Back from Mogadishu

Wherever you turn in Mogadishu, you will find a trace that bears witness to the destruction that the city has gone through, and you will also find a trace and a witness to the reconstruction and accelerated reconstruction that the city is witnessing, alongside those remaining traces that bear witness to the years of war in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, at the moment of the collapse of the Somali state on January 27, 1991, and the country’s entry into a devastating civil war that lasted for years.

No city has witnessed what the Somali capital Mogadishu has witnessed in the decades following the collapse of the Somali state, as it witnessed bloody confrontations between warring Somali factions or between them and American forces, who wanted to control the situation in a city ruled by tribes. The Somali tribes and factions fought for years, and the biggest loser in this city was the Somali people and their beautiful and charming city, Mogadishu, which Ibn Battuta described (when he arrived in 1331) as an excessively large city, full of merchants and the rich, and known for its high-quality goods that were exported to other countries, including Egypt.

The author of these lines came to the city of Mogadishu on the 13th of this month (December), and spent ten days on the sidelines of the 15th conference of the International Association for Somali Studies, and attended the conference that is being held for the first time in Mogadishu, after having been held in Djibouti, London, New York, Jinja, Nairobi and others. The convening of this conference, which is attended by Somali researchers and others from around the world, in Mogadishu, had great symbolism, which we noticed through the great celebration of it by the elites and the people, and by the Somali government that provided all the reasons for the success of this conference, and was keen to overcome the challenges to make it a success, which is what was achieved for this large and important conference, which represents the essence of the ideas of the educated and scientific elites of Somalia.

For the writer of these lines, the visit was a new opening in his field of interest in the Somali file, as he was able to get closer and delve deeper into the Somali scene, about which all talk is necessarily inaccurate, unless you visit Mogadishu and get closer to the inside of this scene, its complexities, its major transformations, and the path of recovery that the Somali scene is going through, and how society, its elites, its leadership, and all those involved are racing to restore itself and its reality by themselves.

As for Mogadishu, the bride of the Indian Ocean, you will find Somalis from all regions, and it occupies a great place in their minds and souls, as it is their national and patriotic capital, and the mother to which they resort and which they can never do without. You will find the Somali from Herjasawi, like the citizen from Jarawi, Kasmawi, Ogaden, Galkawi, and Hirshabelle, from all regions, and from exile and diaspora as well, present in Mogadishu, and witnessing the dawn of its dawn.

In three decades since the collapse of the Somali state, and two decades since the Somali National Peace and Reconciliation Conference in Arta (Djibouti) 2000, there was only Somali civil society doing everything that the state should do, from education, to health, to public services such as electricity, the Internet and communications. These sectors witnessed a real renaissance due to the effectiveness of Somali civil society, which did not wait for the state to recover and perform its duties, but rather proceeded to establish its own projects and services, and achieved great and tangible successes in the number of private schools, universities and hospitals, which contributed to the society overcoming its crisis and meeting its basic requirements at least.

Society has its clear fingerprints in all sectors, and what society has achieved precedes much of what the state and the international community are doing, which is also investing in the Somali crisis and its many organizations, which are also working to sustain the Somali situation as it is, and to keep it hostage to the many security concerns that the people and society have overcome, and which the authorities have not been able to overcome due to these organizations that invest in imaginary fears and apprehensions.

Mogadishu is two, Mogadishu the green zone that welcomes you with fear and apprehension, and Mogadishu the city, where people and normal life flow in a kind of chaos, but it is creative chaos, where people interact with their demands, fears, needs and concerns about their future to produce development, which lacks only a little management and organization to be one of the most important areas of investment and construction in the entire region. Today, Mogadishu is the second city in the world in terms of the speed of construction and reconstruction.

The surprising thing about the Somali scene is its educated and scientific elite, who are crowded in Mogadishu and its events and forums, and their large presence in the cultural scene that witnesses the crowding of many ideas, visions and perceptions. Some of them complained that most of this well-qualified elite is attracted and integrated into the institutions of the ruling authorities in every session, and that this attraction has greatly affected the elite’s awareness-raising role, and caused it to remain an oppositional and solid bloc in the face of any mistakes or transgressions by the ruling authorities.

What the writer of these lines has observed in the Somali reality is that many of Somalia’s young and qualified cadres are recruited and integrated into the circles of power, and remain there until a new authority comes with each cycle, then they are changed and another new team is brought in, which leaves a large void in the emerging institutions of power. In addition, this exclusion of previous cadres with each presidential cycle contributes to eliminating the accumulation of experiences in the state’s institutions, making them a testing ground for every newcomer, which perpetuates the state of vacuum and chaos in the political and administrative scenes of the state and the authority together, and drains the capabilities and qualified and trained cadres of Somali society, in addition to the dilemma of tribal quotas, which has kept Somali society in a state of permanent paralysis, self-damage, and loss of effectiveness.

The most important aspect of this scene remains the wheel of community development, which is racing against time and facing all challenges. The story of reconstruction and investment in Mogadishu is something remarkable, and despite the challenges and obstacles, there remains a moving wheel of development that is moving at a great pace, which is reflected in one way or another in the state of reconstruction and building and the high cost of real estate and land for sale and rent, which reflects the state of great demand for these sectors and the volume of investment in them.

Culturally, there is a clear conflict between cultures. Arabic, as a language and an elite, has a clear and prominent presence, especially since Arabic is still the language of religious lessons in mosques and circles, and the language of the sermon, which most of the city’s jurists say should not be completed without it, and that it should be summarized after Friday prayers in Somali. This is what the writer observed on two consecutive Fridays in the city’s famous Ali Jamali Mosque, and it was reported to him that this method is the one used in Mogadishu, unlike the case, for example, in Hargeisa, where Arabic is the most present there.

The conflict between cultures is at its most intense, and lies in what international organizations are doing to encourage the teaching of Somali curricula in English or Somali, and to provide schools that teach in these two languages with a lot of support and funding, while schools that teach in Arabic are deprived and restricted by these organizations, which work in the field of supporting public education in Somalia.

Security-wise, there are still security challenges, especially since the Al-Shabaab group still exists and has a presence in remote areas, where it establishes a quasi-independent state, according to one of the group’s file holders, which constitutes something like an independent state in itself with great potential, and that there is support for it from some regional parties, whose interest is in keeping Somalia hostage to security concerns, which works to undermine stability in the country and the region as a whole. Despite all of this, Somali society is moving towards recovery and restoring its state and its institutions with great and remarkable patience and competence.

*Quoted from Al-Araby Al-Jadeed