War-torn Somalia's first florist lets romance blossom again

Saturday, November 02, 2013

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Mogadishu florist opens for business and hopes to rekindle traditional courtship rituals.

If there were any place in the world where it could be said romance is dead, Mogadishu might be it. But after more than 20 years of war, including hardline Islamist rule, flowers are blooming again amid the ruins of the hot and dusty Somalian capital. Mohamed Mohamoud Sheik has just opened the country's first florist, allowing young couples to rekindle the courtship rituals of their parents.

"The new generation are starting to celebrate Valentine's Day," said the 25-year-old, standing among tulips, lilies and a box of pale blue and white roses arranged to represent the Somali national flag. "I think next year Valentine's Day will be amazing. I can't wait to see that day."

For centuries of nomadic existence, so Sheik has heard in folklore, Somali men would temporarily abandon their camels to woo with poetry, while women would step away from their sheep and goats to be wooed. But two decades of anarchy, warlord dominance and a Taliban-style ban on music, TV and artistic depictions of the human form did not invite romantic gestures.

With the Islamist militia al-Shabaab now banished, however, Mogadishu is enjoying a revival, albeit as delicate as any blooms. The past year has brought a sprinkling of coffee shops, pizza parlours and beachside restaurants. Sheik, born to Somali parents in Italy and raised in Tanzania, is among numerous expat entrepreneurs flocking back for business opportunities that can also restore a sense of normality.

"Maybe 20 years of war has changed us a bit and made us aggressive," he said,"but our mums and dads were romantic: they had poetry. If I bring back romance to Mogadishu, I will have something to remember. I will say, thank God, I did something good. This is the first time Somalis will ever have window plants. I had the first orchid in Mogadishu and gave it to a friend as a birthday gift."

Facing challenges that Interflora could not imagine, Sheik cannot yet cater for impulsive lovers.

"I've had a couple of people coming and saying, 'I want to take flowers to my girlfriend.' I have to say, 'give me a week's notice because shipping from Nairobi takes five to six days.'"

This is still preferable, he believes, to the abundance of plastic flowers that dominate hotels and government offices including that of the president. "I don't like it. Why can't we have fresh flowers from Kenya or Ethiopia? It's something we're taking a risk on because I want people to have that environment at wedding and other events."

Sheik's market research found that Somalis will only opt for fresh flowers if they last, so he flew to Nairobi to find chemicals that can preserve them for six months. He is monitoring the effects in a fledgling nursery that has natural humidity.

This is just part of his ambitions for Amber Gardens and Florists, which opened in June. Sheik also wants to heal the deep physical scars of Mogadishu, a city of smashed buildings, rivers of rubbish and sprawling squatter camps. He plans to beautify it with trees, green spaces and children's playgrounds.

"Greenery and palm trees are missing in Mogadishu. Before the war it was a beautiful city. Our parents' generation planted trees and there were green spaces. Now people cut down the trees and the city is dry and hot.

"I want to change the environment: we're close to the sea and with trees we could have the best weather."

Sheik fell in love with jacaranda trees, with their fleeting lavender blossom, when in Tanzania, and has brought some to Mogadishu, with plans for more by the end of the year. He has also imported different types of grass from Tanzania and the UK.

The florist and landscaping business comes a year after Sheik opened Somalia's first laundry and dry cleaner's since the state's implosion in 1991. The idea came to him after hearing a man ask his father to take six suits to Nairobi for cleaning.

"My dad said, most men in Mogadishu have suits but they only wear them once a year because there is no dry cleaner here."

Sheik quit his job as an air operations assistant in Dubai to set up Somalia Premium Laundry and Dry Cleaning.He imported chemicals and detergents from Dubai, hired a dry cleaner from Nairobi to train his staff and bought a $35,000 (£22,000) Chinese-made machine that broke during shipping. He had an Italian-made replacement flown in. The service, which typically charges a suit, attracts about 300 customers a month, including government officials, embassy staff and students. As Somalis return from the diaspora and fashions become more liberal, women are increasingly among the clientele.

A percentage of the profits goes to charity, for example through a donation of T-shirts and slippers to a camp for internally displaced persons. "My plan is to get the money from the rich people to the kids. I want to set up a place where we can change their lives after 20 years of war. A lad now wants to fight because he missed the childhood of playing that you and I had," said Sheik.

Despite al-Shabaab's continued ability to strike in Somalia and beyond, Sheik is optimistic about the country's prospects.

"I think we're living in a very good time. It's all about us Somalis and what we want. If we want peace and good government, we have to bring it about ourselves. If the Somali people are not willing to step up, no one can do it for them. We have to wake up and say enough now."

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