THIS YEAR IN MOGADISHU!


The readiness is all.
----HAMLET

To go or not to to go
that was the question
the question
as pregnant as
as fraught as
to be or not to be that is
the question

I called a friend in Toronto
who really fancies himself
to be
a leader of the Toronto Somali community
who really flatters himself
to be
the go-to man on everything Somali:

---Don’t come!
Don’t grace with your august presence

this Darod shindig
this Darod shetan shindy

to celebrate how Darod outsmarted us Hawiye
to celebrate how Darod outshone us Hawiye

by supping with the devil
by resorting to Tigrian tanks
by resorting to Yankee terror planes
by playing the al-Qaida card

now as effective as
that old commie card
every tinhorn tyrant used to play

If you do come
If you do join them
you will be celebrating

how the Darod emasculated us Hawiye
how Yay finally won his heart’s desire
how Yay triumphantly took over Villa Somalia

Togane, I beg you not to come
Trust me
I know what I am talking about
I have my finger right
on the pulse of the Toronto Somali community

After listening to diverse opinions of my elders & betters
I decided to accompany my friend
Maroyare
who drove all the way from Toronto

to fetch me
to take me
to the victory party
to celebrate the Apotheosis of Yay at Villa Somalia
to celebrate the Glory Ghedi wrought in Mog
to celebrate the Grandeur of Somalissimo.

---Maroyare, at the celebration tonight
what do you think I should say?

---Togane, tonight we Somalis need to hear from you

a message of hope
a message of healing
a message of peace
a message of reconciliation
a message of how we can build each other up
a message of how we can bear one another’s burden
a message of how we can fulfill the law of Love
who is Allah
a message of
how we can bury the hatchet
how we can resurrect the Somali nation

a message of
The Lord is our Shepherd we shall not want
The Lord is our strength
The Lord is our redemption song
The Lord is our dwelling place

a message of
For his anger endureth but a moment
in his favour is life
weeping may endure for a night
but joy cometh in the morning

a message of Joy in

THIS GREAT GETTIN’ UP MORNING

a message of
I call heaven & earth to record this day against you
that I have set before you
life & death
blessing & cursing:
therefore choose life
that both you & your seed may live

Togane
I pray to Almighty Allah
that he will endow you tonight & forever
with the tongue of the wise
that brings hope healing health

For tonight Togane & forever

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

You’ve got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
Have faith or pandemonium’s
Liable to walk again upon the Somali scene

You got to ac (yes, yes) -cent-tchu-ate the positive
Eliminate (yes, yes) the negative
And latch (yes, yes) on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between
No, don’t mess with Mister In-Between

Togane!
Do deliver tonight an uplifting message
We been down so long it looks like up to us!
So please lift us up tonight!

don’t you see all Somalis are pinin’
we got tears all in our eyes

tonight Togane

Why don’t you send down that cloud

With the silver linin’

Lift us up to paradise

Show us that healing river

that your Mennonite friends sing about

Why don’t you take us across

And wash all our troubles away

Tonight Togane

the readiness is all

we Somalis are finally ripe to heal each other
we Somalis are finally ready to forgive each other
we Somalis are finally ready to

Lift ev’ry voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the list’ning skies

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun

Let us march on till victory is won

Stony the road we trod

Bitter the chast’ning rod

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died

Yet with a steady beat

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered

Out from the gloomy past

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast

God of our weary years

God of our silent tears

Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way

Thou who hast by Thy might

Led us into the light

Keep us forever in the path, we pray

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee

Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee

Shadowed beneath Thy hand

May we forever stand

True to our God

True to our native land.

----At the party I did not deliver
any of the four different speeches
that I had pondered
that I had prepared

I recognized faces from every Somali clan
A sight that set me afire with faith in our future!

I let the Spirit of the Lord lead me
I let my tongue steal the hope
that I have been harboring in my heart
I let my tongue steal out of the abundance of my heart
I let my tongue steal out of the fire in my big belly!
I let the mood of the audience determine

The making of my message
the marrow of my message
the meaning of my message
the measure of my message

I let the context concoct the text of my talk
I let my soul soar
with the buoyant soul of my Somali sisters & brothers

I let my spirit jump & jubilate
with the jubilant spirit of my eager listeners

I began by beginning

In the beginning was
the word
and the word was

The Mother of the Book
The Mother of the Qur’an

Al-Fatiha
The Exordium

In the name of Allah
the Merciful
the Compassionate!
Praise be to Allah
The Merciful
the Compassionate
The King of the Day of Fate

You alone do we worship and of
You alone do we ask aid

Guide us to the path that is straight
The path of those to whom your love is great
Not those in whom is hate
Nor they that deviate.
Amen

high on the hope
that makes us not ashamed

The warp & the woof of rest of my words
weaved in & out of the Mother of the Book

My coda was

the ringing
the rousing
the rallying

Hope

the true hope
that is swift
that flies with swallow’s wings
that makes Kings gods & meaner creatures kings!

Hope
that springs eternal
that beats eternal
in the heart of every Somali patriot:

This year in Mogadishu!

NOTES

1.  THE BIBLE

2. BING GROSBY---AC-CEN-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE

3. LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING---JAMES W. JOHNSON

4. THE HOLY Qur’an

5. RAY CHARLES --THAT LUCIY OLD SUN

6. Shakespeare’s Richard 111.

MAHAMUD SIAD TOGANE