We
at banadir.com hereby nominate our long
time contributor M. M. Afrah for the
"Alternative Nobel" for his
unyielding efforts to condemn the warlords
and those countries who dump toxic waste
in our territorial waters as well as those
who defy UN weapons embargo and flooded
Somalia with weapons through his
hard-hitting Talking Points. Many of you
will remember his advocacy for minorities,
such as the Somali Bantus, Rer Hamaris,
The Baravans, the Bajunis, the Midgans and
other marginalized communities in Somalia.
Widely known as "The Alternative
Nobel" or the "Right Livelihood
Award" to honour those deserving
persons, with particular emphasizes on the
Third World frequently disregarded by the
traditional prize awarding organizations.
--The Webmaster.
Subject: Nomination of M. M. Afrah,
Veteran Somali Journalist.
Dear
Sir/Madam,
I
have known M. M. Afrah personally in the
1970s when he was the Editor-in-Chief of a
popular English language weekly published
in Mogadishu, the Somali capital and
doubled as Reuters correspondent in
Somalia. In his editorials he advocated
freedom of expression and the respect for
human rights. As a result he had several
nasty experience with the dreaded National
Security Service (NSS), the military
dictator's spy agency.
For more
than two decades Mr. Afrah showed
extraordinary courage, and under very
dangerous circumstances, he reported the
carnage in his native country of Somalia
during the savage civil war perpetrated by
ruthless warlords. During the course of
his frontline reporting, his first-born
son was killed and his home-cum-office
destroyed as a signal to desist from
reporting the large-scale violations of
human rights by the Somali warlords to the
outside world.
Mr. Afrah
who represented Reuters news agency in
Somalia since 1972 named the names of
those who were responsible for the doom,
death and destruction in Somalia, the
worst since World War Two. He received
more than 20 death threats from the main
Somali warlords. Undaunted, he continued
to report the grave human rights
violations committed by the warlords
against their own people. He was kidnapped
by militia gunmen loyal to one of the
warlords and kept in a dungeon for several
days under intense torture and
interrogations. He escaped by scaling a
seven-meter wall during heavy bombardment
between militia gunmen fighting for the
control of the capital.
Apart from
reporting the genocide to the outside
world, he put himself in the most
vulnerable position. He led hundreds of
Displaced Persons, mostly farmers, nomads
and minority clans from the hinterland to
the beach, away from artillery range,
until he himself ended up as a displaced
people and refugee in his own country.
Many frontline journalists in war zones
have history of being stranded, but not
Mr. Afrah. He felt at home with the
Displaced Persons in their makeshift camps
on the beach and shared with them what
little supplies the Red Cross was able to
provide them.
I myself
fled to neighbouring Kenya with thousands
of other refugees after several attempts
to locate Mr. Afrah's whereabouts, and I
feared that he would be forgotten. He had
not been, of course. Reuters Nairobi
Bureau Chief at the time, Jonathan
Clayton, made an arrangement with a Red
Cross pilot in Nairobi to
"smuggle" Afrah out of the
inferno that is Somalia. But memories
remained vivid. Safe in Nairobi he said:
"Now is not a bad time to write a
book about what happened." So he
completed his first book "Mogadishu:
Hell on Earth," within three weeks.
It has received excellent reviews in the
Kenyan newspapers, radio and television.
That book is now out of print. After that
he has written two more books about the
Somalia debacle-"Somali Tragedy, the
Gang Rape of a Nation" and "The
One That Got Away. (The later to be
published in the near future.)
Mr. Afrah
is a member of the Journalists-in-Exile
under the umbrella of Canadian Journalists
for Free Expression (CJFE). cjfe.org
based in Toronto, (Canada.) Please click
the third name on the Journalists-in-Exile
(JEX) list for Afrah's short bio.
Mr. Afrah
continues to contribute hard-hitting
TALKING POINTS in Somali and international
websites. He writes subjects many people
were afraid to talk about, such as Female
Genital Mutilation (FRM) practiced in many
of parts of Africa, including Somalia,
arranged marriages and child abuse. Many
journalists are reluctant to report these
controversial subjects, citing insecurity
and journalist bashing or what they call
overexposure.
He was Newsman of the Year 1995 and
Journalist of the Year 2005.
He is
currently living in Toronto (Canada). He
continues to fight for the rights of
minorities and refugees and their needs.
On this basis cash would be appropriate
for him to reorganize his campaign on an
international level.
Wish you success for the tasks ahead.
--The Webmaster.
