By: Mohamed Urdoh

Scene 1

May 5, 1960: Arriving in April, the bounty of the Gu, the rainy season, has so far been exceeding all expectations. In the morning, there was a pour down. Only two years ago, the Gadhy-gadhy-saar famine played havoc with the territory. The combined effect of the fresh smell of the blowing cool, monsoon breeze (the Foore), which promised more rain today, and the golden rays from the shinning full moon adorning the clear evening sky is intoxicating. To crown it all, ten hours ago, Her Majesty’s Government announced it was going to terminate its 70-year occupation of British Somaliland Protectorate in 51 days. That followed the London constitutional conference on the future of British Somaliland which opened three days back. Thrilled by the welcome news, Hargeisa is abuzz with joy. A group of youngsters - males and females - are sitting around an improvised huge bonfire, singing loudly in unison:

Enter the youngsters: Qoloba calankeedo waa caynay
Inaga kino waa cirko kali
Aan caadna lahayni
Caashaqa eey

Enter Aw-Cabdi: Maxaay waxo la qalaadayaan (These things, why are they yelling?)

Enter Haajio Marwo: They are happy. Everyone is happy. Aren’t you?

Enter Aw-Cabdi: And what is the fuss is all about? Have they discovered Prophet Solomon’s treasure?

Enter Haajio Marwo: Haven’t listned the BBC news this evening?

The bodies of the teens are noticeably silhouette against the flames. They are still singing loudly, drowning the voices of the two seniors:

Enter the youngsters: Waa baa Baryay
bilicsan
Arooryo baxsan
Maalin boqran

Enter Aw-Cabdi: These kids! They have no manners. Can you raise your voice a bit, please?

Enter Haajio Marwo: (raising her voice) It is obvious you missed the BBC news today.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: what? I can’t hear you.

Enter Haajio Marwo: Oh! I’ve forgotten you are too old a man. There is little you can do well nowadays.

Aw-Cabdi married Haajio Marwo while she was just little more than a teenager in an arranged marriage. He heard this line many times. But, today, there was more sarcasm in her voice than usual. So he wanted to shout: naa naga amos waxba ku hadlimisid e (Women, shut up; you are making no sense.) However, before opening his mouth, his twin daughters, Halimo and Hibbo, dart in with faces beaming with joy.

Enter the twins: (singing at the top of their voices)
Bal kaalay Canabeey
calankan walacli
Waa cawadin e
aayno ciidn e

Enter Aw-Cabdi (in an admonishing tone) You, too, have gone nuts; eh!

Enter the twins: (shouting in unison) Congra daaaaad!

Enter Aw-Cabdi: And what is this you are mumbling?

Enter Halimo: Isn’t it beautiful daaaad that…

Enter Hibbo: (who is three minutes younger then her sister, interjecting)… we are going to be free in less than two months?

Enter Halimo: Exactly in 51 days, dad.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: being free? What are you talking about? Whose slaves are you anyway?

Enter Halimo: Dad, haven’t you heard the news…

Enter Hibbo: (interjecting)…that the British are going to leave our land…

Enter Halimo: (interjecting)…on June 26?

Enter Aw-Cabdi: (in utter disbelieve) what? ten years later? Twenty? You and your childish dreams! (with strong conviction)They will never leave.

Enter Hibbo: No dad, no; they will…

Enter Halimo: (before her sister finishes)…leave in few weeks dad.

Enter Hibbo: They have promised dad; they have promised.

Enter Haajio Marwo: And from where are they going to get all the fresh meat and fresh milk they have here?

Enter Hibbo: Mom, they have too many cows and goats and sheep and…

Enter Halimo: (interjecting)…huge farms and numerous forests and plenty of grassland in their country.

Enter Haajio Marwo: Then, why they eat birds and - yuck! - pigs. Is there anything they spare. I’ve been told that they even consider snails and horses and tortoises delicacies.
And why are they so emaciated when they come to our land? Haven’t you seen how fat they become after staying here for a few months. (Dismissively) anyway, who wants to eat cow meat when he has goat and lamb and camels?

Enter Halimo: But mom, their beef tastes much better than ours.

Enter Haajio Marwo: as good as our lamb and camels?

Enter Hibbo: May be even better, much better.

Enter Hibbo: Mom, tell them you eat camel meat and look at the expression on their faces.

Enter Haajio Marwo: Enough of your idiocy; let not others hear this crab. Behave like good ladies and shut your big mouths.

Aw-Cabdi is eavesdropping intently the conversation between the twins and their mother. He knows the divergent mindsets of his wife and daughters. He knows everything the mother is saying is wide off the mark. But who is he to get in between a woman and her daughters. Fathers are for raising boys (hobolo); mothers good ladies (gaariyo). So there is no place for him in female affairs even at his own home. The singing is still in the offing:

Enter the youngsters: Ninki nasab ah e ku nici maayo
Nuraay waxaad tahay nafta iyo wadna ee
Sidi Nabi Khadar o nolow

It is now 10 PM. The BBC news is already on the air. It took Aw-Cabdi a minute or two to get the BBC, missing the lead of the first and most important item in the bulletin.

Enter the BBC: The conference, which brought together Colonial Secretory, MacLeod, Governor Sir Douglus Hall, British Somaliland Protectorate Local government ministers, including, Mohamed H Ibrahim Egal, Chief Minister, Ahmed H. Dualeh, N. Res. minister, Ali Gerad Jama, Communications and works minister, H. Ibrahim Nur Guuleed, Minister of Social Services. The decision to grant independence by June 26 was announced by MacLeod, the Colonial Secretary today.

A short while later, the singing stops. So, Aw-Cabdi starts praying “Salaat-ul-shukry” (prayer for expressing gratitude to God). Guuleed, the youngest male member of the family, who is ten years older than the twins, just comes home. He was one of the teens who were singing. The girls congratulate him in a hashed voice, making sure not to destruct their father.

Enter the twins (in unison) congra sweat brother, congra.

Enter Hibbo: I can’t wait for June…

Enter Halimo: (interjecting) twenty six is the day…

Enter Hibbo: (interjecting)…the flag is going to be raised.

Enter Halimo: (in emotion-charged tone) Oh! It will be fluttering above our heads.

Enter Hibbo: (in a enthusiastic voice) I will watched it in the morning; I will watched it in the noon ; I will watched in the evening. I will never get tired of watching it.

Enter Guuleed: (passionately) that day will be the greatest day ever. We will be free from famines. We will get rid of ignorance because we will get better schools. We will worry no more about getting water for the rural people. We will get better jobs and wear better cloths and travel to other countries and wave bye to poverty and be very happy.

Scene 2

Fast forward: December 1961- an abortive coup in Hargeisa leads to the death of a young military officer and his colleagues are captured. The deceased was a childhood friend and classmate of Guuleed, who is among the arrested officers. Thus, Hargeisa is in an extremely gloomy mood. You can tell it from the grim faces of the pedestrians in the streets. A new generation of teens mourning the failure of the coup is singing in a sad tone:

Enter the teens: Walle ama calan jira
Oo caan aha baad ahaan
Oo Lago cawaysay yeey

Ama calal maryha
la caayna baad Ahaab ahaan
oo ciirsi wayday eey

Cirkaan caad lahayn oow
Alla la cuskay yeey

Cidhin iyo bisail
Midoon ku caano maal
Oo ku calool adayg

Haajio Marow has been busy in the gogol-dhig, the seven-day mourning ceremony held at the home of the briefed family for alleviating their sorrow. The twins have just arrived from the gogol-dhig. They are sitting at the living-room. They are sad and exasperate and quite and worn out. Finally, Hibbo breaks the silence.

Enter Hibbo: (in a cracking voice) remember a years ago? Remember our joy over the flag and freedom? What happened? Where are all the goodies we hoped for? Why are they still eluding us? Perhaps we are cursed…perhaps we committed a sin that has upset Heaven. (loudly) Oh! Lord, are we damned?

Enter Halimo: (in a sad tone) I remember Guuleed’s wild joy. I remember how he talked non-stop about better schools, better hospitals and about more food, the end of famines, development for the nomads. But, it all evaporated in front of our eyes like a morning fog.

Enter Hibbo: (in a sad and subdued voice) The flag turned into a rag, the freedom we waited for into an illusion, the hopes for progress into pipe-dreams. Sister, we are damned, damned, damned.

Enter Halimo: All this, suddenly, reminds me of Ali Sugole’s song for the flag…

Enter Halima (interjecting)…that mesmerized all of us before the so-called independence.

Enter Hibbo (sobbing)Tonight, when the words reverberated into my years, I had a knot in the stomach. You did too. I saw the feeling on your face. After all, we are from the same cell.

Enter Halimo: (in a dejected voice) Oh! Sweaty we are empty! We are doomed.

Enter Hibbo: (subbing) my sister, I don’t know what the world is coming into. Are we lost souls? I think we are.

Aw-Cabdi was in the neighbourhood mosque. He and H. Ibrahim were among many elders who congregated at their neighbourhood mosque in the last few days, praying for the souls of the deceased young man and his arrested colleagues. Now, Aw-Cabdi and Haji Ibrahim, the murdered officer’s father are chewing qat at the formers home. Like their wives, they were childhood friends. Normally, they would be part of a crowd. But, today, they chose to break ranks with the circle. Aw_Cabdi and his friend have never been to UK. But they fought in Burma against the Japanese, people about whom they knew nothing: their name, country and culture. Now, the latter says:

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: How we traveled for weeks across rough seas to that far off land - do you remember my friend?

Enter Aw-Cabdi : A grueling sea journey, indeed, it was.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: And we didn’t even know the name of where we were going.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: Nor that of Japan and the Japanese.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: We are not a sea fairing nation.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: We are camel herders.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: I gather they, the Japanese, relish whale meat.

Enter Aw-Cabdi : We eat camel meat.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: How in the name of wisdom peoples that far apart; peoples separated by oceans and continents meet each under in the circumstance we did?

Enter Aw-Cabdi : madness…only sheer madness my friend. It was all the making of men who had the illusion that they were as mighty as God and who, in the process, started bidding for emerging the emperors of the universe.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: Certainly Hitler had such a pipe-dream when he invaded Zcho…His rivals already did in the colonies what he would do in Europe in the 40s. He and his enemies jointly threw humanity into a black hall.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: Nineteen years earlier, Churchill gave British troops the green light to use mustard gas against the Kurds and Afghans.

Enter HajI Ibrahim: and the victors shouted, as they still do, at the roof tops, they saved the word for democracy.

Enter Aw-Cabdi : And they still continue doing that.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: What democracy? The democracy that sent my only son to his grave before barely opening his eyes to the world? He told me a few days ago he wanted to ask for Hibbo‘s hand.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: so, you were honing your locution skills to invade me.
Do you recall how everyone used to say repeatedly Illaahow lixdanka ha iga reepin (please God, spare me for the sixties.) soon after May five.
.
Enter Haaji Ibrahim: except one man - Suffi Xasan.

Enter Aw-Cabdi : He used to repeatedly say “Badowgaygaan w…ee Badowgaaga w…(I will screw my inncent followers, screw your innocent followers.)

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: At the time, we believed he was insane. But now, after all these hurricanes sweept us, I wonder if he were not a sage with a message from Heaven.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: We lacked the foresight to grasp the message.

Enter Haaji Ibrahim: We witnessed nationalism peak and foreigners go away and celebrated the flag raising ceremony at the Beerta Xuriyada (The Freedom Park).

Enter Aw-Cabdi: But, what did we get in return? (very emphatically)THE RATS, the men elected by the people. The men who betrayed the trust. The rats which ravenously preyed upon the flag and everything it symbolizes.

Haji Ibrahim: And, sadly, the flag is no more than a rag because the rats are arrogant and Heaven hates arrogance. Hasn’t God said: “And swell not thy cheek (for pride) at men, nor walk in insolence through the earth; for Allah loves not any arrogant boaster.(19) And be moderate in your pace, and lower your voice; for the harshest of sounds without doubt is the braying of the ass.” (Luqman 31: 18-14)

Enter Aw-Cabdi : He also did say: “We did indeed offer the Trust the Heaven and the Earth and the Mountains: but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it - he was indeed unjust and foolish …” (Al-Ahzab 33: 72)

It is close to 8 pm. H. Ibrahim has just left. The twins are clearing the mess left behind by the two elderly men. Their father is within earshot in the sitting room. Suddenly, the door bell run. Halimo rushed to been the open. The visitor was Khadar, Haajio Maroow’s younger brother who taught philosophy at Lafoole college before retiring two years back.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: (with a smile on her tired face) welcome uncle. (raising her voice) Mum, dad, its uncle Khadar.

Enter Khadar: (walking toward his brother-in-law) Is every one faring in peace?

Enter Aw-Cabdi: Yes. Everyone is fine. How about you?

Enter Khadar: I’m well. By the way, have you listened the eight o’clock
BBC news?

Enter Aw-Cabdi: No. What did it say?

Enter Khadar: There was an attempt on the life of the Prime Minister.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: I knew it was coming. Do we know who did it?

Enter Khadar: Not so far. But Police say they are someone.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: (in a grave tone ) I think we are in the endtimes.

Enter Khadar: (with serious expression on his face) I’m not sure if the end times are here. But I know for sure that there is too much arrogance in the world, too much greed, too much ignorance.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: And more stupidity. But what can we do?

Enter Khadar: A Buddhist sage, Morihei Ueshiba said: “Eliminate ignorance Thorough the Art of Peace, and hell will be empty of tortured souls.”

Enter Aw-Cabdi: I can‘t catch his name but it is evident that your sage knows nothing about the nature of dictators and corrupt politicians. His remark hardly tallies with the day-to-day realities of this world. Corrupt politicians are deaf and dumb. Peoples must fight back. On the surface, the masses look powerless. But once they are up in the arms, the doom day for a dictator is well nigh. Even so, dictators can never understand that peace is good for them.

Enter Khadar: There is a grain of truth in what your statement . It remind me of the Lao Tzu which says: “Nothing under heaven is softer or more yielding than water; but when it attacks things hard and resistant there is not one of them that can prevail.”

Enter Aw-Cabdi: And your remind me of Saahid Qamaan’s lines which run: Miyir waxaad ku waydaan iswaal, kuma mihiibtaane
Muslim kuma cabiidsamo wallaan, madaxa kaa goyne
Muggii weel ma dhaafee Alloow, mooska yaan jabinnin

Enter Khadar: But Lao Tzu counterbalances the foregoing remark by adding “Where arms are, thorns and brambles grow. The raising of great host is followed by a year of dearth.” And Abdullahi Suldaan, Timocadi said: Ubaxiinii waa daadisiin
Wana dubateen e
Ubaxiinee waa’d daadiseen /wana dubateen e
Xdiisi waa wada cunteen/ Duhur dharaariide e

Enter Hibbo: (who just comes out of the kitchen where she was making tea for her uncle) And this Loosi who is he dear anyway, uncle?

Enter Khadar (with smile on his gentle face) My dear niece he was Chinese sage who wrote an internationally renown book more than 2000 years ago. It’s content is very deep in meaning. For instance he says about leadership: “The only reason that we suffer hurt is because we have bodies…Therefore, we may accept the saying: ‘He who in dealing with the empire regards his high rank as though it were his body is the best person to be entrusted with the rule…”

Enter Halimo: And what did we do to make that happen, uncle?

Enter Khadar. Nothing,. True, the people had already the feeling the union was a raw deal for them from the beginning. But the idea of separation had to yet germinate in their minds. Even so, the masses strongly registered their protest. In 1961, only a few months before the abortive military coup in Hargeisa, we rejected the first constitution. You were not yet old enough to vote. But you surely remember a referendum was held by the government under the pretext of giving the people the democratic right to decide their destiny. The overwhelming majority of the people in Somaliland boycotted it. And the majority of the tiny fraction which voted said no. In the end, the government had its way for the whole process was rigged. In brief, it was a done deal even before all the votes were cast.

Enter Hibbo: That was bad, terribly bad. So, uncle, democracy was stillborn in Somalia no sooner than it had been born.

Enter Aw-Cabdi: True daughter, true. But don’t underestimate our past efforts. Directly, it bore no fruits. Still, it strongly symbolized our drastic disgruntlement with the union. The coup was the second step to express the feeling of the people.

Enter Halimo: And the coup, why did it fail?

Enter Khadar: lack of experience daughter, lack of experience. Your brother and his colleagues did not have what it takes to change the political fortunes of a nation whose rulers ran amok.

Enter Halimo: Please go a little further. We want to get as many details as possible about what brought us to this bind in which we are.

Enter Khadar, well, the young men behind the coup did not realize that they needed support not only within the ranks of what used to be the Somaliland Scouts prior to independence, but also from the streets. So, without doing any political groundwork, they unleashed the coup.

Enter Hibbo: and their defeat, dad, what triggered their defeat?

Enter Aw-Cabdi : As your uncle mentioned, lack of political depth. Initially, they met no resistance. For, they made the public believe the coup occurred all over the country. Then at 11 am Radio Hargeisa relied the news of Radio Mogadishu. That revealed to all and sundry that the coup was local. Therefore, within minutes, the lower ranks of the army turned against them. And since they had not built a supporting base within the ranks, they proved an easy prey and their efforts were naught. That is how they failed my daughter.

The call for the al-isha prayer, final prayer of the day, came from the neighbourhood mosque. Contrary to his habit, Aw-Cabdi did not headed for the mosque to night. Immediately the call came to an end, he stood up, starting saying his prayer. With her father in meditative state, Halimo reflected over the content of the conversation. And that was natural. She and the deceased officer were seriously in love. Her lover was dead, her brother in jail, facing possible execution. So, she was more affected than the others except her twin sister who, being the only one privy to all her secret, knew how devastated Halimo was. Suddenly, tears rolled down Halimos cheeks just as her father completed his prayer. Thus, he notice the gloom shrouding his daughter‘s face, thinking she was moved by his account of the sorry state the nations affairs have been sinking down to since independence. Finally, the young leady couldn’t hold herself.

Enter Halimo: (weeping) dad, I’m afraid. I’m so afraid all the time. Last night, I got up again and again and again. I’ve been getting up every night this week, expecting the worse to happen. When everyone is in bed, I check if something happened to them.

Enter Hibbo: (in a cracking tone) Oh! Dad, these are horrible times, too
horrible. (turning to her sister and in a mournful tone) But, sweetie, we shall overcome, we shall overcome before you know it.

Enter Halimo: (in desperate voice) I hope you are right indhahaygaay (my own eyes.)

Haajio Marwo has no full knowledge of Halimo’s relationship with the deceased officer. But she had inkling that her daughter was somewhat partial for him. She could tell that from the way the young lady reacted to his visited to their home. And she encouraged what she saw. The deceased officer’s mother and Haajio Marwo were childhood friends raised in the same neighbourhood. The same thing was true about that young man and her son who also attended the same schools and the same military academy. So, for adagio Marow he was the best suitor for her daughter. Even so, she didn’t know that the young man was on the verge of asking for Halimo’s hand slightly before he died. Thus, without being knowledgeable about the context of the conversation between her daughters, she jumps in.

Enter Haajio Marwo: (in a raised voice) Kids! What do you know about the twists of life and the human condition? (in an emotion-charged tone) Oh! Old age, be (stressing the word damned) damned. Every day, I’m losing a slice of my memory. That is not so important, though. We survived the Gaddhi-gaadhi-saar. We outlived the Bakili Qalaad. Long before that your great-great grannies endured the wrath of Xaaramu cuni, Siigo-cassi, Doomali, Baaha, Hawaara and Haariya. So, throughout the centuries we have been a nation of survivors . We may fall down here and there. But, in the end, we will never be defeated. (in a commanding voice) Girls, patience pleeeeeeease! The world never adjusts itself to you. It has no need of doing so. You need to adjust yourselves to it. Now, go to bed and behave like grownup ladies.

Enter Hibbo: Mom, the Gaadhi-gaadhi-saar had not affected us. We were in Hargeisa. capital. I never felt hungry a single day in the capital.

Enter Haajio Marwo: (In a pensive tone) It was a very bad famine. You were kids and you had no the responsibility of carrying a whole family on your shoulders while impoverished relatives were pouring down in droves. It unraveled the fibers of every household, ours was no exception. The whole country turned upside down. People in the rural areas were starving and animals were perishing by their hundreds of thousands because the rains failed in that year and there was no grass and water for humans and livestock. It was a horrid time. But you were protected. That is why you never have slept a night with empty stomach and to make that possible was our mandate even though we felt like the sky was falling over our heads. (In a half sad have triumphant voice)Still, we had to keep on living, come what may!

Halimo’s lips are tight shut, her face grim. Her mom thinks she is intently listening to the conversation and emotionally moved. But, the pain gnawing the young lady’s heart is unbearable and she hardly follows mom’s story. Her woe comes from elsewhere.

Enter Hibbo: (with more curiosity) and the Bakili Qalad, I know for sure it hit where it hurts most.

Enter Haajio Marwo: That was a very violent event. Hargeisa turned into a battlefield, a virtual inferno. Fear and terror gripped everyone as government forces went on the rampage. Things took a turn for the worse when the masses resorted to armed resistance. The ensuing shootout between government troops and the people continued for days on end. The city was evacuated. A new tent city emerged at Shanta-maylka. But, in the end our patience and resolve paid dividends and the victory was ours: Abdirasheed Ali Shermaarki, the Prime Minister of the day, was forced to withdraw the new taxes he tried to impose on us. The man never put into account that similar efforts by the British failed in the colonial days. (in a proud tone) That is another occasion we discovered we have nine lives, dear.

A Year later: It is 5 PM. In Hargeisa all hearts are pounding. Everyone’s ears are glued to the radio. The twins are listening the BBC news with their parents.

Enter the BBC: Mogadishu - A Supreme Court judge acquitted all the charges against the former officers accused of unleashing an abortive coup to secede the former Somaliland from Somalia. According to a government spokesman, the decision came as a shock to Mr. Sharmaark’s government which sought the death penalty against all the accused men. However, one of the defense lawyers described the ruling as a moral triumph for Somalia, noting the international community was tired of bloodshed.

The development threw Hargeisa into a festive mood. So, while the household was happy to see their son alive, their joy was not complete. For one thing, their friends in H. Ibrahim family were not sharing the joy. They are the only once who will not see again their son. For another, Halimo has never recovered from the loss of her lover. So, they kept a low profile. A week later: Guuleed is home. Immediately he disembarked from the plane that brought him from Mogadishu, he shot for the cemetery where his friend’s remains laid. The twins, who collected him from the airport, were with him. At the grave side, a sharp pain struck Halimo’s head first then run down the spine. The pain was so intense that, at one stage, she had felt momentarily loosing her mental balance. But, in the end, she held her grounds even though the pain seemed to be going on for eternity. Her face was grim and tight and full of sorrow as she reminisced the man whose mere sight gave made butterflies run in her stomach.

Although the intentions of the young couple was good - meaning in the eyes of their conservative society they were committed to tie the knot one day- it was not appropriate for them to meet without supervision of their families. Thus, they always secretly met at the home of an older female cousin where they would never go beyond verbal conversations since premarital sex was a taboo. Yet, such encounters too often uplifted her spirit. Now as she watched the final resting place of the man whom she hoped to be the centre of her future, the unbearable pain continued surging throw every fiber of the body and the mind and the soul.

Guuleed, who was busy reading brief chapters of the Quran at the grave, had not noticed the change in his sister. But Hibo did, And that was stomach-churning. As if she had a telepathic communication with her sibling,, tears started gushing out of her eyes, too. However she was too quick to rub her eyes with her head scarf. Halimo’s torture was not over after their prolonged visit to the grave. Guuleed asked them to take him to his departed pals family. Finally, Hibbo pretended to having been hit by severe headache to take Halimo out of the torturing situation. So, they headed home.

Scene 3

Six years later: Guuleed is the most prominent human rights defence lawyer in the city. Hargeisa is in total chaos following popular uprising in the city lead by students in protest against the prosecution of a group of doctors, teachers, lawyers and other professionals. Thanks to his history as a rebel military officer and his constant help for many political detainees, most of whom he defended bro bono; the authorities targeted him as their worst foe in the city. One day, an NSS officer leaked to him the news that he was on the top of the government hit list. He did not wait for a long time to see the evidence for this fact: hardly a week passed before his home was invaded by red beret men, searching every little corner. By then, he had two sons and a daughter from his deceased friend’s sister. They were lovers from the teen days. He married her six months after his release. He was reluctant to flee. Haweeya, his wife, insisted that he should leave the country and soon.

Enter Haweeya: (in a firm voice) Sweat heart, I waited for you when you were incarcerated. I waited for you while you were in UK for your law school. I don’t know who of us will depart first in the end. But, given all the violence and chaos around, I’m no longer so much afraid of death. I know we will eventually make our separate exits out of this world. What I don’t want to happen is: you die under a humiliating circumstance.

Enter Guuleed: But darling, how can I expect you to do more sacrifices after all the difficulties you had gone through for my sake? How can I do that especially now that we have three kids?

Enter Haweeya: (in a more controlled tone) dear, do you think losing you is better for me and the kids than waiting for you? If you are toying around with this idea, you are certainly insane. Please go, go away from this God forsaken place (then, as an afterthought) and, for heaven’s sake, don’t you forget to see a psychiatrist as soon as possible.

Enter Guuleed: (In a supplicating voice) Sweetie, I’m not unaware of all the dangers larking in the corner. But it is painful, very painful to leave you all alone in this inferno. I will never forgive myself if I do.

Enter Haweeya: (In a slightly accusing tone) Do you know I couldn’t sleep a single night form the day you told me your status in the government’s honour (emphasizing the word honour) list. Are you aware I’ve lost apatite for food since then. Men! What the insensitive creatures.

Enter Guuleed: (in a guilt-ridden voice) Yes! I did.

In fact Guuleed also noticed his wife engaging in conversations with herself. For example, one day the conversation run like this:

Enter Haweeya: Are you sure the great fortuneteller said that?

Silence for a moment.

Enter Haweeya: So, he will definitely end up in Labaatan Jirrow prison if he doesn’t leave in a week?

Silence for a moment.

Enter Haweeya: Alla hoogay (woo betide me) if he goes there. He will not come out alive? Do I hear you right? Are these his real words.

Silence for a moment.

Enter Haweeya: Where should he go, o, great one? Where should he go?

Silence for a moment:

Enter Haweeya: Ethiopia? Did you say Ethiopia?

Against this backdrop, she had the premonition that something bad is going to happen and soon. But her fear was not complete before a couple of nights later after having a nightmare that shook her foundations. Soldiers in fatigues invaded her home. They had horns and tails and fungus. They were half human half hyenas and they salivated as they attacked her husband, tearing his flash piece by piece. But there was nothing she could do because she was frozen on the spot she stood. She could see everything and hear the agonizing cries of the man she loved. But there was nothing she could do. Her deteriorating state of mind disturbed Guuleed initially discouraging him from leaving and on a number of occasions he was on the verge of flatly ignoring her demands. However, he also realized that being near Haweeya and the children will only make matters worse.

Enter Haweeya: (very categorically) Plan or no plan you are going to cross the borders before sunrise. This time it will be my way or the highway. (in a sneering tone) No compromise maaaaster!

In fact, Guuleed was getting ready to flee to Ethiopia next day. But he had not given the slightest hint to anyone. The same NSS officer who earlier told him he was in the government hit list visited him again. He informed him a debacle was going to happed in Hargeisa within a couple of days and he would be would be a fool if he did not cross the borders in 24 hours. The officer owned him one: Guuleed successfully helped his brother - one of the handful of the dictator’s clansmen in the opposition - narrowly escape death a year ago. He knew Guuleed was linked to a group of SNM cadres who assassinated the chief of NSS in Hargeisa. In fact, Guuleed organized their hiding place and provided for them all their basic needs to fulfill their mission. A couple of days earlier, the twins are on a visit to Haweeya. It is 5 PM. They are listening the BBC news;

Enter BBC: “Hargeisa; The atmosphere in the embattled Somalia’s second city is very tense following the assassination today of the Chief of the NSS, one of the most feared government security agencies. Although the government is suppressing the details of the incident, anonymous eyewitnesses accounts say the victim, who is from President Mohamed Siad Barre’s clan, was assassinated by SNM fighters. No one was so far arrested in connection with the incident. The new development gives a psychological boost to the SNM who vowed to topple the military regime which has been ruling Somalia with iron hand for close to two decades.”

The news hit the three women with a mixture of joy and shock. Joy, because the incident is a demoralizing defeat for the military dictatorship. Shock, in the sense that thousands of Isaaq elders are going to be inevitably rounded and, some of them, will eventually be killed in jails and that Guuleed will be one of them. They didn’t know that by the time the news was broken, Guuleed and all the SNM fighters who executed the NSS man were already ninety miles in Ethiopia’s borders singing in unions:

Enter the SNM fighters(jubilant): Dholka nimaan udhalanbaa
Baa aay Girido dhibaaysa…

As the cadres reveled their singing, Guuleed mulled over the assassination. And although the felled man was a monster who spared no efforts to silence him, he felt a knot in the gut even though he knew the assassination was inevitable. As a human rights lawyer and activist, he was vehemently averse to bloodletting. But, what can you expect from enemies such man who puts living humans into harrowing flames or bury them alive. Suddenly, Guuleed’s memory switched to a day in 1982, when he had a lengthy and heated argument with the man about the case of the seven teenagers given the death sentence as a result of that year’s popular uprising initiated by students in the city:

Enter the NSS officer: (acrimoniously) Why the hell are you on our trail? Why not leave us alone to do our duty for the nation? Are you, too, a counterrevolutionary?

Enter Guuleed: (in a calm yet firm tone) Believe you me there is nothing in the world I like more than watching someone doing his job with devotion. But, at the same time, there is nothing I loathe more than a man trampling upon the rights of others.

Enter the NSS officer: So, you are opposed to routing out counterrevolutionaries and traitors?

Enter Guuleed: (stung this time) Only a beast can describe kids in these terms. Tell me you are a predator and your words will sink into my mind. (as a after thought) By the way, have you ever heard of Binti Jua?

Enter the NSS officer: Fintija? A she-devil you slept with last night?

Enter Guuleed: (in a sarcastic tone) Binti Jua, not finja.

Enter Guuleed: Do you know how to use the internet. If not, ask your boss to tach you how to do so. Then, you will find who Binti Jua is.

Enter the NSS officer: (in an intimidating voice) I think you are asking for trouble and unless you reverse this attitude of yours you will find more than you are bargaining for. Anyway, on what grounds are you condemning our legitimate operations to save the nation?

Enter Guuleed: (sarcastically) My foot! Saving the nation! What nation! The one you have disemboweled?

Enter the NSS officer: I said what grounds do you have?

Enter Guuleed: (abrasively) Do you read and write? Have you ever thrown a glance on any aspect of the international law or humanitarian law?

Enter the NSS officer: (with matching sarcasm) no professor, no. Go on. Enlighten the blind savage. Go on pleaaaaaase!

Enter Guuleed: (authoritatively) let me start it this way: The international law categorically states “…recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,” And to say the least, every step you have been taking has been and continues to be a flagrant (stressing the word flagrant) disregard for the letter and spirit of this provision.

Enter the NSS officer: Halleluiah (loudly) keep on teaching the chosen one! Keep on…

Enter Guuleed: (ignoring the officer‘s comment) it also stresses “…the ideal of free human beings enjoying civil and political freedom and freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his civil and political rights, as well as his economic, social and cultural rights,” It also considers states are obliged “…to promote universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and freedoms.” Are you doing any of these? Please don’t’ give me any of your pool…(suddenly stopping himself) oh! What has become of me? You are turning everyone into a vulgar. This doesn’t sum up the story. It goes much further than that. What you are doing is genocide. See article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide then you may get an inkling of what I mean.

Enter the NSS officer: and what else does it say professor (stressing the word professor) Pleeeeese tell me. I’ m dying to hear it.

Enter Aw-Cabdi Guuleed: Here it is (with a strong sarcastic note): I bet my life you are going to get a kick out of it. According to the international law “…genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious grooup such as:
• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Are you denying that all this are happening in the country?

Enter the NSS officer: Enough of your stupid lecture. You are the best example of the counterrevolutionary vermin the Father of the Nation, the Guiding Light of the Masses and the greatest socialist spirit that ever lived is hard put to rout out of the face of the earth. Scum, get out of my office and rest assured I will be the one who is visiting you at your place next time we meet. And that will be soon and very unpleasant.

On the night the news was broken by the BBC, the twins stayed with their sister-in-law and life-time friend. At 10 PM, Haweeya’s phone rings. The caller is speaking from Dubai. She didn’t need to identify herself.

Enter Haweeya’s elder sister: (cryptically without naming the radio she was referring to) “switch on the radio…”

Haweeyea understood what her sister meant. She opens Radio Halgan. Her husband’s voice is the on air.

Enter Guuleed: (answering a question) … No, far from it. The dictator is really down. He is utterly demoralized by the unflagging resistance of Hargeisa inhabitants. He underestimated their endurance. He is so frightened. He wets his pants all the time.

Although security officers are swarming around the house, the three ladies can not contain their joy. So, suddenly they break into singing a nationalist song:

Enter Haweeya and the twins: (loudly) Maanta manta maanta
waa maalin wayini manta
maanta maanta maanta
madaxeen banana e maanta.