Af qalaad aqoontu miyaa?
Maya, Maya!
Maahee af qalaad, aqoontu miyaa?
Maya, maya!
Mahee, waa intuu qofba Eebbe gashaa
Ayey nala tahay anagee, ma ogtahay
Dib looma abuuro dadkee..
With these prophetic words, the celebrated Somali playwright and lyricist Ali Sugule had decried the adoration of the educated class for foreign languages and their utter despise for their mother tongue, not aware at the time that his words would haunt him in his old age.
The power of the lyric’s words are accentuated by Sugule’s shock therapy style of starting his song by a question, thus bringing the listener’s senses to a full attention and inviting him to a moment of contemplation “Af Qalaad aqoontu miyaa? Is knowledge nothing more than speaking a foreign languageâ€. And bang, comes the answer before the listener awakens from his initial awe with an emphatic repetitive “Maya, Maya… No, No.â€. He then heightens the effect of the words to further ensure the complete mental engagement of the listener by questioning the truth of his emphatic ‘No’, saying “Maahee, afqalaad aqoontu miyaa? Are sure, knowledge is nothing more than speaking a foreign language?â€
He finally offers deliverance to the listener from his bewilderment by giving the answer though not without cautioning him/her that such could only be his view â€Mahee, Waa intuu qofba Eebbe gashaa…Ayey nala tahay anagee.. . No, never, (knowledge) is nothing but whatever God gives to each and everyone..†but again not without rounding it up with a no-further-argument-allowed statement of “Ma ogtahay, dib looma abuuro dadkee.. Don’t you know that people are not created twice..â€
Little did Ali Sugule know at the time that these forceful and profound words he wrote in 1965 would be staring at him in the face after 40 years. History they say repeats itself, and surely it did at least for Ali Sugule and for a tormented crowd of mothers who grew up singing his lyrics without the least anticipation that a time would come when the Somali language and the whole culture and heritage that it enshrined, let alone Ali Sugule’s literature, would be alien to their own children.
This was a tormenting and in fact a soul-searching moment for a crowd of UAE-based Somali expatriates who gathered at the Arab Cultural Club in Sharjah to honor more than 30 high school graduates who scored between95% and 99.6% in their final GCE exams.
At the outset, things looked normal with the guests and proud mothers and fathers arriving with their beautiful and enthusiastic daughters and sons, their faces radiating with happiness for their exam achievements. If not for a few men wearing the white Arab robes, one would not have suspected of being in a foreign land. It was also delightful to see several young Somali women working tirelessly as members of the organizing team, welcoming people and leading them to their seats with the finesse and charm expected of a professional emcee.
Caught by the spell of the melodious recitation of the Quran, few if any of the audience had noticed that the ritual incantation in which the teenager Mohammed Abdul Karim had recited the verses, despite his excellent voice and exceptional mastery of the Quranic incantation rules, was not quite in terms with the traditional straightforward and quick recitation style of the Somalis . Due to their nomadic life which depends on urgency and frequent movement of animals and homestead, the Somali Quranic students neither had the time nor the leisure or the need to spend long hours practicing and imitating the Arab cantillation of the holy Quran, a vocalization which itself is quite alien to the auricular faculties of the Somali people. Hence, came the unique and more native Somali style of reading the Quran which lends more weight to the correct enunciation of words and meaning rather than the slow, prolonged, tedious and rather preposterous intonation of the Arabs.
With the recitation of the holy Quran over, two young members of the organizing team took the podium. Nasra Abdi, an educated young lady dressed in western style but with a traditional Islamic headscarf, was the first to come to the microphone. Speaking in impeccable Somali, she gave the audience, at least the nervous elderly folks, the reassurance that they were on familiar ground and that the evening would be comprehensible to them. It was then seen as quite fair though a bit awkward when her co-presenter Ahmed Shire translated what Nasra had so eloquently put in simple and quite basic Somali into Arabic for the benefit of the young generation for whom the ceremony was being held in their honor.
Distress, however, struck, when Ali Sugule, a distinguished playwright and a house-hold name in Somali literature, was invited to the podium to recite a poem he wrote for the occasion. A man whose appearance on the stage caused rapturous applauding and admiration beyond belief back home, Ali Sugule had shuffled towards the stage almost unbeknownst to the young audience, who surely never heard his name. Though wearing a white Arab robe (dhishdasha) itself did not augur well for his role as an African cultural icon and as a symbol for the foreign-born Somali youth, Ali Sugule took the microphone with the confidence of a masterful artist and had uttered a few wise words about the importance of the homeland ,“haybad waxad ku leedahay dalkaaga – you have a dignity only in your own countryâ€, culture and heritage before he started his poem.
After the recitation of his poem, Ali Sugule left the stage with a sense of loss and bewilderment visibly seen in his gestures and movement. No applaud, no laughter, no nodding of the head in agreement or admiration of the profound truths, images and humor he had marshaled in his verse, no delight, no wonderment, no emotions at all. Even when he tried to simplify and descend to a baby’s language saying “Aabbo iyo hooyo, Abaal gudkiina, Ilaabi mayno – dad and Mom, never shall we forget the debt we owe to you†the young audience remained silent.
As if oblivious to his plight, Ali Sugule told the audience that it was time for music and had given a signal to Salem Saeed Salem, a renowned musician and former member of the Waaberi National band, to start playing a lyric he wrote about the importance of higher education and universities.Though lulled by the musical notes, it was obvious that Ali Sugule’s words in the song just like his lines in the poem before it had rained on a barren land. . The first lines of the lyric called “at the university’s campus†read as follows:
Waxaynu dooneynaa, Rag iyo dumarba
U doodeynaa, u doodeynaa
Ineynu dab shidnaayoon, Dhammaan ku diirsanaa…
With a non-literal translation, the foregoing lines could be interpreted as “ What we all want as men and women, what we advocate, is to ignite a fire that we can all feel its warmth.â€
The music, the words of the lyric and the sonorous voice of Salem which otherwise made quite an exciting and inspirational blend, stirring nostalgic emotions among the older folks, failed to touch the heart of the young girls and boys in the auditorium.
Apart from a courteous clapping as the song came to an end, the audience didn’t show any interaction whatsoever with the music. At this point, Ali Sugule couldn’t hide his frustration and disappointment when he involuntarily climbed the stage and lamented the audience’s lack of response: “what happened? You were supposed to sing, clap and be enchanted by the music?†But to no avail. This is the man who inflamed the Somali people with his nationalistic lyrics at the time of independence and beyond. The man who wrote unforgettable plays such as Himiladeena (Our Aspirations) 1960, Indho Sarcaad (Illusion) 1962 which included the famous lyric ‘Nin lagu seexdow ha seexan’, Ma Huran (Destiny) 1965 which included Afrikaay Hurudooy (Oh! sleeping Africa) , Dhagax iyo Dabka (Fire and Stone) 1966, Midnimo (Unity) 1967 which included ‘Waa baa beryey’, Kala Haab (Antipodal views) 1967 which included ‘Ma hadhin hadal la is yidhaahdaa’ and finally Sheeg iyo Shareer (Exposure and Concealment) 1969. This is the man who tortured the conscience of the educated class with his “Afrikaay hurudooy – Oh! Sleeping Africa†resonated on the airwaves by none other then the legendary voice of Magool, a woman described by the Sudanese as the Umm Kalthoum of black Africa. Almost half a century after he came into the Somali theatre with his ground-shaking plays and at the twilight of his life and career when he was supposed o be venerated as a national treasure, Ali Sugule was today singing into a vacuum. Being a poet and an ardent lover of Somali literature myself, I could feel Ali Sugule’s torment as he left the stage and went out of the auditorium. I joined him outside and we together consoled each other on the death of the role of the Somali poet, at least among the growing Somali community in the diaspora.
The cultural torment became manifold when the key Speaker of the evening Ahmed Sheikh, Chairman of the Somali Youth Committee in Sharjah, and an undergraduate student in Sharjah University, delivered the main speech in Arabic, a language that he rather fittingly thought would have a better appeal to the young honorees of the night.
This was topped by a poem written and recited in Arabic by one of the youth in which he forcefully expressed his nationalistic feelings towards his homeland in the hyperbolic style of the Arabic language, ending it with the following emotional outburst: “Wa Raka’tu Uqabilu Arda A Soomaal… And I bowed kissing the soil of the land of the Somalis…†which is a rather befitting tone to a young man born outside his country and longing to see it and to the youth in the audience who after excelling in the final exams found the doors of the country’s universities shut before them, thus yearning for a peaceful and prosperous homeland where they could call themselves citizens after carrying the stigma of being a “wafid – expatriate†in a country in which they were born, raised, educated and excelled academically, proofing that given the same circumstances as their peers, African children can attain excellence in any field and any language.
Of all the places to which the Somali people migrated, it may sound ironic and somewhat a tragedy to know that it is only in Muslim countries, and particularly Arab states that they found themselves as the most alien, the most discriminated and the most unwanted. Arab countries are one of the few if not the only places on earth where one packs up his bags and leaves unwanted and unappreciated after 30 years of service without any rights of citizenship for himself or for his children who never knew any other home.
Just as Ali Sugule was haunted by the lines he wrote 40 years ago, I was also haunted by the first lines of a poem I wrote many years ago on being an expatriate in an the Arab world:
“Cumarow ma faaraxo ninkii, Carab fadhiistaaye
Nina kama fanaanco intuu, Liidka fidiyaaye
Faruuryaha ma leefaan kuwii, Fiiftigii yimiye
Nin bidaari ugu foodhisoo, Ganucu foocaaray
Oo tusbax fasaasa ah watiyo, Carabi foojaysan
Oo faraha taagaya ka tega, Foodhi (forty) dabadeede…â€
The torment that Ali Sugule and I had shared, reached its pinnacle when an Arabic song by the late Egyptian Abdul Halim Hafiz was played at the interval and the whole audience erupted into a festival on hearing the first words: “Yaa hayaat albi wa afraaxu… the life of my heart and its delightâ€. At this point I couldn’t help but survey the auditorium left and right and finally look at my friend Abdillahi Ali Bahal, who was sitting next to me and like me bewildered by the plight that befell our people. Though proud of the achievement of his daughter Rahma, who politely sat beside him, and was the second top honoree with a percentage of 99.1% in the science stream, he was well aware and worried about the cultural erosion that benighted her generation. A generation that had grown hearing only bad news and seeing depressing images about Africa. A generation that had no idea of how beautiful, how prosperous, how lush and green and how rich culturally and materially Africa was in the past and easily could be in the future if only it found proper leadership. A generation that grew up with foreign nurseries, foreign music, foreign clothing and foreign perspectives of their homeland. A generation that had no experience of sitting in a Somali theatre and listening to “Habeen iyo dharaar, hadaladaan dhisnaa, Afkeena hooyo oo horumaraan, ku hoos caweynaynaa, Hagaaajinaa, had iyo jeer hagnaa, ma hagranee, waan u hawl galnaa’ the customary choral theme of Somali artists written by the renowned playwright Hassan Sheikh Mumin Gorod as part of his immortal play ‘Shabeel Naagood – Leopard among the women’. A generation that never had the opportunity to hear a mother or grandmother singing to them traditional Somali children songs such as:
“Roobow waa, dhiishaydaa, muska taallaa, biyo maahee, waa caanee, ii buuxi, ii buuxi, riyo dararis, adhi dararis, geel dararis…’
Or
“Reerka guuraaya, ee galab carraabaaya, ee dhoobo gaadhayaa, ee dhebei ku toosaaya, reerka guuraaya…â€
Nursery rhymes which apart from their rhythmic, musical and imagery richness, are educative and reflect the lifestyle of the Somali nomad which depends on rain, water and milk as well as his reliance on movement in pursuit of grazing areas and good weather.
It is such songs that make a lasting impression on the tender mind of growing children and give them a memory treasure that gives them direction and sense of identity later in life. Being lucky to have got the chance to teach these songs to my son, I can see how his face lights up, even in his teenage years, when we sometimes remember them and sing together. Although, he is not yet fortunate enough to see Africa, I can imagine what kind of images these rhymes conjure up in his mind. Most likely an image of Africa of his own.
I find it befitting here to quote a paragraph of an old writing of mine, lamenting such loss of identity:
“…it is not only the politico-economical situation that has degenerated to these horrible ends, but the centuries-old culture of Africa is also disappearing at an alarming rate. The new generations no longer understand the legendary language of the African Drum. The history-moulded traditional folklore dances have become obsolete; and western hypnotized minds of the young intellectuals no longer listen to what they consider the primitive and superstitious folk tales of the Ayeeyo (grandmother) and the hyperbolical stories of the Oday (Griot). This has produced a multitude of youth who have lost self respect and all sense of national pride. Their eyes are mesmerized by the dazzling lights of New York, Paris and Montreal. Their ears seek consolation in the albums of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Whitney Houston, and their skin is itching for the fashion designs of Christian Dior and House of Chanel. They are Africans in look, but are Americans, Europeans, Australians, and Canadians in-waiting. They want to escape from the Big Refugee Camp, which is Africa, to become roaming refugees in the streets of the vast cities of the west. To live as parasites on the extra fat of the western economy as I so humbly expressed in my poem “Afrikaay Warlaay†– Introduction, Awdal Phenomenon, 1989.
Despite this linguistic tragedy and cultural bankruptcy, the event was not completely without luster. It had its rewarding and inspiring moments. Ebyan Ladane Salah, a visiting Canadian doctoral candidate of Somali-origin, has uplifted the morale of the youth, the majority of whom were her womenfolk, by narrating her personal odyssey in search of education. Not only did she impress the audience by the determination and hard work she manifested to reach her goal, but also by her self-confidence and her eloquence in the Somali language, thus breathing a fresh life into the nerves of the elderly audience benumbed by the bombardment of the Arabic language and by setting a shining example for not only being a highly educated mother but also a lucid speaker who can snap out lines of Somali poetry and anecdotes. She received the greatest applause when she quoted the following lines from an old poem written by Osman Yusuf Kenadid in 1945, illustrating that given the same opportunities, girls were as capable as boys.
“..Hadday gabari waagii beryaba, Wax u eg yeelayso
Wareeggaa ku ceeb ehe hadday,Weligeed diidayso
Wargeyska iyo Raadyaha hadday, Wada aqoonayso,
Maxaa wiilku dheer yahay hadday, Wadato hawsheeda…â€
I could see the delight on Ali Sugule’s face and I myself couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief like receiving reassuring news from a doctor on the health of a patient assumed to be critically ill. Even Ebyan’s condescending apology to the audience for her Somali language not being perfect, could not spoil Ali Sugule’s joy who promptly repudiated her for uttering such sardonic mea culpa. Ebyan said that she went to Canada with a mission – to acquire knowledge and she did. She narrated a story of an elderly man she and her folks had met on their way to North America. Seeing their enthusiasm for going to the land of milk and honey as he thought they assumed at the time, he asked them:
“Are you going to North America?â€
“Yes,†they answered in a tone not bereft of pride.
“Well,†he sighed with a sense of pain, “ listen, you will go to North America, you will find freedom, you will go to clubs, you will learn drugs and you will end up as drop outs, the scum of the society.â€
“No, we will not, we are going to study and make a good future for ourselves†said Ebyan and her folks.
“ This is my address,†he said in a voice of defiance and challenge, “ call me after five or so years and let me know how your life turns up.â€
Ebyan said that she had remembered the man’s challenge and having his address in hand she called him after 10 years. She reminded him of their encounter, which he remembered, and she told him of her progress and that she earned her post graduate degree. This was a moment of joy and encouragement for the youth in the audience and was received with a standing ovation. Ebyan’s story called to mind lines of a poem I wrote in 1984, in which I forewarned a friend, a woman by coincidence, who was going to the United States that the aim of her sojourn should be one to fulfill her longing for education and should not be wasted on transient luxuries:
“…Aniguba tabaaladan mar dhow, Waan ka tegayaaye
Tacliin meesha lagu sheegay iyo, Qalin tawaadiisa
Tiriigaa ka baxayaan Oroob, Tiigso leeyahaye
…Texas baan u jeednaa dhammaan, Toorantiyo Boone
Waxan tiigsanaynaana waa, Rugo tacliineede
Tumasho uma jeedniyo inaan, Tooxinaa Yurube
Himilada ku taagnow intay, Talo hagaageyso.â€
Another heartwarming story of success was told by a lady, Zahra Jama Saleh, who said that she had worked hard to educate herself without going to the west. She said she had taken executive secretarial courses and had landed covetous jobs in reputable companies. Not satisfied with only working, she said she had perfected her English language and as a result had written her first book which was about to be published.
“…Nin deeqba haween leh baan ahay, haddana dafiraaya baan ahay, dabeecado jaanle baan ahay…â€
It was also rather ironic and painful at the same time to hear a young man expressing the plight of his generation in a halting Somali. In a spirit of defiance and patriotic determination to use his mother tongue albeit with great difficulty, he rejected seeking refuge into either Arabic or English. Through torturous but thought provoking moments, he struggled, stuttered, mumbled and finally managed to convey his message. Saying that after he graduated from high school, his only ambition was to migrate to North America. And to quote him verbatim, he said “I had it in my mind that I had to reach North America. By air, by land, be sea, doesn’t matter. My only aim and ambition was to reach North America. I went there and saw the reality was quite different from what I had imagined. I had to return to the UAE. I am now here with my mother and have made my life. I realized that one doesn’t have to be in North America to make a decent living. One can make life anywhere if one strives for it.â€
Several of the honored girls had also enlivened the audience with burgeoning patriotism and longing for their homeland. One of them commented that she imbibed the love of the motherland from her mother’s breast.
The most testing and anguishing statement to the audience and particularly to a group of Somali medical doctors who were there to lecture about the benefits of education, came from one girl who said “ you are all telling us to learn and acquire knowledge and skills. You are telling us that our country needs us, and we know that we cannot go home. Do we have to work all our lives for other people?â€
Finding this as a slap in the face, the doctors decided to pass the buck by delegating the answer to Hussein Abokor, the most elderly man in the crowd and also the Chairman of the Somali Community in Sharjah, who tried in vain to mitigate the guilt that the older people and the doctors had felt before the eyes of the younger generation.
If I try to sum up the mood of the night, I can say it was one of hope rather than despair, an ending of the long wait for the beautiful dawn as I have written in one of my poems in 1999:
“Dalkaygow wallaahiye
Warwarkiyo waxyeeladu
Cidna lama walaaloo
Qofna weerka dhiilada
Wehel looma siiyoo
Kuma waaro ciilkee;
Waxad wayda haysaba
Waagii dhawaayoo
Walaacani ku haystiyo
Walbahaarku wuu tegi;
Wallee maalin dhow waqal
Weelka loo dareershiyo
War caloosha deeqoo
Gaajada badh wiiqoo
Wadnaha ii qaboojiyo
Weedh aan ku diirsado
Waayeelka hirarkiyo
Ababshaha wardoonkiyo
BBCiidu way werin…â€
Looking in the eyes of the aspiring and outstanding high school graduates, I kept pondering whether these were the future forces that would liberate our homeland, and the whole of Africa in that matter, from its current doom. Once again, I may have been covertly passing the blame, but there is no way one can be pessimistic before the powerful appetite of youth for life and change. And once again I found myself humming lines from another poem of mine, written in 1984:
“…Dirirka bilan waayey
Hadhuudhka ka baaqday
Qaxootiga baahay
Bishiishin xumaanta;
Hayaayda baxaysa
Bacaadka la jiifo
Harraad bakhtigeena
Bariis heli waaga;
Balaayo halkeede;
Dadaalka bilowday
Barbaarta kacaysa
Baajuuri xambaarka
Tacliin bismilaynta
Wixii balageena
Baraaq jabinaaya
Baddaan ka galaaye;
Biciidku dhankiisa
Qofkuu ka baxaayo
Bakayle qaleenku
Bahdeenaba maaha..â€
It is not without a feeling of melancholy, however, that I have to leave this piece of writing, knowing that none of the young girls and boys who were present that stimulating evening would understand the slew of verses I have quoted above. I may have to invite them though to a moment of reflection that, as they all had bluntly expressed with their youthful honesty, it is only by learning their own language and working hard to perfect it that they would be able to overcome their identity crisis. It is the language and the wisdom it enshrines that heals people, gives them hope and makes them soar in beautiful dreams at times of despair. It is only in our beautiful language that we can get our bearings when we are lost. It is our language that can mitigate our pain, soothe our fears and welcome us to weep in its lap and not anywhere else. I have to admit though that given the place and circumstances in which they grew up, our children did their part and did it well and with proper parental guidance they surely will also excel in learning their culture and language. All that we need to do as parents is to remind them over and over again “Af Qalaad aqoontu miyaa? Maya…Maya..â€
Source,,,,,,Bashir Goth
