Borama Elders and Administrators: Students deserve Love, Leniency and Leadership - February 20, 2006 - 14:12
The news that 28 young lives have been imprisoned in Borama city is chilling and saddening. While I don’t claim to have all the facts on the ground that caused the city elders and administrators to be heavy-handed with these young students and teenagers, the end result points to a leadership that has panicked and seems to have chosen a destructive option to remedy a minor social problem.
The main reason that was given for the imprisonment of these defenseless teenagers was that they were partying for Valentine Day. While I agree that Valentine’s is unknown and foreign in Somali culture, we have to bear in mind that we are living in a Global Village and the judicial proceeding have to be executed within that context and consideration.
I and many others feel sad to picture that so many young, budding lives have been rounded up, jailed and hastily handed long prison terms. Can we imagine what our young girls and boys are thinking of in their Borama prison cells. Can we imagine how embarrassed the parents of these teenagers feel in Borama.
I don’ claim to be a social worker or a psychologist, but it seems pretty obvious that there were better options to deal with this teenage get-together. I can understand that the City of Borama community has to be protected from all subversive and useless influences and that the vise-squad of the police has to keep an eye on the morality of the people by weeding out all obscene activities, visuals and recordings. In my days at Amoud Schools I have seen how the young ages were dealt with by Borama’s wise men. Here are two stories, you be the judge:
1. The years 1967 and 1969 are memorable with many former Amoud students, because that was when the people of former French Somali Coast ( Djibouti Republic) were striving for independence. The French army and police were cracking at the residents sending them to jail, torturing or deporting. The Students at Amoud’s schools shaved their heads, marched to Borama and were joined by more city students and civilians. We rallied in front of the District Commissioner’s(D.C) office and demanded guns so that we can go to Djibouti and fight the French forces to show our solidarity with the Djibouti people. The Elders of Borama and the D.C. understood what was going in our minds and the passions that were driving us. They just dealt coolly with the matter and told us that there were not enough guns for all these patriotic freedom fighters in Borama. They also told us that an urgent order of more guns have been sent to Hargeisa and that the guns will arrive in the afternoon. They hoped a delaying tactic will work, but it did not work.
Hundreds of the students and civilians decided to march on foot to Djibouti and fight the French bare handed. The city of Borama was in chaos. The Elders, Administrators, fathers and weeping mothers were trying to talk-out of our senseless actions. Still it did not work. We walked, ran and avoided the roads and trucks which enticed us to return to Borama. After several hours the first students arrived at the town of Qunujeed, drank from the ditch ( Ballay )and were in centre town. The Elders and Administrators of Borama sent many trucks to Qunujeed and after a little convincing our tired soles were ready to go home – Mission Accomplished!
In here the Elders of Borama not only understood us but they loved us and they knew how volatile our young lives were. They used tact, love and leadership to tame us. Whenever we had issues with a school administrator we would all march to Borama and request to talk to our Elders. We loved and trusted them. They were there for us. To name a few of them, they were: Jama Muhumed, Haji Abubakar and the dauntless Ali Elmi ( Cali cawar).
2. One bright afternoon in 1971 at Amoud Secondary School, the Principal professor Suleiman Ahmed Guleid and school’s Self-Help Committee whom I was a member were supervising a group of students who were planting nursery trees in the old hockey field just north-east of the student residences. This useful task of planting was not a voluntary chore from the students’ side. Those doing the work were caught somewhere between Amoud and Borama.by the Goro-awl army unit.
That month cholera was reported to have surfaced in Borama city and the military unit at Goro-awl was given the task to seal off the city of Borama. The Students at Amoud schools were forbidden to go to Borama until the epidemic was curtailed. So, those students who were doing the planting have broken the rule and tried to sneak to Borama during the earlier night. They were caught and rounded up by the military and brought back to school. To pay back for their misconduct those students were ordered to do some planting of trees – a constructive and useful task. While the planting was going on a small Cessna airplane flew over Amoud schools and landed on Borama’s “Seraha” Airport unannounced. Thirty minutes later Borama’s Police Landrover suddenly arrived at Amoud and parked just near were the planting was going on. The car was carrying an important figure at the time – major Abdirazak Mohamoud Abubakar – the Secretary of Education of Somalia, also a member of the SRC. Professor Suleiman stepped toward the car to see what this arrival was all about! The Secretary identified himself and Suleiman likewise mentioned he was the principal of this Secondary School. The Secretary was happy to witness a Self-Help Project going on and wanted to hear more of it. Professor Suleiman sensing the magnitude of this visit and that whatever happens in Amoud Secodary is his responsibility was tactful in his reply: “ The staff and students of this school have chosen to perform this self-help scheme of tree-planting and that all of these students are volunteers”. The Secretary was delighted to hear that. It was just what the military men who ruled Somalia loved to hear. I think this later was a factor in the promotion of Professor Suleiman. The professor loved his school and his students. He did not speak of any punishment meted out to students. He chose a constructive venue to discipline the students who misbehaved.
The Elders and Administrators of Borama - Amoud loved their young people. They were aware of the growing pains of the teenagers and were tactful in handling sticky situations.
In conclusion, the arrested teenagers deserve love, leniency and leadership. I urge the Elders and Administrators of Borama to review this case and allow these young boys and girls to be with their parents peacefully.
Hassan Rirash
Windsor, Canada
hrirash@yahoo.com
© 2006 Awdalnews Network
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