Are Somalis in the Diaspora the gravediggers of the Nation?

by Aden Mohamed Tani
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

 

The word Diaspora by original definition is in ancient Greek, means scattering and refers to any people or ethnic population who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands. In the African, context, corrupted dictators and primitive ethnic based civil war, forced millions of people to leave their original country, while for example in Europe and Latin America Fascist and  Military dictators forced brutally millions of civilians , Intellectuals,  nationalists and revolutionaries to leave their home countries for decades.

 

The Chilean Dictator, General Augustus Pinochet, the Dictator of Cuba Mr Batista, the German Adolf Hitler and the last white president of South Africa ( known as the big crocodile) stands for hateful Symbol of holocaust, Human atrocity and brutal human displacement world wide. The list is long and every individual can add or complete the list with his favourite brutal misanthropist without including our self as silent or active misanthropist.

 

However and in contrary to the Somali’s in the Diaspora, the mass expulsion of people in the over mentioned countries brought up brilliant, heroic and self sacrificing citizen who struggled and liberate their country from various brutal tyranny. In most case, the liberation of the people from savage and barbaric Dictators came from Intellectuals, professionals, academicians and well suited middle class citizens in the Diaspora.  

 

Unfortunately, in Somalia it is the other way round. Somali Intellectuals, professionals, academicians and well suited middle class Somalis mainly in the Diaspora were and are the driving force of the apocalyptic suffering of our nation. Apart from the undisputable financial support which Somalis in the Diaspora provides their families in Somalia, they sponsor also actively and openly their brutal and primitive clan warriors at home. Mainly Somalis in Canadian, USA and Great Britain fuel the never-ending cannibalism in Somalia and their contradicting demonstrations in London, Ottawa and Washington organised by their self declared countless Diaspora associations manifests the destructive roll of those well suited Somali citizens in the Diaspora.

 

The misfortunate in this situation is the fact that the undisputable better half of the nation namely women in the Diaspora are contributing actively now more and more to the continuation of the human tragedy of our nation while those women in Somalia are ironically selling Tea, Mira, or Zambusa in all streets between Zeila and Kismayo to feed a hungry nation.

 

If we want to save our nation from the ultimate destruction we have to join hands and send a strong message to those who are responsible for the destruction. We cannot stop the agony in Somalia when we face (online) each other with views which are diametrically opposing or contradicting each other. Radical Clan activists, religious fanatics, hard core secessionists, intellectual opportunists in Canada, USA, and England are spear heading political debates and problems of Somalia.     

 

It is not important what those individuals think or believe. It is about what is good for our nation whom warlords deleted them literally from the Global map. If we deserve being intellectuals of a nation, the nation must be the bottom line of all discussions and how to restore and write heroic history for our coming generations in Somalia. This is badly needed in Somalia and it is never too late.

 

Somali Websites are full of glorifications or condemnations of ICU, TFG, and Secessionist but what we need is political vision and dedicated intellectuals who are ready to take a long road to make differences in the primitive political debating in Somalia and in the Diaspora.

 

It don’t add up that we have been watching 16 years or silently supporting the barbarism in Mogadishu and all of sudden start singing the Somali nation anthem in front of the downing street nr 10 or the State department in Washington DC. 

 

Visitors of the countless Somali web sites know at least that 14 or 15 failed Somali reconciliation conferences took place in side and outside Somalia. What most of us don’t know is that more than 100 Somali seminars, congress and studies took place in many parts of the world organised by Somali Intellectuals or friends of Somalia. As far as I can remember the last one was in Djibouti hosted by Honourable President of Djibouti Mr Ismail Omer where many Intellectuals from the Horn of Africa have been discussing days the burning problems of the region.  I was not expecting any results from that recent intellectual session because high ranked top Continental African politicians Like Kwame Nkrumah and Gamal Abdi Nasir failed to build African Nations or Arab nations by applying top down political strategy.    

 

I think it is better we start cleaning our rooms now and we will help later our neighbours by cleaning their rooms, otherwise, Somalis in the Diaspora will remain the permeant gravedigger of the nation      

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Aden Mohamed Tani

Bonn, Germany

E-mail: [email protected]