A Motherly Voice in the House of Men - By DR. Omar Ibrahim Hussein

People who are very familiar with the Somali tribalism describe it as an onion like that has many layers— tribes; clans and plethora of sub-clans. We all know that and we know it is the real malady within our society. Having said that I never thought, it can go that bad. In here nowadays, people are running around with tribalism…They talk of tribalism while they chew qat; while they walk; while they sip tea in tea shops… almost at all times.

The so called press here is a tribal trash too. Some say politics here is tribalism; others see it the other way round… tribalism is politics. But the two ideologies are intertwined and hard to separate them in here. In fact for many politicians tribalism=politics. That means if you are tribal minded you are a good politician. Or you can safely reverse the order and say if you are a good politician you are tribal minded. Let us see a glaring example of tribal politics.
One of the leading members of the House of Elders passed away in the suicide attack at the President’s Palace last year. The Upper House of Parliament has to find a replacement for the deceased man. A long list of men all of them from the same tribe put their names for the vacated post, although the vacated position was not the prerogative right of any tribe.

The House of Elders was inclined to select one with the right qualification from the same tribe of the deceased member. The same tribe refused to accept that person because he was not from the sub-tribe of the deceased man and they proposed the son of the deceased man in a manner which resembled inheritance. The son adamantly refused to accept that somebody else other than himself could fill the post of his father. Those who proposed the man with the right qualifications but were refused by the clan of the deceased man had a brilliant idea to forestall the intentions of the son and those who supported him on the basis of clanism. Since they insisted on inheritance, they proposed the wife of the deceased to fill the post of her husband to keep the candidacy of the son at bay. It was a very clever move which put the supporters of the son in a dilemma. The son also found himself between the rock and hard place.

The candidacy of the wife was accepted with flying colors and Hargeisa was truly in a festive mood. The first woman to become member of the House of Elders was a ground breaking event for all who love gender equality. However the raw between those who supported the wife and those who supported the son did not end there. Those who supported the wife were accused of betraying their tribe as the wife did not belong to the same tribe as her husband. So the tribal feud between the son and his mother continued unabated and the idea that there could be tribalism between a mother and son, hit my head like a bullet; at least I never thought of that before.

But the day rightly belonged to those who supported the wife, and rightly there was a lot of jubilation on this momentous day. A mother and a woman in the House of Elders could be a voice of moderation; a motherly voice; a caring voice; a voice different from the familiar warmongering men’s voices. A mother in the House of Elders, I thought; would be a voice of non violence against women and children who have suffered so much so long in the past. It was a dream that one day the House of Elders will be occupied by both men and women and will not remain an exclusive club for men. It was a dream that one day the members of the House of Elders will be chosen not by their gender but by the content of their character. Nobody could convince me that a mother and a wife will belong to any other tribe than the tribe of her son and her husband. For me the accusation that the son and the mother belonged to different tribes was a mindset of tribalism and nothing more. I believe that the Elderly lady’s eyes will be solely focused on the future of the children of this nation.

Let us look at the performance of the lady who was elected to the House of Elders. Her first order of business as an elected Elder was to vote on the question of “to be or not to be”. I did not have a shroud of doubt that the Elderly lady will vote for “to be”, for the alternative was to throw away all that we achieved so far. Even if the Honorable lady politically errs, I thought, she will err on the mercy side as a mother.  Although the vote count was conducted in a chaotic manner, I expected the honorable lady to vote for the stability and the rule of law of this young nation; a vote for peace where the future of our children is at cross roads; a voice for all the vulnerable sections of our society; a vote which preserves all that we have achieved over the years; a forward looking vote; a motherly voice in a chaotic House of men.

Finally the vote took place and boy was I surprised!  All my hopes dashed away. The Honorable lady voted for “not to be”. She also sided in her fist vote with Dr Gabose an advocate of genocide and violence similar to that of Rwanda who is her closest sub-clan and thereby left the clan of her son and her husband in the cold.

 Was I disappointed? Yes I was, but that will not discourage me to have a strong faith in our political women and their inalienable right to be elected to both the parliament and the house of Elders, but definitely that vote took me by surprise. Although I don’t want to pass a judgment as to who was right, the mother or the son, I am swayed a little bit after that vote that the son may have a point. But still a mother and a son having two different tribal interests is a symptom of a deep rooted disease that could threaten the very existence of this nation.

Dr. Omer Ibrahim Hussein

Email: Omarh1980@hotmail.com