Somalia is among the African nations that are endowed with fallen heroes who altruistically sacrificed their souls for the liberation of the country and fought gallantly in bloody battles against the allied colonial forces during the black era of the western powers’ illegal colonisation that annexed resourceful parts of Somali territories to the neighbouring states where many ethnic Somali communities live as citizens of these countries that benefited from the annexation in favour of their go-political and demographic interests per se.
The number one Somali hero, Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan, whose omnipresent name isn’t only written in the books of history with a silver ink but is chiselled with a golden tool in the heart of every Somali patriot, had been alienated from the nation he fought for its liberation and died for by the Somali-Ethiopian Regional State authority that erected his statue in the centre of Jigjiga in honour of the sacrosanct Somali hero as an Ethiopian legendary. The statue symbolises him as an Ethiopian freedom fighter due to the current Somali political status quo on the ground today. Many Somali nationalists believe that the Ethiopianisation of the Somalia’s freedom father is a devaluation of Somali sovereignty. It is implausible and unacceptable violation.
Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan was a seasoned greater Somali theorist that God bestowed on him ambitious Somali nationalist dreams for which he struggled quarter of a century and died for. He was also a fearless fighter and daring commander of the Somali Dervish forces, prolific poet, well-versed Islamic scholar, and outspoken anthropologist of his time. As a brave military commander, he assaulted both nocturnal and diurnal decisive offensives and counteroffensives against the colonial invaders in the Horn of Africa where his triumphant battalion combatants achieved victories over the mechanised colonial forces in lots of combat zones that they engaged with the well-equipped British and Italian brigades and divisions. In response to those cut-throat military confrontations, the late Somali hero composed countless poems about all the military clashes that he personally participated in with his forces and commanded as a golden legacy for the day-to-day Somali generation who still enjoy listening to his inspiring poems that are teeming with Somalism. This diamond-like creative legacy was collected by the renowned Somali creative anthropologist who is now ailing in Djibouti, Au-Jama Omar Isse. The Somali Dervish freedom fighters founded and commanded by the late Somali national warrior, Sayid Mohamed, was the first nationalist movement in the history of Africa that were ever bombarded by the British air force. Though the British airstrike badly strafed Taleh, the then central command of the Dervish forces and defeated them militarily, but Sayid Mohamed naturally died in Imei jungles as he was aiming to reinforce his fighters and surprise the colonial soldiers with lightening offensives in order to dislodge them from his captured frontline offensive and defensive positions and recapture from them.
As I had learned from the books of the legendary Somali historian and Dervish movement specialist, Au-Jama Omar Isse, the current Somali-Ethiopian Regional Government seat, Jigjiga, was the first place that the Dervish forces, under the command of Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan, confronted with the then Abyssinian empire military occupation that he ferociously fought against as to liberate the city from them and stop their encroachment on the then Somali territorial land. All those large-scale military engagements that raged for over twenty years were fought by the Dervish fighters for a noble cause – the liberation of greater Somalia, which was the main ambition of the late Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan. Unfortunately, today the Somali hero was made Ethiopian hero by the president of the Somali-Ethiopian Regional State, Abdi Mohamud Omar, who paid millions of dollars for the erection of Sayid Mohamed’s statue in the Jigjiga down town in order to lionise the fallen Somali hero as an Ethiopian knight whose literature and long struggle will be recorded in the Ethiopian history books as to garner the support of the Ethiopian federal government. I personally believe that Abdi Mohamud Omar contributed a lot to the development of the region in many sectors during his era in the presidential seat of the region but turning our Somali hero into an Ethiopian statesman is a violation of Somali national pride which already provoked nationalistic outrage among the Somali thinkers in the world. No matter if Abdi ennobles Sayid Mohamed as an African gallant but Ethiopianising the hero is an historical accident as I think.
The looting of the Somali national heritage came as a result of the awful acts by some of the Somali warlords who smashed the statues of many Somali heroes and heroines for the simple reason of their tribal affiliations after ousting the powerful military ruler and expelling his loyal troops from the capital. Due to the consequences of the Somali civil war, many claim that there will be no statue of honour which will be built for Sayid Mohamed in the centre of Mogadishu by the current Somali government because of tribal-based reasons as every single Somali tribe wants his tribal leader be honoured.
Although I have got no evidence to prove my statement but I heard that some of the then victorious warlords that captured the military bases of the central government in the capital sold out the statue of Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan in Mogadishu to foreign country. There is another rumour which says that it was demolished to pieces by angry rural fighters among the rank and file of USC due to his distant lineal relation with the deposed president. There is another conspiracy theory which says that all the bravery symbols which were built for the fallen Somali heroes in the city were devastated by Al-Qaeda militants with the cooperation of furious fighters at the time of the violent days that Major General Mohamed Siad Bare fled the city in 1991. All these claims can be true or false but due to those errors, many elites believe that Abdi Mohamud Omar has the right to erect statue for the late Sayid Mohamed who hails from the same Ogaden clan that Abdi belongs to. But as a Somali nationalist, I don’t see the point of believing in that mere reason. I believe that we should differentiate clannish connection from countries because Abdi Mohamud Omar is a regional state president for the modern day Ethiopia and he had intentionally did this for he understands that there will be no opposition against his alienation of our Somali hero from the weak Somali government who failed even to criticise it. My question is: Is Sayid Mohamed’s Statue in Jigjiga Lionising Him or Looting Him?
By: Mohamed Abdikadir (Stanza) – Somali published poet and novelist whose books are available at the shelves of the international bookshops.
Reach him at: ayaandhalad5@hotmail.comKismaayoNews.com
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