first primary school in 1948. [vi]
The year 1946 corresponds to an era when Somalis in Kenya were marginalized by
the British colonial administration–a year after the end of the Second World
War–a period of pan-Somali upheaval that was rejuvenated after the
recommendations of the British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, who
proposed the creation of a ‘Greater Somalia’ state to seal undeterred Somali
pastoralists’ movement across unguarded colonial borders.[vii]
Deghow recalls starting his formal education at an
intermediate colonial government private school that same year. After eight
years of hard work and dedication to his secular education, Deghow successfully
completed his primary education. On the other hand, while pursuing his primary
or intermediate education—a trend common among modern Somali school-goers, young
Deghow attended an Islamic school that was run by his father who was a Maalim–a
term originating in Arabic that translates to a ‘teacher’. Besides specializing
as a teacher, Deghow’s father was a man of scholarly repute and as well one who
memorized the entire Qur’an at a tender age—a uniform tendency that was unique
to Somalis practicing sedentarization—a term interchangeably used in this book
to connote pastoralism, nomadism or mobility that is mainly practiced by people
whose lives were dictated by changing weather patterns, rivalry, cattle
rustling, territorial competition and transhumance.
Such living conditions consequently lead to the search for
water and pasturage for the herds of livestock that sustained people falling
under such social category. Even at this time and age, Deghow, who is a few
years short of attaining the feeble octogenarian age, quotes specific Qur’anic
verses when explaining major subjects under discussion—an indication he has a
good grasp of Qur’anic exegesis, Islamic jurisprudence, empyreal or
stratospheric knowledge and other divine thoughts and principles.
Life father like son, it is the ingrained spiritual limpidity
inherited from his spiritual father that gave him unfathomable outspokenness
and adeptness of vulnerary remediation between pastoral conflicting parties.
His tenderness of heart and compassion for innocent humans besieged by the
inflicting horrors of European colonialism gave him the human resolve to embark
on a political path of self-determination through armed struggle that lasted
almost half a century in later years.
Since the colonial administration practiced divide-and-rule
tactics, majority of the teachers who taught in secular and religious schools
in Garissa District were primarily Muslim teachers brought from as far as
Zanzibar. Zanzibari pedagogues managed and operated the few Madrassas in the
district using Arabic as the medium of instruction.
People of Bantu extraction—whether pedagogues or others
espousing distinctive educational backgrounds—regardless of whether they were
males or females, were not allowed in to the former NFD. On the other hand,
Somalis and the Oromo were restricted from crossing the Tana River to other
parts of Kenya for fear of exporting hostilities to peaceful southern regions
that were haven for European settlers.
Ironically, rather than instituting novel administrative measures
and injecting visionary leadership styles, the same stringent restrictive
measures that were borrowed from the departing colonial master continued
unabated even after Kenya’s attainment of independence in 1963 up to the Jomo
Kenyatta and Arap Moi eras. Prior to taking office in the volatile, segregated
NFD, British colonial administrative designates sent to the region to take over
from their counterparts would exclusively be provided with Somali or Oromo
cooks, drivers, and security guards, as the Sultan recalls.
Thus, the exclusive transfer of Zanzibari Muslim teachers to
NFD was a way of enticing people belonging to the Hamito-Cushtic race to
embrace British Colonial system of education while allowing Islamic education
and Christian missionary activities to run side by side unrestrained.
While Christian education and missionary activities were inessential
in areas heavily populated by people of Somali ethnic origin in the former NFD,
traces of Christian evangelical activities remained visible among people
practicing paganism and other African religious beliefs. The Somali disdain for
other religious beliefs and their ardent desire to hold on to their Islamic
beliefs, rendered Christian missionary proselytization efforts an impossible
task.
After wrapping up his intermediate education, the youthful
Deghow enrolled for secondary and university education through correspondence
in Nairobi as it was the only way to enlighten his quest for higher education. While
the Portuguese missionary activities were the first to inject formal schooling
in Africa in the middle of the sixteenth century, the British and the French
and later on the Americans laid down the foundations for some form of
authoritative European system of education in the nineteenth century.[viii]
Adan Makina
WardheerNews
adan.makina@gmail.com
[i]
Nagamia, Husain F., and Nasir Puyan. "Abū
Zayd Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-‘Ibādī: A Physician Translator Par Excellence." Journal of the Islamic Medical
Association of North America 40.1
(2008).
[iii]
Cooke, S., J. P. P. Tyler, and G. L. Driscoll.
"Andrology: Hyperspermia: the forgotten condition?." Human Reproduction 10.2 (1995): 367-368.
[iv]
Khatak, M. et al. “Salvadora Persica.” Pharmacognosy Reviews 4.8 (2010): 209–214. PMC. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.
[v]
BirdLife International (2014). "Struthio
molybdophanes". IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.2. International Union for
Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
[vi]
Turton, Edmund Romilly. "The introduction and
development of educational facilities for the Somali in Kenya." History of Education Quarterly 14.3 (1974): 347-365.
[vii] Whittaker, Hannah. "Pursuing pastoralists: The
stigma of shifta during the 'shifta war ‘in Kenya, 1963-68." (2008).
[viii]
White, Bob W. "Talk
about School: education and the colonial project in French and British Africa
(1860-1960)." Comparative
Education 32.1 (1996): 9-26.
No comments:
Post a Comment