Every year Somalis celebrate June 26th as the birth of modern Somalia, of the Somali nation. People gather, chant, dance, wave the white-starred blue flag and go home.
But what do we teach our children? What happened to achieve it? How did it happen? Who made it happen? How was the mood back then? What is its significance today, in these troubled times? And what lesson can be learned from that period?
So many questions to reflect upon and that is not easy to cover all of them in few lines.
I was born in the northern part of Somalia, precisely in this remote province of Awdal, but fled with my family when the Somali National Movement (SNM) rampaged through the region.
I continued my schooling abroad and rebuilt my live far from my homeland. However, I remained attached to it and made up for my shortcomings in Somali history by listening to knowledgeable Somalis who provided me key historical events.
Unfortunately, for generations who did not have the chance to take history lessons in Somalia, it is almost impossible to find a comprehensive history book written by a fellow Somali.
The younger generation, and especially someone like me who prides himself on being the descendant of the famed Ahmed Gurey, knowledge of Somalia’s modern history up to the independence is incomplete.
Sayyid Mahamad Abdille Hassan and his heroic dervishes, The Somali Youth League (S.Y.L.) or Lego, Xaawa Taako, Dhagaxtuur, the 1st of July Union Day are but few highlighted events.
We rarely hear about the relevance of their struggle and their nationwide reverberation to today’s youth..
Moreover, for the generation born just before or during the Civil war and who witnessed the dismemberment of our country and all the disasters that befell the nation, the Independence Day was for some time an empty white and blue empty shell.
The flag itself aroused the passions of belonging or not belonging to happier time they would probably never experience. Allah know better though.
The older generation, however, was upset after the 1969 revolution that Mohamed Siyad Barre’s regime relegated the June 26 date to the backstage, making October 21 a more prominent national celebration.
For the years to come until 1991, the revolution was celebrated as the main event in Somalia. My own childhood memory about that celebration is more vivid than any others unfortunately.
I’m still working on digesting historical facts as they were before the revolution and decipher their interpretation.
I learnt about “Lego” (SYL) around twenty years ago, about the time I met one of its last surviving figure, Daahir Xaaji Cusmaan “Dhagaweyne” in Ottawa, Canada, where he gave his last breath.
But still his historical path was not one I could identify with. I wanted something closer.
I found my champion in Sayyid Mohamed Abdille Hassan, a figure I can relate to as my western education and my experience as being from a “visible minority” push me to his anticolonialist call, his undying African Sufi resistance, and his search of a united Somali nation.
The Sayyid only appears “controversial” if and only if you stick to your clan’s narrative on his achievement. What is fascinating in him, however, is that he didn’t stop for anyone and accept nonsense and cowardice from anyone, regardless of their clan affiliation.
He was fiercely anti-colonial, was not inclined to mince his words when he wanted to convey a message. Its ethos centered around an untainted version of Somali culture based on a vernacular islamic tradition.
Its goal was a Somali country united by language, culture and religion and free from foreign interference. The proof is that he was revolted by the artificial borders created by European and Ethiopian colonizers, and by the influence of Christian missionaries on Somali children.
He was too far ahead of his time and died misunderstood by his contemporaries. This incomprehension is still in order now that an anachronistic clannism is in full swing in the country. But he left a message of pride for the conscious humanity that does not want to submit easily.
He entered the pantheon of African Sufi resistance heroes such as Emir Abdelkader of Algeria, Al-Mahdi of Sudan, Samory Touré of Guinea, Omar Mukhtar of Libya.
All Sufis, all Africans, all anti-colonial resistance fighters, all misunderstood by their compatriots, all dispossessed of their territories, all dead for their belief in freedom.
Its successes have long marked those who forced us to bow our heads and accept our subjugation and those who collaborated with them.
His defeat, if you can call it that, also marked the minds of everyone and especially those like me who gives little importance to the clan especially when it comes to collective survival and equal opportunities.
I would also like to pay tribute to all those Somalis who helped liberate this country from European colonizers.
First of all, let’s not forget these proud Somalis who collaborated together transcending artificial borders established by foreigners, clans and even religions (I am thinking of you Michael Mariano and Lewis Salool) and reunite this scattered nation.
Secondly, I salute the memory of all those who were rightly offended by the British deceit in 1955 by giving land that is not theirs to Haile Selassie after having assured Somalis of the restitution of Haud and the Reserve Area.
June 26 was the first step, after forty years for the Somalis, to partly realize the Sayyid’s goal and the sincere effort to have tried to complete the plan until the 1977 war in the Western Somali occupied by the Ethiopia.
Thirdly, I pay tribute to the group of four personalities who have left for London to return with our freedom. These gentlemen are Mohamed Ibrahim Igal, Haji Ibrahim Nur, Garad Ali Garad Jama and Ahmed Haji Duale (Keyse). These men also played an important role in the re-unification of the country.
Finally, I pay tribute to those who believed in Somali unity and kept this flame alive even during these last thirty years of darkness.
Without doubting the northern regions core belief in the Somali unity, I remember Murad Mubarik, the artist who designed the Somaliland flag and symbols in Ottawa, explaining the black star in that flag would symbolize this dark time that the “Five Somalis” are going through.
According to Murad, Mohamed Ibrahim Igal himself was behind that interpretation.
To celebrate June 26 is to remember the struggles of fallen comrades and our founding fathers and mothers. To commemorate what they have left is not to forget them and to take over for the liberation struggle that continues.
To remember their achievements implies also the fight against those who promote divisions along clans’ line, whether they are citizens or foreigners.
This June 26th anniversary, let’s remember the euphoria born out of the liberation. Let’s enjoy listening and understand the famous Abdillahi Suldan Timocadde’s Kaana Siib, Kanna Saar poetry.
Let’s recapture the atmosphere 62 years ago when the blue flag with a white star was raised high in the blue sky of Hargeisa to everyone’s jubilation.
June 26th is the birthdate of Somalia as July 1st represents the seal that formalize completion of the 2nd phase of a greater Somalia free and prosperous, insha’Allah.
Happy Somalia Day!!! Guul iyo gobanimo!!