by Hussein Khalif
Thursday, May 19, 2011
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13 genuine Somalis who created SYL 68 years ago
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It was not the first time that I observed contradictory deeds in Somali affairs and it probably would not be the last time. A few years back the most respected President of Somalia (Adan-Adde) passed away. All Somalis agreed that he was a great leader and our subsequent leaders should have followed his footsteps. More specifically, the current politicians have concurred that he was a good example to follow. Unfortunately, they have been doing the opposite of what he was all about. The logical thing is that you emulate someone if you think that he is an icon. In his eulogy, dictators and warlords rightly hailed the former President as a national hero but unfortunately never learned a lesson from him or others like him.
Similarly, it is virtually impossible to see someone bad mouthing the Somali Youth League (SYL). However, the fact remains that these 13 genuine Somalis were not given the due consideration they deserve. The past Somali governments rarely recognized the achievement of these gentlemen. With the exception of a few, they did not hold any public functions. On the contrary, we know that those who had worked for the colonial masters benefited from the gravy-train of the statehood. The so-called Pro-Talyan were omnipresent in the governments of the 1960s at varying levels.
Coming to the advent of the Kacaan or “October Revolution”, the SYL name was given more lipstick prominence but with an element of plagiarism. All the Somalis and the world know that there was no 14th member of the group. He who claimed that he was the 14th committed a broad-day-light plagiarism. Initially, it was thought that the Kacaan would emulate the SYL team and would make Somalia tribal-blind, but we all know that the practices of the Kacaan made Somalia worse in that yard-stick and perhaps others. Tribalism was for personal use before the Kacaan, but it was a matter of survival in the last days of the Kacaan. Needless to say that it got worse after the collapse of the regime. For the poor 13 founders of the SYL, their lot did not improve with the Kacaan. At least one of them claimed that he was thrown out of the civil service when he was labeled Kacaan-diid – anti-revolutionary.
Now, we all like SYL and its legacy including 15 May, but the unanswered question is: why don’t we emulate SYL, if we are honest about our statements? We are all aware of the fact that these mostly illiterate men who had no material wealth challenged the colonial masters of the time, and managed to mobilize all the Somali speaking people in the Horn of Africa. In a recent interview, a former Somali politician compared SYL founders to today’s Somalis. He underlined that members of SYL had no money let alone being millionaires, they had no schooling let alone having Phds, and yet today’s generation fails to come close to them.
Some would argue that times were different, and it was easier to raise the awareness of the people, and that there was a brutal colonial system. Yes, the times are different but each epoch has its challenges and means to surmount them. The mass communication or social media widely existing now was not then available. Still the colonial mentality is lingering worldwide although in a different way. In other words, the challenges are perhaps more difficult than those of the 1940s, but the capacity to raise the people’s national awareness is much greater now. Indeed, the level of education and the wealth have gone phenomenally much higher. Therefore, the question is what has gone wrong.
I will humbly posit few points that may explain why we verbally support SYL and 15 May but we cannot come close to what they had done. Today’s people live in a consumption oriented society. (Again another version of blaming the time). The people who were supposed to stand for a cause and go ahead with it are constrained by worldly affairs - they have to tend to certain obligations. Some are going to schools or universities and do not want to interrupt their education. Others have careers and do not want to jeopardize them. Some have family obligations and are not ready to abandon their kids without stipend. All in all, selfishness is to blame, which is what partly hamstrings Somali nationalism. In fact, self-interest is a major problem in contemporary Somalia. This includes those thinking narrowly on regional basis – ie. Lobbying for the interest of their region of origin only but that is another debate.
The second most outstanding factor is the lack of strong leadership. Any movement be it political, ideological or religious has one or two people who dared to catapult it to the fore front. Imagine Al-qaeda without Ousama Ben-Laden. SYL had a leader who had the vision and the charisma. It is believed in many quarters that Yassin Osman Sharmarke was the key architect in this regard. Reportedly, he did not live long after the formation of the movement. We all know that the mantle was taken over by men who later become icons in their own right – these include Abdullahi Issa Mohamud, among others.
In the final analysis, we all love relishing on the old stories of our heroes but we have to admit that we failed them both in terms of recognizing their legacy and emulating their deeds. Somalis of today are of better caliber in terms of education and wealth vis-à-vis those of the 1940s. Unfortunately, we are devoid of what it takes to effect a change in people, namely personal sacrifice, courage and leadership. Somalia needs men and women who forget his/her comfort in the West or the Middle East for that matter and roll back the sleeves of their shirts, without seeking personal gains or succumbing to tribalism and blind-loyalty to a “big-man”. Somalia needs to have someone who says no to corruption, nepotism and money under the bed. These kinds of steps would uplift the dead souls of SYL and 15 May. These are the least principles they stood for. Mumbles of shallow praise are simply not enough.
Hussein Khalif JamaSomali Economist based
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
[email protected]