Collapsing Nomadic Lifestyles

In the past, Western writers described Somalis as a nomadic community, pastoral nomadic and other times as peripatetic community. With the wealthy Somalis taking pride in camel ownership by purchasing the Somali dromedary in their hundreds at the famous Arbaca Bashaq livestock market on Wednesdays in Garissa, the current poor camel owners of the past, after suffering compounding drought and famine and various contagious diseases that decimated the beasts of burden they treasured most, finally made dangerous moves by settling in villages and towns to survive on handouts from the government and other philanthropic organizations like the Red Cross and other parties who are committed to the care of those in need. It is a new social change created by economic transformation since the pride of the herdsman that was the one humped camel has now been taken over by business magnates who established permanent ranches that are never short of water and pasture. Land Cruisers that are meant for rough terrain now navigate with ease through lands that were once impenetrable, out of bounds and impassable to the former nomad who was bereft of modern technicalities that require money and minds. Veterinarians keep watch over the camels health while wage earning herdsmen provide the necessary protection within certain ranges in protected ranches that are far from the reach of livestock rustlers and wild carnivores. With the outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic and the closure of schools for the containment of the virus, the wealthy camel owners pack up for vacationing that is more comfortable than what we know as tourism. Loaded with tents, mattresses, bedsheets and duvets, kitchenware and cutlery, hiking shoes, mosquito nets and mosquito repellants, and other necessities such as dry food and bottled water for the grand material world allurements, the journey forward is one intended to introduce the children to a new world of adventure. By covering new ground, the children's exposure to new sceneries get ingrained in their minds for future recollections as they age in their lifetimes. For those Diaspora children whose return journeys got interrupted by the pandemic, such vacations become once in a lifetime experience. As the wheels of the convoys of vehicles

roll with precision and guidance, the sights of the various fauna and flora never seen before instill unforgettable historical events worth retelling to friends and relatives in later years. Like a family touring botanical gardens for the first time, annual, biannual, and perennial trees and plants capture their visions with some appearing thorny and others thornless. As for the fauna, the redheaded salamander lizards cross the rough terrain with tremendous speed as the driver struggles to evade rocks, potholes, and speeding dik diks. Terrified and afraid of the approaching unknowns, the proud Somali male daaxuur, the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut much-adored Papio hamadryas baboon boisterously makes a sudden twist and turn with the intention of defending its territory from strangers. Mouths agape, the children focus on the strange animals they've never seen before. Then to their amazements, the world of acacia trees along the roadsides usher them into the 1773 trees specifications of the Swedish Botanist Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy and the creator of binomial nomenclature in botanical, zoological, and taxonomical sciences. Using their modern smart phones and tablets loaded with unlimited internet data, each one struggles to uncover the names of the strange thorny acacias lining both sides of the unpaved roads. Some take snapshots to compare with the images appearing in their search engines. Names like Acacia albida, Acacia senegal, and Acacia seyal and other unheard of species appear in their searches. Unfortunately, their searches suddenly get interrupted as the convoys of vehicles continue with their arduous journeys into rocky plains and deserts resulting from soil erosion, abandoned fields with reddish colored lineups of anthills and towering accumulated sand dunes. After hours of cruising through areas that suffered land degradation, one of the drivers relays the message that they are about to enter Libaaxlow or the Lion Haven. Within minutes of hearing the shocking news, fear grips the hearts and minds of the rambunctious children who were raised in lands that were devoid of beastly wild animals.