For Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
--------Blake
1
When the Dean of International Studies & Programming at Macalester
College
my friend, Ahmed Ismail Samatar, told me
that the former President of Somalia,
Adan Abdulle Osman,
prays this prayer every morning at dawn;
“O God, render us Somalis into humans!”
I was astonished
I was offended.
Are we Somalis not part of humanity?
Are we not sons of Adam?
Are we not Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)?
What the hell are you talking about?
How can anyone deny our humanity?
Our esteemed beloved President cannot be serious
he must be joking
he got to be joking.
I thought
he is so self-hating
he smacks of the racism
of Kipling
of Kipling’s famous justification for British Imperialism
you know of ...
Take up the White Man’s burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
......
lesser breeds without the Law…
When I becalmed myself
I understood what the President meant:
Who dare argue with him now
After we Somalis have proven
To the whole world
What wild savages we Somalis actually are!
After the whole world watched
How our Darod Somali sloth
How our Hawiye heathen folly brought all our human hopes to nought.
No wonder we now have
Yay
As President!
For after all
A jackal nation deserves a jackal president
Ergo
Ina Yay!
Alias Abdullahi Yusuf
ll
Years later I would read the following
and I would smile at
how right
how right-on
Adan Abdulle Osman is
how right
how right-on
Abraham Heschel is
who wrote:
Being human is difficult.
Becoming human is a lifelong process.
To be truly human is a gift.
lll
We Somalis were once human beings
when we could answer
with confidence
with pride
with amore propre
with---waa nabad!
to our perennial question
Ma nabad baa?
lV
We could do that
because
we wore
the divine image!
we wore
Peace!
The human dress!
V
On April 16 2007
all peace loving Somalis will gather together in Somalia
with no conditions
with no non-negotiable demands
in good faith
under these
Three Trees of Paradise
The Tree of Truth
The Tree of Justice
The Tree of Peace
for the biggest peace powwow ever held in Somalia
for the most decisive peace conference ever convened in Somalia
I intend to be there
with the distinguished honor of leading the North American Peace
Delegation
with the distinguished privilege of helping naked Somalia
put back on
the most beautiful dress ever fashioned for humanity
the human dress,
Peace.
I hereby ask
for your prayers
for your moral support
for your material support.
Thank you.
LA LUTTE CONTINUE.
...............Mahamud Siad Togane
