AFRICANS AND THEIR PURSUIT OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

 

AFRICANS AND THEIR PURSUIT OF EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES

By: Adan Makina Friday, April 07, 2006

For many Africans who come to The United States, education is an important factor in determining their future, while for others; it is nothing but amusement and play. The number of African students in colleges and universities is great though the number who have chosen to drop out or never attempted to set foot a campus outnumber those already in campus. Education in the United States where the focus of this paper is a tremendous undertaking for the African student which demands greater attention and better coordination among family members if class concentration, better grades and stable living conditions are to be achieved. For many, failing to do the right thing at the right time due to outside influence, pressure from families in need of financial resources, being tied to bogus friends and acquaintances, failing to abide by the rules of the institutions like plagiarism, theft, soliciting, drug abuse, procrastination, making sexual advances and other criminal activities within or outside of the institutions create obstacles for the potential student.

The United States is guided by a strong constitution that guarantees equal treatment for all regardless of age, race, gender, national origin and religion. It is a constitution designed by learned men with keen foresight and clear vision and it is also one presently in the hands of men and women who hope to create better judicial amendments for posterity. For example, Title IX states: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. America has the best system of government, outstanding and indomitable secular education and prides to parade the best teachers in the world.

 Being a professor or lecturer in an institution of higher learning takes many years before one can be conferred on with the required degrees and academic credentials to qualify to teach students yearning to become leaders and professionals in all fields pertaining to diverse educational foundations. A great number of these professors and lecturers are Africans of dissimilar origin, culture and religion who have traveled far and wide in search of dignity and with intent to disseminate knowledge in an environment where educational expertise, academic integrity and high degree of confidentially are the norm. They have brought with them humility, integrity, justice and brand new supplemental knowledge profitable to the amalgamation of students from distinct backgrounds. These breed of luminaries from mother Africa, had been, prior to leaving Africa, besieged and mortified and had their rights compacted by their respective governments just because they advocated views and ideas that opposed the jungle law of the land–a law that subjugates even the basic rights of humankind.

Statistically, there are approximately 500,000 Africans in the United States mostly students pursuing degrees in colleges and universities of advanced learning. Freedom of speech and the right to assembly has seen many persecuted and even executed as was the demise of human activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa who was a keen advocate of the minority in Nigeria. African students in the America have portrayed great sense of responsibility in their pursuit of education despite the difficult living conditions and biting weather. For them it is a race against time thus the many restrictions placed on them by the institutions and the immigration need not be overlooked or else the consequences could lead to legal action including deportation to country of origin. Besides, the overwhelming burden of paying monthly bills including utilities, rent, and car insurance and frequent remittance to families back home further complicates their stay.  
    
Regardless of how agonizing life may seem, the dark-skinned men and women from Africa live in harmony with other races, eat and drink, party and drive and observe the rules of the road. The African culture, the main artery that binds these students, has found a new place that invites every race out of curiosity, demand for labor and the need to have a heterogeneous society. The display of African curios and other African artifacts in American homes and open-air markets is testament to the uniqueness of the African culture traversing boundaries for many centuries. The number of dedicated African professionals holding high offices in America must be enormous if only we had the right data, statistics and applied economics. In addition, Africans are known for multi-lingualism; attained through colonial infestation or by way of schooling. Many who skipped meals or walked bare foot to school crossing boundaries legally or illegally; are today holders of multiple degrees enjoying positions of prestige and honor in corporate America.

The youth who escaped the jaws of crocodiles while swimming in the meandering rivers of Africa, those who escaped rampaging elephants that devastated their yearly harvests, and those who fell accidentally into wild-traps laid by poachers are healing old wounds with educational medications.

Immigrants from beleaguered, impoverished, and war-ravaged Somalia who have been the latest arrivals in the last decade after the overthrow of Major General Mohamed Siyad Barre’s junta have a lot to be desired. Majority of Somalis, who are concentrated in the cities of San Diego (CA), Minneapolis-St. Paul (MN), Atlanta (GA), and Columbus (OH), have a large number of students in high school, colleges, and universities that are hard to ignore. The number of female students in the Somali communities is skyrocketing and is expected to outnumber the number of males.

Furthermore, free government financial assistance is never available without strings attached and that is why even the elderly and single-parents have to enlist in English as Second Language (ESL) classes or else all benefits will be withdrawn. Many who oppose the use of educational loans because of interest charges have no option but to seek other means to attaining educational enrichment.

Among Somalis, the saying goes this way: either make money or get honest education. Returning home with a large family without money and education is deplorable to the relative in Hargeisa, Mogadishu, and Eastleigh. That is why many are either holding two jobs or studying hard for degrees. Somalis are more multilingual than any other nation in Africa today. Speckled all over the world, the return of a million Somalis speaking Queen’s English, American English, Ebonics, Pidgin, Creole, Dutch, Swedish, French, Arabic, Swahili, Mandarin, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Hindi, Gujarati, Hausa, Finnish, Danish, Russian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish, Kikuyu, Kinya-rwanda, and few other languages must be a blessing for the dozens of foreign embassies and international aid agencies when peace is finally restored to the fullest.  The many Immigrants from Africa who cross difficult terrains heading towards the west have a lot to give mother Africa in the future.

Those who failed to overcome the trials and tribulations even after having perspired enough hope and resilience is their tool to achieving the best life in the near future.    

Adan Makina
E-Mail:adan.makina@gmail.com

We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com. So please email your article today Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of WardheerNews Maqaalkani wuxuu ka turjumayaa aragtida Qoraaga loomana fasiran karo tan WardheerNews

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Tamerlane or Timur-i-lan

This is an excerpt from Author Adan Makina’s upcoming book: “The Tatar Invasions of Muslim Lands: from Islamic and secular perspectives.”

 

This chapter is exclusive to Tamerlane who is considered the toughest and the last of the Turco-Mongol Sunni-Muslim conquerors who broke the ranks of the Mongols and finally sent their remnants to Manchuria to face the volatile Manchus who finally splintered them by sending them to the mountains and deserts of Mongolia. His right name is Timur-i lang in Persian while Tamerlane is French. At a tender age, according to legend, he was shot with an arrow on one leg and arm, thus, he got injured and was known to limp when walking. Timur the Great rose to prominence in the 14^th century and considered himself the “Sword of Islam.” In 1398, he captured India such that he left death and destruction after his departure. He is known as the inventor of the Tamerlane Chess.

Tamerlane’s father was called Og and he was the descendant of the famous kingdom of Sechatay whose main capital was Samarkand or Samarqand that was located along a historic river.[1] He was born in 1336 near the city of Kesh, currently known as Shahrisabz in Uzbekistan. The Muslim military tactician who remained famous in European history for centuries for embodying romance and horror, kept his forces together, divided and dispersed them at times along the countryside during peacetimes and war. From 1382 to 1405, he was known for conquering and reconquering regions stretching from Delhi to Moscow in Eurasia, while in Central Asia, he swept regions from T’ien Shan Mountains to as far as the Taurus Mountains of Anatolia.[2] Throughout his reign, Gur-i-Timur remained on the move with his army of confederated tribes who were drawn from almost every region he captured.

Admiring sown lands over the Steppe, he avoided Dzungaria or Zungaria that was the lands of the Golden Horde, and instead, focused on the Middle Eastern territories that combined Iran, Afghanistan, and Khorezm.[3] Corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang, Dzungaria is a geographical subregion in Northwest China. Also known as Beijiang, it is a portmanteau of the Mandarin language, for “Bei” that implies north and Xinjiang for “Northern Zinjiang.”[4] While other conquerors established themselves fully in the Steppe, Gur-i-Timur simply swept it and crossed it over with lightning speed. Distinct from Southern Nanjiang that is in the Tarim Basim and the major economic power of Zinjiang, Dzungaria remains the major economic powerhouse that is known as GDP.[5] To this day, there is the Dzungarian Gate that is a significant pass between China and Central Asia.[6]

While some researchers portend that he was from a family of shepherds, to the contrary, he was not, because he hailed from a family that was engaged in revenues and other special minerals such as silver and gold extraction and commerce.[7] Born to a royal and loyal family, Tamerlane’s father was a wealthy landlord while his mother was the daughter of a famous honorable religious man.[8] However, according to some historians, roughly 17 million people died in his conquests.

As per Marlowe’s quote, “The Uzbek literary theorist U. Tuychiyev describes it as following: “... actually, the real facts can be the foundation stone of any work, but they are not enough to make the work of fiction.”[9] The most advanced elements of fiction are the real facts and imaginative power of mind.” At times called Amir Temur, as per Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), the English Renaissance poet and dramatist who lived only 29 years, his poetry differs from the Muslim Turco-Mongol conqueror Tamerlane, and that his main character is “Tamburlaine the Great”–a Scythian shepherd and nomadic bandit who suffered at the hands of Mycetes, a Persian Emperor who dispatched his troops to conquer Tamburlaine. Using a foreign writer’s language as a reference, Marlowe describes Tamburlaine as “…a tall, broad shouldered person with long arms and golden hair. Clearly, he looks like Europeans.”[10] Thus, to the writer of this book, he concurs with Marlowe’s dramatization of Tamburlaine–a man who is contrary in character to the Turco-Muslim conqueror Tamerlane. To Marlowe, Tamburlaine resembled a faithless man who fought with his own soul or his life and as well considered himself superior to God for, he gave instructions to his people to burn the Qur’an. Regarding revenging upon his life Marlowe dramatizes in the following lines:

Theridamas

Tamburlaine! A Scythian shepherd so embellished;

With nature’s pride and richest furniture! His looks do menace heaven and dare the gods;

His fiery eyes are fix’d upon the earth,

Here Tamburlaine is described as Scythian shepherd with fiery eyes, who rebels against God and Heaven.

As dramatized by Marlowe, at the height of his power, Tamburlaine claims superior to God after capturing Babylon and thus he orders the burning of the Qur’an–an order that contravenes Islamic doctrines and creeds. Below is Marlowe’s dramatic injunctions:

Now, Casane, where’s the Turkish Alcoran

                   And all the heaps of superstitious books

                   Found in the temples of that Mahomet

                   Whom I have thought a god?

                   They shall be burnt.[11]

Tamburlaine was not Tamerlane because, at no time did Timur order the desecration or burning of the Qur’an or the Turkish Alcoran mentioned in the poem above.

 

Tamerlane’s War Expansion

While his total empire stretched from Russia to India, and from the Mediterranean Sea to Mongolia, his expansive land domain included Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Turkey, Syria and India.[12]  Born to a royal and loyal family, Tamerlane’s father was a wealthy landlord while his mother was the daughter of a famous honorable religious man.[13] However, according to some historians, roughly 17 million people died in his conquests. To prove that he was not the killer of the largest human population in history, the opening of his tomb in Samarkand, Uzbekistan under the instructions of Stalin of the former USSR in 1941, whether a heresay or a real testimony, a reflection of the two curses inscribed in his tomb, clearly define the kind of person he was. The two curses will appear to the reader at the end of the chapter.

After the decline of the powerful Timurid Dynasty, smaller but powerful empires evolved such as “the Qing and Ming in present day China, the Vijayanagara and Mughal in India, the Safavid in Iran and the Ottoman in Turkey.”[14] John Darwin’s masterpiece After Tamerlane covers 600 years of global history especially on empires. From 1382 to 1405 his thousands of well-armed soldiers crisscrossed Eurasia. The terminology Eurasia is a combination of Europe and Asia and are divided by the Ural Mountains. Russia and Kazakhstan straddle both continents and the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres. The never tiring Tamerlane who moved with speed undeterred by foreign enemies, traveled with ease from Delhi to Moscow and from the Central Asian Tien Shan Mountains to the Anatolian Mountains known historically as the Taurus Mountains. His destruction of Damascus on 24 March 1401 and his smashing of the Golden Horde could be irrefutable and deserving of further research endeavors, because, Christopher Marlowe’s dramatic character Tamburlaine the Great on the viciousness of Timur, could be out of context and an exaggeration as earlier noted.

One struggle aspect that distinguished Tamerlane from the past Mongol conquests was that he stumbled upon nations that had already been captured by his previous conquerors. The Timurid realm coincided with the Turkic Islamic traditions and institutions. He is regarded undefeated military tactician and brutal in his military conquests. On the other hand, he was a patron of architecture and arts because of his interaction with famous intellectuals like Ibn Khaldun, Hafez, and Hafiz -i-Abru while his reign introduced the Timurid Renaissance.[15] The Timurid Renaissance was a period in Islamic and Asian history spanning from the 13^th century to the 16^th century. It rose to prominence in the 13^th century after the demise of the Islamic Golden Age of the 8^th to the 13^th centuries.[16] It was also an era when the mamluks played significant role in the advancement of Astronomy.[17]

The Timurid Dynasty originated from the remnants of the Barlas Mongol tribe of Genghis Khan’s army[18] and thereafter settled in Central Asia. Due to intermingling with the Turkish people, they became Turkicized in terms of habits and language such that there was an era they had a strong force and were generally known as Moghulistan for “Land of Mongols” in Persian. After adopting Islam, the Mongols and the Turks of central Asia both embraced Persianate societal influence that injected Persian arts, culture, literature, and language.[19] Also known as Islamic Persosphere, historical Persianate started with the Bavandid (651–1349) in Western, specifically in Central Asia it ended with the Pahlavi (1925–1979). In Eastern, especially Central Asia to the Indian Subcontinent, it started with the Qarakhanid (840–1212) and ended with the Jammu and Kashmir (1846–1952). The terminologies persianization and persification are newly-crafted sociological terminologies that remain unique to Persian culture, language, arts, literature, and music. It is a type of cultural shift or assimilation. Persianized or Persified applies to individual and social inclination or acclimation to Persian influence. Such Iranian cultural influences that started during the early and middle Islamic periods had great impact on non-Iranian people such as Arabs and different Caucasian societies like the Georgians and Armenians plus Daghestani and Turkic peoples. Likewise, it infiltrated Seljuks, Ghaznavids, and the Ottomans.[20] There are two types of inequality: man-made and natural. Terms like inferiority complex and superiority complex have been with us for a long time. Regardless of whether it refers to “the Good (Clint Eastwood), the Bad (Lee Van Cleef), and the Ugly (Eli Wallach)”[21]–a movie that first came to fore in 1966 and known as “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo” in Italian, inequality exists to this day.

The Timurid Realm and the Turkic Traditions and Institutions

After reaching its greatest realm and covering expansive stretch of lands, the Timurid intermixed with Turkic traditions and institutions just like the previous succession of empires that dominated Turkey in the past. The Timurid gained a lot from the people and lands that it captured drawing considerable knowledge for most of the Timurid followers accepted Islamic traditions and culture while creating new institutions that helped elevate the living conditions of both parties. Regardless of Timur Lan killing millions of his opponents in different wars, his victorious amalgamation of lands and people of [22]different steppe traditions created a new form of advanced governance and leadership that are worth celebrating. What started as a nomadic Mongolian scattered tribal confederation finally transformed into a formidable respected dynasty under Timur Lan. Despite the deformity of his right arm and leg, Timur Lan challenged every leader, leaving behind death and destruction in his paths. His main headquarter was Samarkand. Born in Shahrisabz, he rose to power in 1370. The limping Timur, passed away February 1405, at Otrar, Shymkent, Kazakhstan while his place of burial was Amir Temur Mausoleum Gur-i Amir Complex, Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He died while on his way to capture China.[23]

If there is any truth to the inscriptions found inside the mausoleum of Timur Lan after being opened at the instructions of the former USSR leader Stalin a few years before the breakout of the World War II in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, they were dire warnings in the form of imprecations. Upon opening the articulately crafted mausoleum, the message found was startling, even though, Stalin, the Communist leader, took it seriously. To paraphrase, the message forewarned that any attempt to open it would have dire consequences. Regardless of the surviving victims’ assumption that he was a killer with bloodstained hands who would go to hell after his departure for the Afterlife, his message revealed a contradictory forewarning. It revealed that a more ferocious and brutal leader would emerge who would kill more than the numbers he was thought to have killed. The leader Timur Lan foretold was Germany’s Hitler who killed 26 million people.

In the late periodic rule of Timur’s leadership, Tamerlane established a centralized government for his opponents.[24] His reformation of fine arts creativities and historical sources some of which exist to this day especially in Uzbekistan are well known.[25] Persians played great roles in the elevation of carpets making and it is not a hidden secret that Iran is the leading maker of the best carpets in the world in contemporary world. Some of the Timurid successors also continued to enhance arts creativities one which was, a woman who deserves praise for her advanced architectural engineering. She was the wife of Timurid ruler Shahrukh (r. 1405–47). She was the de-facto ruler of the Timurid Empire for almost a decade until she arranged the coronation of her grandson for the takeover upon the death of her husband. Even though the name Afghanistan evolved in the 19^th century, the city of Herat was the capital of the Timurid dynasty between 1405 and 1507.[26]

To Muslims and from secular perspectives, Hitler was a totalitarian ruler who killed innocent people for personal and worldly gains while Timur Lan was a true believer and a martyr.

References

---

[1] Du Bec, J. (1753). The History of the Life of Tamerlane the Great: Giving an Exact and Authentic Account of His Birth and Family, His Wars with the Muscovites, the King of China, the Famous Bajazet Emperor of the Turks, and the Soldan of Egypt, His Conquest of Persia, and the Other Remarkable Actions of His Life. W. Owen, near Temple-Bar.

[2] Manz, B. F. (1999). The rise and rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press.

[3] Ibid, Manz.

[4] S. Frederick Starr (15 March 2004). Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland. M.E. Sharpe. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-0-7656-3192-3.

[5] Stahle, Laura N (August 2009). "Ethnic Resistance and State Environmental Policy: Uyghurs and Mongols" (PDF). University of southern California.

[6] MacFarquhar, Roderick; Fairbank, John K.; Twitchett, Denis (1991). Cambridge History of China: The People's Republic, Part 2: Revolutions Within the Chinese Revolution, 1966–1982. Cambridge University Press. p. 266. ISBN 9780521243377.

[7] Ibid, Du Bec.

[8] Temirovna, M. P. (2021). THE CORRELATION OF HISTORICAL TRUTH AND IMAGINATION IN CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’S TRAGEDY “TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT”. Web of Scientist: International Scientific Research Journal, 2(12), 455-457.

[9] Тўйчиев У. Ўзбек адабиётида бадиийлик. –Тошкент: Янги аср авлоди, 2011. 364 – б.

[10]Парфёнов А. Кристофер Марло. – Москва: Худлит, 1964 – С. 14. 

[11] Christopher Marlow. Tamburlaine the Great. - London: Dover Publication, 2002, –128P

[12] Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). Who was Tamburlaine the Conqueror? https://www.rsc.org.uk/tamburlaine/about-the-play/who-was-tamburlaine-the-conqueror. Retrieved September 14, 2022.

[13] Temirovna, M. P. (2021). THE CORRELATION OF HISTORICAL TRUTH AND IMAGINATION IN CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE’S TRAGEDY “TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT”. Web of Scientist: International Scientific Research Journal, 2(12), 455-457.

[14] Darwin, J. (2008). After Tamerlane: the global history of empire since 1405. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

[15] Marozzi, Justin (2004). Tamerlane: Sword of Islam: Conqueror of the World. HarperCollins.

[16] Saliba, George (1994). A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam. New York University Press. Pp. 245,250, 256-257. ISBN 0-8147-8023-7.

[17] King, David A. (1983). “The Astronomy of the Mamluks”, Isis, 74 (4): 531-55. Doi:10 1086/353360.

[18] B.F. Manz, "Tīmūr Lang" (2006). From Encyclopaedia of Islam, Online Edition.

[19] Arjomand, Said Amir (2004). Studies on Persianate Societies. ISBN 978-81-7304-667-4.

[20] Bhatia, Tej K. (2004). The handbook of bilingualism, p.788-9.

[21] Variety film review; 27 December 1967, page 6.

 

[23] Manz, B. F. (1999). The rise and rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press.

[24] Subtelny, M. E. (1988). Centralizing reform and its opponents in the late Timurid period. Iranian Studies, 21(1-2), 123-151.

[25] Rovshanbekovich, M. R. (2023, March). AMIR TIMUR AND THE TIMURID PERIOD LITERARY ENVIRONMENT AND SOME ASPECTS OF THE FINE ARTS ARE IN HISTORICAL SOURCES. In E Conference Zone (pp. 9-12).

[26] Arbabzadah, N. (2017). Women and religious patronage in the Timurid Empire. Afghanistan’s Islam, 56-70.

Killer Love In Kenya Refugee Camps

By Author Adan Makina

October 31, 2023

With the Somali language being profoundly poetic since it has been described by Europeans traversing through it as a nation that teems with poets, there’s no doubt that it is an ancient language that deserves further research and deserving of deciphering some of its etymologically hidden secrets and whether it has undergone linguistic adulteration.

In 1854, Richard Burton, a Briton called Richard Burton who was on a secret mission traveled through Somalia in 1854. Astonished by the advanced poetry of the Somalis that was the number one means of communication in an era when mass communication was unavailable, noted in his book, ' The First Footsteps in East Africa':

         "The country teems with 'poets, poetasters, poetitoes, poetaccios': every man has his recognized position in literature as accurately defined as though he had been reviewed in a century of magazines–the fine ear of this people causing them to take the greatest pleasure in harmonious sounds and poetical expressions, whereas a false quantity or a prosaic phrase excite their violent indignation.”

Apart from the two words poets and poetasters that appear in English dictionaries, the other two, poetitoes and poetaccios appear nowhere because they are Anglicized Italian. While a poet is someone who has mastered the art of poetry, a poetaster is defined as the writer of inferior poetry. However, according to Dr. Georgi Kapchits, a Linguist, Author, Essayist, and a Grammarian of Somali and Amharic languages and an expert in the historical configurations of Omotic languages, defined them this way: "Poetito (Italian word)–small, i.e., not good poet. "Poetaccio (Italian word)– rhymer, i.e., not real poet."

A man by the name Cali Dhuux once started poetic exchanges that continued for 23 years–a strange phenomenon that brought together 12 erudite poets who were all Somalis. Here are the names of the 12 men:

1. Cali-Dhuux Aadan
2. Qamaan Bulxan
3. Maxamed Fiin
4. Buraale Cali Ubaxle
5. Ismaaciil Mire
6. Cilmi Carab Cabdi
7. Salaan Carrabey
8. Ismaaciil Cigaal Bullaale
9. Xaaji Khaliif Aw-Axmed
10. Xuseen Hudle
11. Maxamed Cumar Dage
12. Samatar Baxnaan

Cali Dhuux who was from the Dhulbahante subclan of the major Darod clan once took a camel to a water well he knew belonged to his cousins–the populous Ogaadeen. With his camel whose name was ‘Cartan’ (ferocious), Cali Dhuux got astonished when he found a different subclan from the Isaaq clan had taken over the water well. It was at that moment that he recited a poem for his camel Cartan. He linguistically exploded by saying:

Cartaneey Camuud layska qaad ceelkii Reer Magane

Hadday curadii nool yihiin waad cabbi lahayde

Nimankii ku caawini jiraan cidi ka noolayne

 Cabdullahi iyo Yuusufbaa ciidda hoos maraye

Badal baa cashiiro u xigoo waa cuq dabadeede

Raggii calanku saarnaan jiriyo Caliba loo diidye

Nimanbaa caarsho u noqdiyo Caamir oo kale

Marbuu Haybe sidda coomir degay looga soo cararye

Ma la cowryi Reer Yuusuf waa cirir Ogaadeene

Miduu caayo miduu caydhiyiyo mid uu carjaameeyo

Saddexdaa calaamu ka dhigay cuurkii Reer Dalale

Caqli mid aan lahayn baa tahee ha i caloolyeynin

Oo Cayn iyo Hartaad leedahye caraqa fuuqfuuqso

Cali Dhuux gave a dire warning to anyone who revealed the upcoming poem, because, by doing so, he would spill the beans by releasing more amusing poetic attestations. However, since two is no secret and that three is a company, someone, somewhere, regurgitated it while in a far away place. Here is the poem:

Doqonkii Ogaadeen ahaa Doollo laga qaadye

Loo diid Dannood iyo hadduu degi lahaa Ciide

Nimanbaa dalkoodiyo xukuma labadi daaroode

Darraatoole iyo Faafanoo wada duraabaaya

Deegaanta haraday ku tiil daaqi mahayaane

Deex kama mareershaan halkay deleb ku beerneyde

Markii duraha jiilaal kacee doogga la idlaysto

Duurkiyo dayada Hawd markay Debec ku soo oonto

Laaskii uu ku dalandooli jiray loogu degi waaye

Alla daw guduuddii Wardheer kama durduuraane

Dawadeedu waa Jeerinley uga dul geeraare

Ceelkii biyaha diirranaa looma dawdabo'e

Dixda Qarandi Deeroy Mataan loo dardari waaye

Maantana dukaamaa la dhigay degelkii Gaafoowe

Darar kagama maalaan Camuud diiqo iyo xoore

Dixda Raygaleed iyo Gargaar laysu dacareeye

Dayr baaba lagu meeriyoo loo dabbaal degaye

Other than Arabic which towers above other languages when it comes to poetry, presumably, Somali is the second language in the world to enjoy unchallenged poetic manifestations. It is so, because, when it comes to poetry, the Somali language is the only language where a poet can rehearse poetry repetitively undiminished using every alphabet interactively depending on topical integration. Looking at the Cali Dhuux’s poem, the reader could easily glimpse at his repeatitive use of the alphabet ‘D’.

I mentioned Arabic because it has been the major driving factor that gave the Quraish of Makka who were fighting the Messenger of Allaah, Muhammad, Peace Be Upon Him, to subdue his messages, until, a complete chapter that is Surah 15 and known as As-Shu’ara was revealed to Proophet Muhammad. “This surah addresses the intense anxiety that God’s Messenger, salla l-lahu `alayhiwa-sallam, suffered on account of the negative responses he got when he conveyed to the people the message God had commanded him to convey. It seems that he blamed himself (v. 26:3).”[1]

New Orleans is reputedly the birthplace of jazz music, but mention of B.B. King's 'The Thrill is Gone' takes me back to a new world of music like any other genre except Blues that is pretty much identical in beats and sound. A product invented by African American slaves from different regions of the African continent, Jazz remained with me for over four decades. Let me share with you the lyrics of B.B. King’s song “The Thrill is Gone.”

The thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
The thrill is gone, baby
The thrill is gone away
You know you done me wrong, baby
And you'll be sorry someday

The thrill is gone
It's gone away from me
The thrill is gone, baby
The thrill is gone away from me
Although, I'll still live on
But so lonely I'll be

The thrill is gone
It's gone away for good
All the thrill is gone
Baby, it's gone away for good
Someday I know I'll be open-armed baby
Just like I know, I know I should

You know, I'm free, free now, baby
I'm free from your spell
Oh, free, free, free now, baby
I'm free from your spell
And now that it's all over
All that I can do is wish you well

The language used by B.B. King resembles what you would call “broken English” or “Supermarket English” since it was the type that was spoken those days. Mention Blues and my heart trembles with the anguish of personal past and present turmoil. Born in the Mississippi Delta, the fact for me is that it was first delivered in Kansas City, Missouri–The City of Fountains–the city where my four children were born and the home to former President Harry Truman who dropped the Atomic Bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan during WWII in 1945.

In one Somali song–a song that resembles the Blues of Kansas City having rhythmical beats that instills sudden depression, sadness, and melancholic feelings and whose vocalists are Sahra Ahmed Jama–the “Queen of Voice” and a male Somali vocalist­–a no nonsense self-proclaimed man with indescribably sensational voice recount the pain and anguish experienced by his female lover. While unearthing her hidden secrets, he clearly tells her that her glances and visualizations are no cure for hunger and deprivation. To him, she has no symptomatic ailments and that it is her self-pride and nonsensical elevation that are lowering her self-worth and human value. Her perspiration in cold weather and shivering in the scorching heat and the concealment of her personal affairs are indicators of deliberate painful injections since she is not a patient of diagnosable infirmity but one derived from sheer stupidity.

Aggravated by his ludicrous lambasts of her condition, she poetically and meticulously engages him using her melodious voice to further deliver her in-depth knowledge of love’s devastation in recorded history. In response to his revelations of the ailments that afflicts her, she boisterously begins reminding him that his rhetorical language is immensely a terrifying issue and surreptitiously bereft of philosophical help but flatly platitudinous since love has been the mastermind of the death of Qays and Elmi and Qarshe and Ismail, and Ali Sugulle and many others that have not been documented.

No doubt, love is a killer psychological disease that has evaded human perception, though in Somali traditional psychic observations, human-to-human concupiscence has been in existence since human creation. Prostitution, the second oldest tradition, did not simply evolve vacuously but from human soul’s attraction to desire for a partner. In a conversation with a gentleman who seemed to be well connected to some of the refugee youth from Somalia in Kenya, his keen observation of the many who have gone haywire must not be taken lightly.

Working in cahoots with experts in thaumaturgy, a practice Somalis refer to as Ayaana or Boorana has gained momentum in recent years. Young ladies abandoned by Diaspora vacationers arrive in modern vehicles with tinted windows seeking the help of voodoo experts who intervene through abracadabra–a form of demonic invocation where the practitioner, after renouncing Islam, performs urinary ablution that catapults him into the unknown satanic realm. Presenting an unwashed shirt of the culprit, an underwear, a T-shirt or any other wearable garment allows the Voodooist to extract perspiration for ease of deporting the vulturous Diasporan. Crossing the Tana River using what Somalis call Darajaani which is a bridge heading towards a small settlement called Mororo, there is a man of Bantoid ethnicity and whose name is Mzee Gareys. An expert and rambunctious magician he is, his ludicrously paganistic and shamanistic devotion to geomancy and hydromancy, is beyond human comprehension. It is beyond human reproach that most of his customers are females. Though paganistic, the use of magic has been overwhelmingly spreading among Somalis since early 1991 when the Somali central government collapsed. Any woman seeking the help of Mzee Gareys must undress so he can get to see her nudity, as related to me by an interviewee who seemed well aware of the notoriety of magicology on the highway to Ganana Maro.

 The practice of magic is not only restricted to the African people because, it is widespread and remains a driving force among disbelievers. It is used among the Māori and the Trobriander who are Melanesian people of the Kiriwina (Trobriand) Islands who are known for practicing heresy, witchcraft, shamanism, Vodou, and superstition.[2] Part of the Oceanian Realm, Micronesia has special specific connotation that almost shuttered my world on an unprecedented day. Elephant years ago, at an international airport, I walked into a McDonalds and placed an order in a faraway land. The service provider was a beautiful lady. After paying for the order and receiving my receipt, I sat down to be called when my order was ready. A born reader who would wrestle with a piece of paper from a newspaper or magazine blown by winds in my youthful years just for the sake of browsing through the contents, immediately, I started looking at the McDonald’s receipt. To my amazement, the lady who served me shared the same name with me. The namesake semblance or homonymity, startled my inner resolve.

Having mastered the study of human behavior, I stood up, retrieved my ID Card and walked towards where the mystifying lady stood behind the counter. Without mincing words, I broke into laughter and presented her the receipt together with my ID Card. After glancing through both documents, she as well broke into laughter. Immediately, we became friends. She cancelled the receipt and told me that my meal was paid. I was refunded the cost I paid earlier and then returned back to where I was sitting before. When my service time came, I walked towards the lady with dignity. We exchanged telephone numbers and bade her goodbye. In fact, she was from Mariana Islands that’s a United States territory. Mariana women are really beautiful, light-skinned, muscular and energetic and a bit resemble Amazonian people. Having studied the Yanomami people in college, her appearance and physical features were not new to me.   

That’s not all, anyway. Somali music is mostly divided into Qaraami, Qaaci and Jazz and other traditional types that bring together many players like Saar and Dhaanto, and theatrical dances and humorous ones. The major instrument is the non-electrical type called Kaban. Likewise, Somali musicians use pianos, trumpets, and drums to make their music captivating.

In the song “Sida faras Bullaale” by vocalist Abdi Tahlil Warsame, he describes his lover using metaphorical language that is hard for modern youth to comprehend its meaning. Other than enjoying the voice of the vocalist and the deafening noise from the musical instruments, the young refugee confounded by invisible love that penetrates his or her psychiatric dimensions, may be hard to postulate.

Like the horse of Bullaale*

That has never experienced drought

Browsing in Nugaal Valley

Overwhelmed by fatness all over

Or immaculately sitting undisturbed

After being fed to the fullest

The navel and chest emblazoned

Is when the skin undergoes melanophores

While the tail brushes the ground…

The vocalist is describing his female lover who has never experienced hunger and deprivation in Bullaale because of the abundance of food and other necessities. Fat and close to obesity after years of being solitudinarians, resulting from loneliness due to the absence of her male lover, she remains sited undisturbed. Her chest is so beautiful such that the bosoms on her chest remain visible to him alone. After years of feeding on the best nutritiously managed balanced diet, her skin experiences melanophores–change of skin pigmentation that catches the eye of every man in search of a partner. Even though human beings have no tails, obviously, she is approaching a stage of becoming steatopygous–for it is beyond reasonable doubt that Somali men of aforetimes had great admiration for girls with big buttocks and fatty thighs.

 

While Western countries give credence to beauty contestants who are slim and that pageants convergence arena is “a platform for showcasing women's empowerment, diversity, intelligence, and leadership”, for some Muslim countries like Mauritania, force feeding starts at a young age while being thin is considered a sign of inferiority.[3] No wonder, Somali women shined in the world of beauty contests with Iman being the first to win a contest in the past and to this day, a walk into a supermarket in Western countries will attract your attention because she has a complete assortment of cosmetics dedicated to her.  

*Bullaale is a town in the Somali Region of Ethiopia

References 

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[1] Mohammad Akram Nadwi (). Notes on Surah al-Shu’ara’. Al-Salam Institute. Retrieved from https://alsalam.ac.uk/notes-shuara/#:~:text=This%20surah%20addresses%20the%20intense,26%3A3).

[2] Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2015, October 26). Trobriander. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Trobriander.

[3] Addie Esposito (25 April 2022). Force-Feeding and Drug Abuse: The Steep Price of Beauty in Mauritania. Harvard International Review. Retrieved from https://hir.harvard.edu/force-feeding-and-drug-abuse-the-steep-price-of-beauty-in-mauritania/