Human dignity is important, writes Okello Oculi
General Siad Barre fled from the chaos and blood-letting he had instigated in Somalia and died unsung but in peace in Lagos, Nigeria. His flight recalled a song ‘’To Die in Madrid’’ sung to celebrate the revolutionary solidarity of idealistic youths from the Americas and Europe who trooped to Spain to fight alongside ‘’Republicans’’ against fascists and monarchists. Siad Barre probably came to honour Dodan Barracks: the seat of military power he had once envied and emulated.
Somalia has a destiny shaped by geographical location; a space occupied by Islam in neighbouring Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, and a peculiar social architecture which Evans-Pritchard labelled as ‘’balanced antagonism’’. As the lower jaw of the Red Sea, its people watch ships carrying merchandise from rich lands of Japan, China, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Iran; and oil-drenched Kuwait, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Their wealth stirs Somali’s hungry rage.
Kenya is currently a contestant with Somalia for ownership of oil on the coast of the Indian Ocean. During the Cold War contest between Communist Soviet Union and capitalist Euro-America, Somalia shared with Ethiopia the strategic value of being sites from which to spy on a vast Russia, and potentially launch missile attacks by NATO.
In that contest ships carried military weapons to support African wars for freedom. Somalis also heard guns blasted by Palestinians against Israel and her American supporter while Israel hit back from under a perpetual Arab siege.
The Cold War contest drew Somalia into becoming a flag bearer of ‘’Socialism’’ which drew in military support from Cuba and the Soviet Bloc. The United States supported neighbouring Ethiopia under a brutal monarchy tightly run by Emperor Haile Selassie. However, both Somalia and Ethiopia suffered from stomach cancer waiting to wreck their respective polities. In 1974, angry Ethiopian soldiers murdered their Emperor.
African intellectuals looked to Somalia as a potential worship ground for democracy since it had only one ethnicity and one religious faith; devoid of diversities to torment its politics. American turned to anthropologists for tools to skin the haughty Somali giraffe.
Colonial anthropologists detested African societies which prevented growths of monarchies and central dominance. Insulting terms (like ‘’segmented society’’ and ‘’primitive’’ and ‘’stateless’’), were used to derogate them. These societies often used guerrilla warfare tactics to erode and humiliate invading colonial troops.
Somalia is organised around Clans. Like the Nuer in Sudan, the Langi in Uganda, the Balante in Guinea Bissau; the Tiv, Igbo and Igbira in Nigeria, sovereign power is anchored in each household and homestead. Insult is instantly met with counter-insult because silence feeds arrogance and an accumulation of power.
Euro-American strategists noted that ‘’Balanced Antagonism’’ works to protect equality in society only if all individuals and households have the same quality of military weapons and access to land to ensure food power by each and all.
The creation of colonial standing armies (with weapons from advanced industrial production), enabled Siad Barre’s Ishaq Clan to grab power through a military coup. Traditional balance of terror fell apart; shattering the centre – echoing Chinua Achebe’s wit.
Internal fuel inside heads and souls of Somalis provoked opposition to Siad Barre’s military power in a spiral of violence and multiplication of centres of power outside central control; a dynamic that has tormented Somalia from 1969 to date. Al Shabaab’s demolition fiestas are grandchildren of Siad Barre’s disastrous blindness.
Somali’s community law for protecting equality through not tolerating insult (or ‘’balanced –antagonism’’), was turned against itself when Siad Barre’s military regime governed with violent repression against critics from other clans; and likewise monopolised economic resources.
In South Sudan, the Nuer as practitioners of ‘’balanced antagonism’’ reject rule over them by the majority Dinka. The allocation of power by electoral arithmetical numbers is regarded by their leaders as ‘dictatorship by majoritism’. They have continued to be tempted to plunge towards grabbing rule by broadcasting death with guns.
In Zimbabwe, Joshua Nkomo is reported to have plotted to overwhelm Robert Mugabe’s ethnic Bashona majority by wielding superior ammunition hidden underground among his own minority. The option of either building economic and cultural power or politics by consensus is either dismissed by ethnic jingoists as weakness or a promise of uncertain distant gratification.
Leaders in ‘’balanced antagonism’’ value consensus and participation by all built through what Mwalimu Nyerere called ‘’talking and talking and talking till you agree’’. Tempers flare abundantly while patience works tirelessly.
Wole Soyinka insists on attaining human dignity by defending it in others. Chinua Achebe celebrates the full flowering of the ‘Chi’’ (or talent force) in each individual. Their stand must urge Lagosians to let human dignity live in them by growing human dignity and enabling human talent bloom in Mogadishu to paint on skies over Somalia.
