The first
British colonial settlement in Garissa district was at a place called Mansabubu
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as recollected by Sultan Deghow.
Fed by the meandering Tana River–a river that is 1,000km long and trickles from
the Aberdare Mountains in central Kenya and drains near Kipini, the first colonial
settlers were brought to Mansabubu by Sultan Sambul, Deghow’s grandfather, from Lamu that is located along Kenya’s maritime
coast bordering Somalia. Regardless of Omani Arabs having heavy presence along
the Eastern Africa coast, the British had the mandate to traverse the Indian
Ocean because, though preceded by an agreement with the United States in 1833,
the Sultanate of Zanzibar had signed treaties with European Powers such as
France in 1862 and Germany in 1886 respectively. However, it was the 1886
agreement that made the Sultanate’s sovereignty unchallenged.[i]
With competition
rising among the European powers on how to expand their influence in Africa, the
British administrators felt it was time to venture into the hinterlands. As
explained by Nene Mburu, Sultan Stamboul (Sambul), was a fully recognized
traditional elder of the Ogaden clan–a man who was in the third generation
among the Somalis who settled in NFD–and so was the Borana Chief Haji Galma
Dida who was the son of Dida Dayo–a senior chief who was the overlord of Wajir
during the British Colonial Administration.[ii]
By 1923 after the death of Dida Dayo and the coronation of his son, the
territorial stretch of Borana land
that previously included Wajir, Garbatulla, Isiolo and
Marsabit was subsequently reduced after Somali scuffles with the Borana
resulted in the Borana being pushed westward, as Mburu maintains.
There have been long
and simmering tensions between the Borana and Somali over land accumulation for
centuries with the Somali using sheer force to evict the Borana from their
ancestral lands. Cattle rustling were other factors that contributed to tribal
altercations. With their herds of livestock, Somalis have been in search of
greener pastures and getting closer to the Ewaso Nyiro River would have been a
natural delight. Though not a perennial water source that flowed permanently
year-round, it was a temporary river that nourished the Borana and Samburu
ethnic groups for years. Despite that, for Somalis, access to this water source
would have been a natural resource that would give relief to their large herds
and sustain human life. Somalis have long had a history of migration, and the determination
to conquer new territories either from rival Somalis or from other stable
ethnic groups such as agro-pastoral groups and hunters and gatherers living in
thriving dense forests. Likewise, having been adept at the psychology of assimilation,
no wonder, and conflict has been a thriving factor[iii]
in their pastoral economy. As a superpower in their areas of influence at that
time, it boggles the mind how Somalis emulated the psychology of warfare–a
political trend that is practiced by modern superpowers of today, that war
spurs the economy, reduces unemployment, and creates new opportunities while
raising the rating of the leader only when victory is achieved over the rival
enemy.
To further
define the abstraction of Somali assimilation, the term implies intermixing,
intermingling, integrating, incorporating, and amalgamating with other Somali
clans or sub-clans or with other ethnic groups or allowing slaves and those
seeking safety to be part of the Somali clan realm. However, not all Somali
clans practiced the notion of assimilation. No wonder, according to popular
opinion, the Ogaden that is part of the greater and populous Daarood clan are
the most tolerant and welcoming of other besieged and mortified Somalis. In
fact, many Somalis who are familiar with the Somali culture attest to the fact
that the Ogaden exemplify a political organization where one can be a member of
the clan, marry from, pay diya or mag (blood money) and quit when necessary.
The connotation Sheegad, which many
writers or researchers define as ‘pretenders’ could have been better
interpreted as ‘to claim’, ‘be part of’ or be a ‘claimant’. Somalis living in
northern Somalia regard the name Sheegad
as dishonorable while in northern Kenya, it has been acceptable in the past.[iv]
British Colonial
Chieftainship
The British
creation of chieftainship in later years among the tribes that had strength and a strong presence in the former NFD was a means
to usher in indirect rule–a political subterfuge defined in later years as a ‘divide and rule
tactics’. The creation of imaginary lines by the colonial powers came to define
geographical boundaries that would serve as maritime and specifically defined
landmarks by their own surveyors, which in the end placed a wedge between
people of close consanguinity. The covetousness of the colonial powers and
their mistreatment of the black race were beyond divinely guided, rightly
thinking human comprehension. It is the same land and maritime demarcation that
is the source of contention among many African nations to this day. Intra and
inter-state wars continue to undermine the way forward to progress for many
Africans whose leaders were drawn from the legacies of colonialism.
At that time in
history, in Wamo, an expansive land that stretched from Kismayu in southern Somalia
and into some parts of Kenya’s Northeastern region, there were internecine wars
among the various Ogaden sub-clans. With no reconciliation in sight and the
prospect of peace and stability diminishing, and hunger and deprivation
skyrocketing, some of the sub-clans decided to disperse to various destinations equal in enormity to a phenomenon in the
year 1937–a
perilous era Somalis dubbed ‘Sannadkii kala
Carar’[v]
which translates to the ‘Year of Pandemonium’. In that same year–1937–Somalis
experienced abundance of milk and therefore they named it ‘Sannadkii Caana
Arag.’ There was an outbreak of locust invasion in 1935, meaning
Somali-inhabited areas or forcefully captured lands have been prone to natural
disasters in the 19th century and beyond.
Defining Afmadow
The main
headquarter of the Ogaden clans before the Abdwak clan bid the rest goodbye, was
a small settlement called Afmadow (Afmadu in English) in the middle of the current
Lower Juba Valley of southern Somalia. Almost 110 kilometers (68 miles) from
the Port City of Kismayu[vi],
Afmadow cherishes to have a long history. The settlement had no reliable water source
before Somali migration to the region. However, it had had a hundred and
fourteen boreholes when the British Colonial Administration finalized the
digging of water catchments and water wells in 1944–a year before the Second
World War ended. This era is known as “Sannadkii Dhul Qod” in Somali which
translates to ‘the introduction of dams’ and coincides with the Ogaden subclan
Mohamed Zubeir and Bartire War.
Somali oral
historians attribute Afmadow to have been the name of an Orma, Oromo, or Wardei
woman while others give credit to a Somali woman. Both narratives will be taken into context. Once upon a time, the
Talamogge and another Ogaden sub-clan decided to fight on a certain day and the
venue would be under an acacia tree within Afmadow periphery. However, the war
never materialized due to reconciliations among elders. Regardless, unaware
that the war had been halted, a few warriors came to the designated
battleground dressed in full battle gear. Instead, they found a dark-mouthed
non-Somali girl. Thus, was born the name Afmadow.
In another
narrative, at a time of immense suffering due to water shortages where people
and their livestock were dying whole scale, a renowned Saint came up with a
startling proposition. He proposed that the most decent, blameless, and
untarnished woman–a woman of unspoiled character who is loyal to her husband to
be brought before a convention of elders. People got bewildered, baffled,
surprised, and appalled at the saint’s feigned premise. With mouths agape,
wide-eyed, and able hearing ears directed at the saint’s announcement, a man
from the Asharaf clan who lived among the Ogaden and was married to a woman
whose name was Afmadow, raised his hand and promised to turn over his wife. After
being handed over, the saint commanded the woman to undress before her husband
in full view of the conveners. When she was about to untie the figure of
eight knot known to Somalis as Gareys or Garxir, he yowled at her to stop her indecent actions and fasten
the knot. Instead, he gave her a spear and told her to dig between her feet
exactly where she was standing. Immediately she hit the ground with the double-edged
sharp spear–a spear that was sharper than Wilkinson Sword and Nacet Blade
combined, a fountain of water from the Ewaso Nyiro River that runs underground
started to sprout up like the Yellowstone Fountain of the U.S. in the state of
Wyoming.
Thus, the name
Afmadow (Dark Mouth)–an indication of beauty–is derived from the name of a
woman from the Rer Mohamed sub-clan. Mohamed was the uncle of the Abdalla
sub-clan who are collectively known as Samawadal.[vii]
The two sub-clans have a great presence in the towns of Ijara and Masalani that
are part of Garissa County. Samawadal and Abdiwak are cousins and are together
called Talamogge. The Samawadal and Abdiwak have always lived together in
peace, sharing water and pasturage, going to war as one entity, and engaging in
intermarriages, though, at times, they would fight among themselves. However,
in case of altercations, problems would be solved through the application of
customary laws known as “Xeer”, where the elderly would deliberate under the
shadow of a tree and finally come to conclusions.
Leaving no stone
unturned, the Abdiwak Sultan in Afmadow, sensing impending dangers related to
war, famine and drought, and diseases and death, sent his own two surveyors
known as Sahan to search for water. After a month of absence they arrived at a
place close to Sankuri known as Daloolo where their sights caught a mighty
flowing River. On inquiring from the inhabitants who were mostly of the Wardei
ethnic group–the same community who were evicted by the Somalis from southern
Somalia, they were told it was called Ganana Maro. Rejoicing at the sight of
the river, the two surveyors, after being hosted by the Wardei, set off to
return to Afmadow. On returning to Afmadow, the two surveyors returned to the
king with the goods news that caused jubilation among his subjects and consternation in others. It was here Abdiwak and their fellow
kinsmen took the extraordinarily extensive trek of retracing the footsteps of
the previous land examiners.
The forward trek to unknown destinations was never a free
ride to a land of opportunities as it bore painful repercussions
and beautiful fruits. The regions ahead were either devoid of humans, empty and isolated or
heavily populated by formidable, irreconcilable and irrepressible men who
fought tooth and nail to defend their territorial integrity from outside
aggression and multitudes of ferocious and cunning wild beasts that devoured
livestock and man at will. Regardless
of the death and destruction encountered en route, the forward push to greener pastures
materialized for the king and his followers–a heroic act of manhood later on to
be emulated by other Ogaden sub-clans after the dust had settled. With most
African tribes and wild beasts eventually subdued by the successive kingdoms of
Abdiwak, it was time for rehabilitating the surviving, captured antagonists and
a time for recuperation, reproduction and forging alliance with the most volatile
of all humans–the Whiteman.
[i] Mwaruvie, John. "The Ten Miles Coastal strip: An
Examination of the Intricate Nature of Land Question at Kenyan Coast."
(2011).
[ii] Mburu, Nene. Bandits
on the border: the last frontier in the search for Somali unity. Red Sea Press,
2005.
[iii] Farah, Ibrahim, Abdirashid Hussein, and Jeremy Lind.
"Deegaan, politics and war in Somalia." Scarcity and Surfeit. Institute for
Security Studies. Pretoria, South Africa (2002):
320-356.
[iv] Schlee, Günther. Identities
on the move: clanship and pastoralism in northern Kenya. Vol. 5. Manchester
University Press, 1989.
[vi] Distance Between
Cities Places On Map Distance Calculator. www.distancefromto.net. Retrieved
June 14, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment