The Water Bearer

The journey to the well was long and scary when Twosmo, was younger. She would start before the shadows cast, and would usually  reach the well when there was a significant shadow in the day. Scary because the land is  an endless darkeness,  the camel a ten foot beast would not avail her any form of protection from the many dangers lurking out there in the form of wild animals,  in search of a succulent morsel themselves before they returned to their dens after  their nocturnal foraging in search of food.

Twosmo, at this tender age felt she was being thrown to the hyena‘s in the pitch darkness, that shrouded ominously, before, the break of dawn. Whenever she felt she could not possibly go through with it, the voice of her mother in her head, would sternly urge her on, resoundingly stating, how  it  was her duty to the clan, family, and  a further duty to her own  homestead of the future.  In the light of the day, brought on by an unrelenting sun, the land assumed itself indistinguishable. Every thorn looked like the other one, every ant hill looked identical to the other, there were  thousands of well trodden foot paths in front of you. Small foot paths in the sandy earth, marked by spaces of grass in the ground that resembled a translucent head of thinning hair. The trees were mainly thorn trees all emaciated and small in stature. Emaciated from a sparse diet of nothing but very little rainfall. This, the trees had in common with every  living thing in this desolate abode of collective harshness. A most barren part of the world. Every thing that grows here has to put up a great fight to merely exist. Plants are as fierce as is the rest of the environment they abound with thorns to ensure life. The lay of the land is unforgivingly cruel, as if still despondent from it’s volcanic eruptions of long ago. Sand were in places where seasonal rivers  flowed, as  barren volcanic  mountain ranges in the background presided over everything, stoically, aloof to the daily proceedings, as they unfolded. A  flat enormity of semi arid land dashed here and there by thorn trees to short to hide or give shade to anything. Mingled with thorny shrubbery, again that translucent head of hair grass, resembling hay growing out from the earth. What perhaps  used to be  long  luscious grass, when this was a  savanna .

The ten foot camel followed obediently through a nose lead. This animal with all its clumsy glory reigned supreme to the fierce pastoralist, this animal was the end and beginning of all things. She was often conflicted as to which was more important, water or the camel. Disputes  were always over either, sometimes both. Water rights for the camels, goats, sheep in that order, sometimes  invariably reached the intense  heights of  bloodshed. Only the camel sufficed as payment for the later disputes. Often Heralding an end to hostilities, although there were the rare  occasions where some  chose a life for a life instead. The currency of the camel was used in all manor of occasions, it was used for bride price, one of the most important events in a Somal’s life. Since procreation was the object of the nomad’s very existence , the fierceness of without, demanded large congeries of sons to protect the wealth and general well being of the family, from other such families. In the hope of defense against  the unsavory, treacherous, and  often barren lone operators. Barren precisely as a result of the lack of this clumsy currency in  abundance. Wealthy in this part of the world is truly in the eyes of the beholder. The camel is the most rugged and austere of the domesticated, reflexively so are the wealthy in these parts, if you see a rather gaunt, lanky red and dusty man he could be rich in camels and sons, or he could just as well be impoverished.

Twosmo, would often hear her Awowo , describe many such men of many sons and camels, as the apparition of hunger, they cut a picture of one in the throws of death induced by   sustained hunger brought own by miserliness.

After a long solo journey Twosmo, would arrive as did many of the girls at the well having walked a quite lengthy distance,  exhausted. They would then wait for the men, usually their kin to draw the water for them. The wells being very deep in the earth. This gave them  a chance for a slight reprieve before the arduous journey back. Leading  the camel, now laden with fifty liters of water on each side. The water was rusty in color approximating apple juice. A color that  permeated everything, it seeped into the clothes, fingernails, red, being the color of the lose sand of this region. After the journey, there were other chores awaiting her return. She would tend to the needs of Awowo, filling his abolition water container full, before the night praye. Bringing him milk , and his much cherished tea before he would retire for the night. By this time Twosmo, had kraaled the goats and sheep for the night, surrounding the encampment with thorn tree branches, an unseemingly impenetrable defense against would be intruders, of human and beast.

The Arrest

Yusuf  was astounded by the city itself, he was exasperated with the desire to break the monotony of what he saw as a mudane existance. The perpetual moving, grazing and the general repetition of animal husbandry. It was here in these desolate places of nature’s barren garden that he would first hear of  larger world outside, this eventually kindled his desire to  further see beyond the confines of the very limited world of  harsh plains. The constant movement in search of pasture and water. The utter desolation. The world beyond, he had heard, had cities, abounding with people who never moved. Incredibly they stayed put for years. Yusuf , was determined to become part of the city and identified as such, but he first had to shed his much ingrained camel ways. For this, he looked to commander Ali, for ques. In Ali Deray, his commander, he saw one who wielded the respect and fear of his fellow city dwellers. Yusuf  sought to understand the intricate ways of what made him, at barely a few years his senior, so prominent. Other than the position he held as a senior military officer. Yusuf had occasioned many officers,  equal to rank with Ali Deray, who the rank and file, outside and inside the military, just plainly ignored.

Yusuf, never so much as questioned orders,  foremost  he had  rationalized, that whatever he knew in his previous life, did not apply to the ways of the city, and by extension the ways of government. So when he was ordered, there were many layers of adherence in the undertaking of his orders. He summoned the other solders, and commenced  to the house of the man he was issued orders to arrest. He knew of the man, one of many who had left the country in search better economical prospects, returning after a long sojourn, with much more those envious, thought he needed. The solders arrived at Hoagsaday’s, and knocked with the usual arrogance  most coercive forces are known for. Everyone was indoors as was the custom of Mogadishu ,  a refuge from the sun naked in afternoon time. From around one o’clock to at least five, longer for others, those who could ate a hearty lunch, quite excessive particularly if guests were being entertained. Dispositionally the Somal in these circumstances of pomp, was an exceedingly generous host. Afterwards an afternoon siesta was agreed upon by all who lived in this city. The period of siesta was quite opportune  to present the full regalia of coercive bravado, and intimidation for an added effect of  humiliation for one to be rounded up at their home. The proverbial man’s castle heightens the sense of the government’s power upon those it has intruded upon in such a manor, particularly in the case of one who is a prominent member of the community, as was Hoagsaday. At such a ubiquitous time and place of privacy. The intended audience is the public, who would know of the incident before the night was out. For this was a nation populated by news chronicles and worthy disseminators, the news would spread like a tsunami, instilling fear in the almost fearless nomad, turned citizen of a modern city state.

The Hogsaday heard an agressive knock that at first drove  him quickly into a fit of anger, commonly induced by afternoon sleep. It was probably a manner less person he mused, particularly rude to intrude on the  sacred serenity of  sieta time in Mogadishu. Probably an impatient person having some business with him, thinking nothing of invading his privacy, rather than wait for him at the store during the normal hours. He called to the servant to answer, with a firm admonition to the knocker, then again, he quickly changed  his mind, brushing past the servant in a haste of fury to answer the door himself.

“ Who is it, don’t you have any sense at all? I  just can’t understand how a mature person can be so inconsiderate” as he opened the door with a forceful jerk with one hand. Hoagsaday was confronted by the khaki brown color of a soldier’s uniform. Hoagsaday, simultaneously heard, “are you the rich guy from overseas, we have orders from the commander, to arrest you. Hoagsayday, come with us now”, almost barking, “ get in the truck”. Hogsaday sees a military truck behind his vehicle in the drive way full of non-descript biege berets, haunched in the back. At first Hogsaday thought of this almost surreal event at his home, at an hour when most people were resting in the privacy of their homes as unreal.In a flash of second he went through a montage in his mind in search of inking of  anything  untoward he might have perhaps done unwittingly. In the hope that it might shed some light on why the military wanted him. Since nothing was amiss, Hogsaday grue more and more agitated with these lower ranking enforcers. How dare they  show up like this. Momentarily regaining his stature as a prominent businessman from one of larger clans,  Hoagsaday  stood barreling his chest, now returning the bark “what in the name of god makes you think you can come to my home, at this time, and under such pretentious allegations, barge into my compound, and ask to take me, Hogsaday, an upstanding member of this city, to a station just like a common and habitual criminal.” By this time his wife, children,  and a number of his relatives both visiting and staying with him were all shocked out of sleep. They were all heading outside towards the fracas on the veranda, alongside the official intruders. “hear this bigmouth, come along quietly before we drag you by the scruff of your neck, in front of your wife, children and your entire family.

Hoagsaday had by now gone from disbelief, to belief in the reality that these goons meant business: there was no doubt in his mind now, this madness was real. It was futile he determined pleading with rocks, he made a split second decision  to acquiesce. Hoagsaday was heavily influenced by the gradual milling onto the veranda more and more male family members, as they woke up to what was going on. Abukar a male cousin just arrived from the hinterland, started an abrasive verbal assault on  the soldiers, “What kind of animals are you, has the government stopped recruiting humans into the military? how dare you come here with this nonsense ? what great balls are these you have  come here with, do guns have brains ? this is not a government matter, when you come here like this , you don’t come here as a government, but as a clan. Everyone has a clan too, you will reckon with Hoagsaday’s, we see you, behind the  clan camouflage of your uniform.” with that Abukar  was descended upon by two soldiers who had come for Hoagsayday. The berets were now quickly unloading from the truck, all heading to the veranda to help subdue Abukar, who was by now pinned to the ground with two soldiers on top of him, while he was engaging them as best he could under the circumstances in a scuffle at the bottom of the two solders. He continued to harangue the soldiers with open threats, as other males decided to join in the now potential melee.

One of the soldiers shouted a command, while the loud cocking of several machine guns was simultaneously heard. Launching  severity in the air, a severity that garnered instant access to obedience. Precisely at this moment Hoagsayday, stated loudly for mainly the benefit of his family, and to calm the soldiers, that he would obey. Promptly requesting to go back into the house and change out of his ma’ a wiss, a long serong worn by males  used both privately in the city and regularly in the hinterland. In a brave posture he reassured his family, and went outside onto the back of the truck, where Abukar was already lying prone on the floor, bloody at the soldiers boots. the truck drove fast speeding through the empty roads of siesta time, making its way to a none descript heavily guarded isolated building. Both men were manhandled off the truck , barely making the distance between the flatbed of the truck and the ground on their feet. Because the soldiers were all busy thumping them with their boots, and rifle butts all the way to the facility. Abukar, was given extra rations of hurt, for his earlier infraction, and continued defiant disposition. They were separated at the entrance of  what looked like a front greeting area office , taken down steps leading to a dark underground, then lead  into a holding cell that had no bars , only thick metal doors that was promptly shut behind Hoagsaday  when he got  inside. He sat down in a grand stupor, sitting on the floor of this small  rectangle enclosure with nothing, no furniture or even a mat to help you brace the concrete floor. It was a concrete slab of drab nothingness. Hoagsayday, was on the floor wondering if what had just transpired was real, if so,  who was involved? How does one go from a routine day, to some underground holding concrete pit? He started to get out of the haziness of his blurred thoughts, slowly thinking about Abukar, Twosmo, his young wife who he had just left hysterically crying  along with his children  during the fiasco.

He was not so certain, anymore wither he would get the ear of someone, anyone-what had just transpired had  all the makings of quite a serious problem. There was nothing he knew, he new absolutely nothing, even a mere inkling of what he was up against. He now tried in his mind to go back to that earlier montage of events in recent memory to somehow put some feet on, why the government had interrupted his life today.

Hoagsaday, was not in the government, He was a private business man, not engaged in anything, even remotely breaching any law the land. He paid his taxes regularly, never borrowed from the government, nor was he engaged in a way with those who were part of the government, in any partnerships , neither did he solicit any official of the government for powerful whispers on behalf of his company. Even though this was quite common. Hoagsayday was simply a man who had work hard for several years to acquire what minimal capital as seed money, to start a business and buy a home in the city.

He was slightly reassured by the thought that someone from his clan was probably already inquiring on his whereabouts. In the hope of finding his location. Who needed to be talked too in order to gain his release. As things were in Somal, a hodgepodge of government in the western sense, the traditional pastoral ways of adjudication, and with a large to dose of clannishness. . In the meantime he eyes wondered around this hot dungeon of sorts, the cracked concrete wall full of graffiti, left by those who had had the dubious privilege of passing through this bare and dirty place. This was quite a change from the normal day for Hogsayday, who had a until this point worked himself into the psyche of the city dwellers, known as an ambitious and innovative hard working man. He had within no time established a operational business that quickly blossomed into many other ones. With prominence came the multitudes of the envious, of course in varying degrees. Some said in dug toilets, others said he had done a lot of common street begging when he was abroad in the middle east.

still others said he beat a hasty retreat after a long career as a thief in the middle east, when his gang made a final career ending score. The rest of his gang were reputed to be non Somals and prominent he their countries as he was here.

This adventure, mystic created around the person of Hoagsayday, sort of like a modern day version of the famous Ali baba fable. But one did not need to look far to find the origin these rumors. They were generated by rival business men, and the collective of idle naysayers, having witnessed Hoagsaday’s quick ascendancy to the parapets of business circles in the city. Were also astonished at his conscientious efficiency, there was that, and then there was the others who wielded power in the government. Through the government, using their high positions as a means to public and private coffers. Hoagsaday, having spent a significant amount of time overseas, had indeed dwelled in nostalgia. Ideas heavily flavored by a hybrid existence in the middle east at the confluence of many cultures. Some ideas he cultivated from the west, the middle east, as though somewhat delusional about the reality of life where he had left, for reasons unknown he somehow did not configure in his hybrid ideas about the very spot he came from. the things he had left were now worse! in this way one could say he was quite delusional. Hoagsaday, was haunched in a cell passing away the time in deep reflection, or what others would rightfully deem as anxiety, about a looming uncertainness over his life, his property. Tusmo, the wife of Hoagsay, right after the incident involving the military took place, she felt a more ominous feeling in relation to the occurrence of her husband’s unusual arrest. She therefore summoned the driver and was off to a relative to get things done, as that were how things of such magnitude were broached.

The Bloodlines

There was an unwritten law  incorporated into the fabric of life a hold over, from the people and there culture of pastoralism. This was the hierarchy of clan blood lines, and their relations with other such blood lines. This clan hierarchy was entrenched in religion, government and the general where with all of the Somal. So whatever one was he was above all and foremost a member by blood of a clan. Blood affiliations ran deep  in the society , forming the trajectory for all the modern occurrences, such as,   the modern state, the officials within it,  and consequently the society at large, Every philosophy western, or otherwise were grounded in this concept of the blood lines. And it follows that distant clan rivalries, were a pretext for altercations in the now.

In this spirit Twosmo, went immediately to a prominent member of weight in the affairs of the clan in the dislocation of the city. Somal’s clan system was based on both patrilineal blood relationships, complement differently by matrilineal blood relations. However, the male blood line, and thus the male dominated clan affairs. She as a women although particularly aggrieved in the case of her husband’s sudden arrest, Hoagsaday’s clan could never be represented by her. The car arrived, at the bungalow of her husband relative, an elderly businessman like Hoagsaday, and long time resident of the city of Mogadishu.

The gate was open, the car drove into the drive way, Towsmo, quickly got out of the car, and knocked at the door purposefully, in abandon. A worker came to the door, and recognized her, as she brushed past him, straight to where the women of the household were sleeping. she quickly explained the situation, waiting anxiously for an audience with the elder. He came into the main living room, he face a little puffy from sleep, he had the thin chiseled features typical of the Somal, his features were accentuated by the wild saffron, of his beard and uncovered head. Normally covered by an islamic skull cap called koffiyad. “ Hayeh Twosmo, Hafadi Kawaran,” “ our house has been confronted by a disaster, solders came to the house during our usual siesta, and took Hoagasaday, along with Abukar, for no apparent reason. Initially they asked for Hoagsaday , but when Abukar came out to the veranda and saw what was going on he could not remain watching, he openly protested, calling the Soldiers animals, after which two soldiers, descended on him with many more coming out of the truck to help restrain him. They were ruthless cocking there machine guns at us, including the women and children. This action was completely unprovoked, based on the way these men came with such force and lack of respect for anyone at the home, I am frightened of what might be the fate of Hoagsaday, and Abukar. I plead that you act quickly, considering the nature of their arrest.” “ How long ago did this happen?” “ three hours at the most”. The elder, received the news with the dignity typical of an elder, with a degree of solemnity, urgency , but very careful not to portray the inner convulsions of alarm he concealed. In front of one of the women.

He then cleared his throat, and said, “Twosmo, go back to the children and the house, and open the business. Wait for my word as regards to Hoagsaday’s whereabouts, who’s wrath he had incurred. We will immediately try to get to the bottom of  this, how dare they! do they think we are dead? Or we are not men? Go back home now , leave the matter to us”.

The elder sat for a while, forlorn after the departure of Towsmo, he was alone sitting in the same spot lost in the potential overwhelming possibilities. Some quite dire, some not quite so dire, but all converged into the absence of the realm of the unknown.

An abyss created by the fact that he was well aware of Hoagsayday’s disposition as a man, he was humble,  not one who was interested in political office, nor was he arrogant to people in general, particularly government functionaries. He went through the beginnings of Hoagsaday’s   life to the point of his abduction by the military. He could not see where the two tussled in any way possible, he had come to the conclusion that it was way beyond the routine problems officialdom had with their citizens.

Most of all,  he was preoccupied with the way forward. The elder quickly came out of his thoughts and ventured towards his sleeping quarters to prepare himself to leave in search of members of his clan to consult with in relation to this sudden occurrence.

The elder decided to go to a prominent member of the clan, who happens to also be a high ranking military officer, to alert him first of the disappearance, and to see if he could first locate what exactly was the reason, if any, why Hogsaydey had was taken into the military’s custody.

In the view of city dwellers, nomadic life , was a life of endless nothingness, and for what they concluded. The mere sustenance of camel milk, or the distant promise of some meat, if that is, a camel lingered in illness, or the perchance of a goat offering when there was the rare a guest visiting the encampment. The city dwellers had become spoilt in the pseudo modern ways of the city. A largely sedentary existence, an expanded diet of processed food,  regular meals at certain times of the day, an abundance of water, more things to buy from overseas markets. The harsh ,  semi arid plains  the natural habitat of this irrepressibly rugged duo of camel and  the Somal nomad, was deliberately moved to the back recesses of the the city dwellers mind, in the hope the mind might forget the indelible mark ingrained through the centuries by generations of this mode of life. They  could not, try as they might get rid of the nomadic idiosyncrasies, that had a habit of showing up at the most inopportune times, even in the most seasoned of the city dwellers.

The city dwellers fancied themselves as far removed from what they saw in a nutshell  as their primordial past, certainly an existence far  from the white limestone facades of Mogadishu. Unfortunately for them, this past was not even a generation away, even the for the educated in the western sense. Their parents knew no other ways, and they themselves had spent some significant part of there lives in between school recesses as nomads tending to the camels. Engaged on a relentlessly arduous journey in search of the pregnant rain cloud,  that brings forth a vibrantly replenished landscape from emaciated dry brown off red too a stunningly opulent green of deferring shades, contrasting the off beige of the camel with the silver grey of the newborn’s coat. The  earth, now rich brown with a red awareness, brings forth the life force of water for both fawn and fauna, flowing camel milk and meat.

The beginning of celebration, in the form of improvised poetical songs of verbal gymnastics. A call and response jonre between the men , or between the women and the men.

The nomad transplants, in their new habitat of the city, felt and acted far removed from the ways of the pastoral hinterland. The essence of a Somal was irrevocably harnessed to the ways of the camel, the gathering of them. The near worship poetic

odes to the beauty of this animal, the particular disposition accumulated from the wellspring of a very harsh reality of a not so giving earth, seems to produce a heightened sense of love for the, not there, every prickly plant or even miserly water hole would be reshaped through the poetic form, or a descriptive oral narrative into something gushing  with a softness of  natural fertility, or the misery waterhole would became through poetic license something bountiful and rich with minerals that nourish man and camel alike.

Revolutionary Cadres

He arrived at the sprawling resident of his clan mate, military official. The house had a lot of uniformed soldiers milling about the place, they saluted the elder, as he passed them in the compound, knowing him as a frequent visitor and relative to their commanding officer. The elder was ushered into a small waiting area reserved for those seeking the audience of this important person. He was served tea while he waited. Soon he was joined by Abdi, casually dressed in a Somal sarong, he then greeted me,

“War iskawarran”,  to which the elder replied, “I am ok,” “everyone by the grace of Allah is fine at my home, but the house of Hoagsayday your cousin the businessman there is a sudden loss, Hoagsaday’s wife Twosmo, came to my residence an hour ago, to inform that Hoagsayday, and Abukar our cousins, were both taken away from Hoagsaday’s home; this afternoon by soldiers and piled into a military truck, the destination or why or what the problem is, is what has brought me to see you, right after she left.

The officer could not contain his shock, it showed openly, it was as if he had been hit or slapped from an unknown place.

He managed a, hmm, momentarily leaving in his mind the scene of the elder.

He then got up from his chair, and said to the elder to “wait, I going to get to the bottom of this.” he went into another room, and started calling, “this is commander Beheayeh, put me through to the resident senior officer in charge ” Yes” came the response on the other end. he heard a few rings of the senior officers’ extension, and a prompt, this is junior commander the senior is not at the post now , “yes commander”, “I would like to know who it is who arrested a businessman this afternoon, what for, and where they took him too, and who it is that authorized the arrest, I want a report within the hour at my residence, junior commander, I am waiting.” “Yes sir, right away,”

He then returned to the elder, who was sipping is tea, clearly perturbed by the incident that was relayed to him.

He sat down and started a conversation, with the elder, who interjected with ” what is happening” after regaining some of his composure, he briefed the old man as to what had just transpired. ”  i am expecting some answers within the hour.” I am as surprised as you are, I don’t know what this is, the military does not do the work of the police”.

” well that’s exactly what happened this afternoon, what really baffles me is why Hoagsadey of all people, i have heard of people in politics who were openly against this regime arrested and shot summarily, but a law abiding businessman, we all knew to be humble and pious?”

“I have no answers to give at the moment, but lets wait a little, I am sure there is some rationale to this”

“what do we do “

“nothing until we know the situation exactly”

” There is an ominous sign in my inner being, when I saw the fear in the eyes of his wife earlier today. I could not see it as a run of the mill thing, between the some disgruntle or even stupid officer, but rather something bigger than that,  simply because he was a prominent businessman in the city, he was known to all , the low and the high. A man like that can not just simply be arrested at the whim of some lowly officer, or a high one for that matter, simply because Somals are much aware of the stature of a man like Hoagsaday. And the extended value attached to such a man to any clan. As we know that whoever did this was well aware of the consequences from his relatives who invariably were higher ups, furthermore, his circles were quite prominent and well to do. These are the reasons of my forlorn and wonder”.

” i am quite aware of what you are saying myself, but i do not want to jump to conclusions, but i would be lying if  i said i was not shocked by this peculiar news, and yes i do take it personally, that my cousin was snatched wright under my nose, i further agree that whoever it was took me into account, however lets wait to see what actually transpired”

with that a servant came in and summoned him to the phone.

“Hello Commander Beheyea”  ” yes it is commander Beheyea”

” commander the arrest of the civilian Mohamed Haji hashe (Hoagsaday), was ordered by comander Ali Deray  of  army intelligence”

” that will be all”

He returned with the news to the elder that he had located where the orders had come from, but that was all he had at the moment.”

” I am right now on my way to find this Ali deray, to get the bottom of this

nonsense” meanwhile go ahead back to your house, i will send a someone to fetch you and the other elders if necessary we have to have a long counsel tonight.

With that he dispatched one vehicle to the take of the elder, then summoned a captain, his aid de camp, and then went upstairs to where his fool military regalia. He put on a crisp uniform, with the gleaming star, and the red on the collars, displaying for all to see his rank of general, and the conspicuous side arm.he came down, steeping out to the veranda, where all the soldiers inside his compound dropped all and froze at attention the guards in front of the veranda made a loud sound with their weapons as they froze to attention, the adc who was head slightly in front of the general opened the back door for the general, who promptly sank in the back seat, the captain then sat in the front seat, waiting for the driver to remove the cover from the general’s red flag emblazoned with one star in the middle, and took the cover of the from and back metal plates also red with a star, military protocol indicating that there was a general on board the vehicle.

On his way to the high command headquarters the general was planning his move based on what he knew to be a sudden turn of events, he had shown his worth in revolutionary mettle as one of the young officers, ideologues, committed to a socialist which they closer to the structure of the egalitarian pastoralist, but the signs were increasingly running counter

to the ideals of equality, and more to a hegemony of one group trumping state, rank, a law onto themselves, he was not confiding the worry of recent internal movements mainly promotions from without  the military’s

standard order of upward movements in terms of the ranks of middle ranks captains, majors,  and the other group of colonel to general. there was the replacement of career military officers at the rank of major to colonel who were abruptly assigned to diplomatic missions, and others at very mature ages enrolled in military academics in the soviet union. There were then a influx of new officers minimally trained at the local academy

moving up rapidly in the ranks in a mater of a few years attaining senior ranks, then replacing these officers, without any qualification other than being a member of the clan of the head of state. The general was aware of this change, subtle at first, in his mind something minor and not of consequence to the progress of Somali as a whole, after all one could not expect a semi literate driver of camels to comprehend das capital in and African setting, without expecting some digressions back to his camel ways.

As a group the ideologues, were happy to bite the bullet for such transgressions, partly lulled by the assumed sincerity of the old big mouth, father many, the harmless police general who worked his way up from the time of the Italian protectorate, he was installed as by the ideologues hastily as a compromise figurehead, to give  the revolution a wider public appeal, through the use of an elder officer, in a country that valued age at the head of the table of reckoning. As  a group their drawback was youth, in hindsight, their collective youth did have an adverse affect on their on their choice of this man, altruism a largely a youthful enterprise was perhaps what broke the wall of rational wisdom, and made them overlook

a crucial obstacle  general wisdom, however ill informed had a bad habit of

trumping youthful ideals.

The general was at a loss, in what he when he stopped to look was a encirclement of clan loyalists, ill equipped to command much less run a country, where was i during all this entrenchment, now even some of the

middle of the revolutionary cadres have been swallowed by the upsurge of this new system, really a hybrid of the old clan mechanisms, based on the old affirmed loyalties of bloodlines, but now with mechanized units, weapons galore, at the hand of one clan, greatly upsetting the old balance of power, where the clans could adjudicate some reprieve from an over belligerent clan. The elders of the more numerous clans had the reason

to abate wanton destruction, particularly when a larger clan was involved

victimizing a much smaller clan, who could not match them in the lore of the nomad, that is an eye for eye. Elders of the larger clans, interceded to stop the wanton violence, by pressuring the aggressor with both veiled threats of violent retaliation by the collective, and eloquent entreaties to resolve the problem amicably, but first the underhanded violence must stop. In this way the more aggressive larger groups were held at bay, from the arrogance  of might unbridled visiting upon women and children caught in the unreconciled pride, unreasonable fraught with violent dist ruction of  ordered natural calm, then menfolk incurring heavy losses, but still cannot compromise the name and pride of their bloodlines, bequeathed from their father’s , father’s , fathers, at all costs, in victory or in mayhem, till the last man stands if that be an infant,the bloodline consumes all in the name of itself, this quicksand can be abated only with a deterrence from outside, in the form of larger numbers, with a promise of more violence from a larger collective on the side of the vanquished weaker group, this promise quickly brings about reason to the unreasonable. It not based on rational but rather a firm promise to deliver the same havoc, unless that is there is a definite cessation to this brute madness.So there is calm again, good is enjoined between the two, brides are exchanged to ameliorate the loss  of fathers and sons, camels are thrown in as a further measure to ensure the calm, but most of all the promise of collective violent punishment must bring the clans to the table to peace.Light weapons, that is rifles, machine guns, spears, more sons, more horses, this was the equilibrium of might in the society of Somal.

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