I haven't commented about very much recently, but I must say I think it is a disgrace that Somalia can be undergoing such a serious famine whilst Saudi Arabia, the land of profligacy and excess, is so close to it. Somalia is one of those countries that intrigue me, what with the fact that it has never been a proper country, the levels of piracy on its coastlines and the interminable civil war and countless militias and warlords that keep emerging. I was told by a friend of mine who had been to Kenya that Kenyans despise Somali refugees, sometimes speeding up their cars as if to run them over if spotted. What a tragedy.

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Mohammed Abdullah Hassan

Somalia is in the news a lot today and, drifting through Wikipedia, I wanted to read more about this country. We have a new addition to the brave heroes who rejected the occupation and colonisation of Muslim countries: Mohammad Abdullah Hassan. Here is an extract from the entry on the man so that he would not be forgotten:

Religious Mission

In 1895, Hassan returned to Berbera which was then considered by the British merely as 'Aden's butcher's shop', since they were interested only in getting regular supplies of meat from Somalia through this port for their British India outpost of Aden.

Taking advantage of British complacency and arrogance, Emperor Menelek II of Ethiopia asked Ras Makonnen, the Governor of his newly conquered Hararghe Province, to send armed bands to plunder and occupy Ogaden politically. The British withdrew from this area of their territory in Somalia.

In Berbera, Hassan could not succeed in spreading the teaching of the Saalihiya order due to the hostility of the local Qadiriyyah inhabitants who did not like him criticising their eating khat and gorging on the fat of sheep's tail and for following their traditional Qadiriyyah order. In 1897, he left Berbera to be with his Dulbahante kinsmen. On the way, at a place called Daymoole, he met some Somalis who were being looked after by a Catholic Mission. When he asked them about their tribe and parents, the Somali orphans replied that they belonged to the "clan of the (Catholic) Fathers." This reply shook his conscience, for he felt that the "Christian Overlordship in his country was tantamount to the destruction of his people's faith."

In 1899, an unfortunate event took place. Some soldiers of the British armed forces met Hassan and sold him an official gun. When questioned about the loss of the gun, they told their superiors that Hassan had stolen the gun from them. On 29 March 1899, the British Vice Consul wrote a very insulting and stern letter to him asking him to return the gun immediately, which someone in Hassan's camp had reported stolen. This enraged Hassan and he sent a very brief and curt reply refuting the allegation.

While Hassan had really been against the Ethiopian imperialist plunderers of Somalia, this small incident made him clash with the British. The British and Ethiopian Emperor Menelek II joined together to crush the Dervish movement of Hassan and some antagonistic Somalis also cooperated with Menelek II against him.

Armed Struggle

In several of his poems and speeches, Hassan emphasized that the British infidels "have destroyed our religion and made our children their children" and that the Christian Ethiopians in league with the British were bent upon plundering the political and religious freedom of the Somali nation. He soon emerged as "a champion of his country's political and religious freedom, defending it against all Christian invaders." He issued a religious ordinance that any Somali national who did not accept the goal of unity of Somalia and would not fight under his leadership would be considered as kafir or gaal. He acquired weapons from Turkey, Sudan, and other Islamic and/or Arabian countries. He appointed his ministers and advisers in charges of different areas or sectors of Somalia. He gave a clarion call for Somali unity and independence.

Hassan organized his follower-warriors. His 'Dervish' movement had essentially a military character and the Dervish state was fashioned on the model of a Saalihiya brotherhood. It had rigid hierarchy and rigid centralization.

Though Hassan threatened to drive the Christians into the sea, he committed the first attack by launching his first major military offensive with his 1500 Dervish equipped with 20 modem rifles on the British soldiers stationed in the region.

Hassan sent one of his men to Yemen in disguise for reconnaissance activities to report the new aeroplanes preparedness for attack. He sent his emissaries all over the country appealing for Somali people to join his movement and many responded to him enthusiastically.

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I hate quoting from Johann Hari, but he's written a good article on the subject. (Thanks Sasa!):

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome?

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It takes real guts and courage for those plucky Somali pirates to do what they do. I don't care what anybody says, the man who cannot afford a living for a day or cannot feed his family is insane if he doesn't grab the nearest weapon and does something about it. Granted that many of them might be scumbags but at least they are no longer killing each other. Plus anything which drives the Americans and Europeans crazy cannot be a bad thing.

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More on Somalia (thanks Serene), and you thought colonialism was over.. :

"We consider ourselves heroes" - a Somali pirate speaks.

There is some truth behind Yemen accusations of Western countries with ignoring the piracy to internationalize the Red Sea. In his interview with Russian TV, Yemen president calls the Western countries to re-build Somalia.

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Apparently this Somali piracy issue has only become a problem since 2005, around the time that somebody started supplying the men with fast white speedboats. There is probably some truth to this, and somebody is probably making a lot of money out of this, so the actual pirates are getting only a fraction of the takings. Still, there are huge sums of money being paid in ransoms, lots of good which are being stolen and I'm not so sure I understand how well these goods are being sold in a country with practically no infrastructure. Recently a shipment of Russian tanks was also seized. Interesting that Somalia was only recently "liberated" by Ethiopian troops with US blessings.

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"Sirius Star is three times the size of a US aircraft carrier and shows how they are successfully expanding their operations,'' Christensen said. He added the operation demonstrated a new level of sophistication as the attackers had to scale the 10-metre high sides of the vessel. Previous attacks have occurred within 200 nautical miles of land."

The seizure of a US bound oil tanker can only bring a smile on my face as I think how annoyed the Americans will be. The repercussions for those plucky boys who carried this out will be most severe, but I salute their guts and audacity...

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The slow dissection of Sudan

Lies, lies and more lies. Sudan is now the next chip which is being targeted in the gradual dismemberment of the Arab and Islamic world. "Armies head for central Sudan" which, I might add, is incredibly oil rich. Notice that the world's media are now very quiet about Darfur, what with more pressing concerns such as Tibet and now, of course, the false indignation and outrage over the Burmese government's handling of it's crisis. First Somalia and now Sudan...I don't expect Omar Bashir to hold on much longer and we will probably see the dissection of Sudan imminently into a poorer and defeated Arab/Muslim north and a pro-Western, Christian south - with a lot of oil...

If you are a Sudanese blogger please do get in touch, I have many questions to ask.

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"If true, the report would confirm rumours of close planning between the two countries before and during the war. Both administrations deny this was the case. The account also raises questions about the relationship between Washington and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, whose record on human rights has come under severe scrutiny."

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"So many dead people were lying in the area. We do not know who is who, but the raid was a success," interim government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told AFP news agency about Monday's raids.

"The target was a small village called Badel where the terrorists were hiding. And the gunship did hit on the exact target," he said, adding that Somali and Ethiopian troops were nearby.

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Was the entire village made up of terrorists? Did the pilot think his bombs will only land on them and avoid the women and children? Or doesn't it matter because they are black and, even worse, Muslim? Welcome to the newly liberated Somalia now in the hands of the 'moderates'. .

Somali government troops "enter" Mogadishu...

"Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed Thursday, the prime minister said, hours after an Islamic movement that tried to establish a government based on the Quran abandoned the capital." The Washington post doesn't seem to realise that it is mainly Ethiopian troops doing the fighting. I guess it would sound pretty embarrassing to state "US backed Ethiopian army invades Somalia with ousted Somali warlords". The Washington Post also uses the more neutral word "enters", a bit like if somebody were to say "Nazi Germany "entered" Poland in 1939".

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"The warlord Mohammed Dheere, who was chased out of Jowhar by the Islamists a few months ago, was at the front of the advancing troops - an indication as to how Ethiopia intends using former warlords to help control the captured territory." For those who have any doubts that a stable and united Somalia is in the interests of the West, think again. In the old days, 'they'd' send the gunboats, now you just arm local warlords. If that's not enough, fund a neighbour to do the invasion for you. Running an empire in Africa is now wonderfully cheap and efficient compared to the old days.

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The Arab world must pay attention to what is happening in the Horn of Africa, NOW. Israeli and American interest in the region goes way back, but there has been much more activity lately.

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