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Abdinoor Mohamed
Friday, September 18, 2009
My dear Ubah, let me thank you first for coming out in the open and sharing your nightmare with us through the internet. Falling in love with a man of your choice is a god given right and nobody can take that right away from you, no matter how much noise they make in the corridors of abuse and discrimination. Do not digress or dream at all of giving up of your battle for freedom. We are all behind you to support you and let you realize your goals in life. Your relatives and those who hold same traditional values with them may consider you as someone who has offended the clan but I must tell you that you have taken the best decision in your life to marry the man you love. Anyone who lived in the fantasy of false dreams will feel upset when reality unfolds before his own eyes and that is what is now happening to those who want to blow off your glowing fire of hope and love.
Trying to shed light to these racist-like discriminations, I would ask: What has Madhiban done wrong? Why are they branded as criminals while those who kill and loot are regarded as respectful tribes and clans? Are we not Moslems? Or religion is just a badge that hangs down our long beards? It is a real torture to harass and segregate someone by virtue of his or her tribe. Somalis are people of the same blood yet it seems that their blood can not mix in marriage as in the case of Ubah and her husband. I believe that only through education can the sick Somalis change their present attitudes and behaviors.
I call to those Somalis to do away with this barbaric traditional customs and drink from the fountain of knowledge rather than imbibing from an oasis of ignorance. I thank HOL for publishing this story and would like other websites to follow suit so as to expose the dark side of the Somali culture. Always when we speak in the conferences or write books we say we have the best culture in the world, blatantly ignoring that some of us are treating other Somalis as sub-humans to the extent that we set boundaries to humanity and love which will incite and provoke a whole mass of people if someone crosses over to the other side as in the case of Ubah.
After reading then minds of those who discriminate others on tribal grounds, I could not avoid myself from writing this short poem and I dedicate it to Ubah and her Love. Please share it with me:
We are nomads. We are the desert Lords
We adhere so much to traditional values
Raising camel is one job we well know of
Other occupations? We just look them down
We handle not metal works
The Tumals do that for us
We don't make shoes either
The Midgaans do that for us
We are the Lords
We are not the servants
Pity jobs fit not to our noble status
On top of everything we always stay
Never shall we lower our heads
Our camel is our pride
The more the herd
The more power we have
Change, we support not
Change heralds deep uncertainty
We see it as a dangerous enemy
It threatens our Lordship Throne
Education? We support it not
It will steal our nobility
It would demand equality with Madhiban
The light of education is so blinding
Ignorance is what makes us see
We are the Lords of the dessert
We are the shadows of poverty
We progress by moving backward
Islam is the religion we practice
We pray to Allah five times a day
We thank him for making us noble
Abdi-Noor Mohamed
Writer and Film maker
University of Vaxjo, sweden
www.authorsden.com
[email protected]