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The wedding
took place in a villa owned by one of the
clan elders who was related to both bride
and bridegroom and a close adviser to the
warlord. The young couple said their vows in
front of a turbaned sheikh and two
witnesses, seemingly full of love and hope
for their future.
But instead
of the lavish wedding ceremonies and gifts,
as in normal times, Araksan was given 500
dollars as a "community start up,"
in lieu of gold and jewelry and clothes. It
was a welcome relief because the family did
not have much money. They made do it, moving
to a windowless and door less villa whose
owner fled the country at the height of the
bloody uprising, and shared a cement alley
for a front yard.
Young Darman
squealed with joy and loved to listen to his
stepfather weave classical Somali poetry and
fold tales. What's more, Ahmed taught him
how to dismantle an AK-47 and G-3 assault
rifles but advised him not to use them.
"Only for self-defense," he told
the boy.
One day he was introduced to a man who said
his brother smuggled people across the
border into neighboring Kenya - at a price.
But his thought returned to informers and
scam artists.
"Your brother?" he asked, wasting
no time.
"He does it all the time. If you are
willing to pay we can arrange the necessary
transportation and three armed escorts to
get you and your family out of Somalia
before you know it."
"Can he?"
The man whose nickname was Ganey (Broken
Tooth) lowered his voice to a whisper.
"He has been doing this for a very long
time. Takes people across the border
safely."
"How much does it cost for two adults
and a boy of 12?"
"Five hundred dollars, US ONLY;"
he emphasized the last two words. The US
Dollar is the Grand Daddy of international
currency, even in war-torn Somalia!
"When can we leave?"
"Any time between Thursday and
Friday."
Ganey explained the plan more fully,
stressing two points in particular: speed
and secrecy was essential before clan elders
become suspicious enough to alert the
warlord and his death squad. Obviously Ganey
was right. Thursdays and Fridays are
Somalia's weekend when clan members usually
sit at a marathon khat session.
Khat or qat
is a narcotic drug chewed by peoples in
Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen and Kenya and
shipped to Somalia daily in small planes. It
is the green leaf of the Catha Edelis plant,
flowering evergreen shrub native to Kenya's
Meru District. Other varieties are grown in
Ethiopia and Yemen. The active ingredient in
khat produces effects like amphetamine when
chewed or ingested.
"Okay,
you've a deal, you're on," Ahmed said
While elders still under the influence of
khat, it is estimated that the family could
make to the port town of Kismayu, about
500km to the south, before
anyone realized they were gone. They would
reach Kismayu on Sunday or Monday, weather
permitting, Ganey explained in his hoarse
voice.
"We will hire a 4-wheel-drive Land
Cruiser mounted with a .50mm Browning
machinegun and three guards and the road to
Kismayu is all yours,"
He agreed to meet him on Wednesday at the
gutted police station to introduce him to
their driver.
"And
don't forget to bring the money with you.
And of course in US Dollars," he said,
showing unusually large gap in his front
teeth, hence the nickname Ganey. No one
remembers his real name or his tribal
lineage. But a childhood friend with
fantastic memory for faces confided to Ahmed
over cups of Araksan's spiced tea that the
man had lost two of his front teeth in a
nightclub brawl and is a former Red Beret
officer, the military dictator's crack
bodyguards.
"But
since he was one of the few Hawiye Red
Berets in the service of Major-General Barre,
he defected to the insurgents with other
Hawiye army and police officers. The Hawiye
elders gave them clean bill of health,"
he said as he sipped the steaming mug of
tea. "His real name is Jabriil and is
now engaged in all kinds of shady deals,
including drug Trafficking and forgery of
passports and birth certificates for people
who wanted to get out," the childhood
friend added.
"People
smuggling is sort of his side business and
with the help of his elder brother. But for
some reason, the brother remains a silent
partner," he went on. The Hawiye
insurgents targeted non-Hawiye politicians,
army and police officers, businessmen,
foreigners and anyone belonging to the
President's own minority clan, the Marehan
as well as other Darod subclans. Foreign
diplomats and their vehicles did not enjoy
diplomatic immunity from the warring
factions. Only the Isaaq clan from the
Northwest enjoyed immunity from the Hawiye
wrath.
Returning to the villa that night he shook
his wife awake.
"I have decided?
"Decided what?"
"Enough is enough."
"What's going on?"
"We will be leaving soon."
"To where?"
"Any where - far from the tentacles of
the clan elders and their war machine."
She nodded in agreement and they both
started counting their cash and other
valuables. They discovered they were richer
than they first thought!
Several trips between the disused borehole,
where he stashed away his booty, and the
open-air arms bazaar in the North of the
city that still functioned, were necessary
to dispose them. This included several
dozens of automatic rifles, ammunition boxes
and half a dozen of Soviet-made hand
grenades.
Many of his
cronies looked at him strangely, but nodded
their heads and did not question his sudden
yard sales, believing that he needed the
cash to rebuild the villa for his new
family.
Next day Broken Tooth showed up at Araksan's
tea stand at the corner of the gutted police
station with an older man who sported
hennaed beard and moustache.
"This is your driver. He will take you
as far as Kismayu. After that another man
would drive you across the border. I have
send a radio message instructing our man
there to take you close to Ifo Refugee Camp
inside Kenya," he declared.
The man seemed to inspire confidence, but
Ahmed was restless, remembering the words of
his childhood friend.
"What if the plan fails?"
"Don't worry. We've done this before
and never failed. It's foolproof."
"There's always first time."
"Our bush telegraph is very effective
and reliable."
Quoting a line from the Hollywood movie
Jerry McGuire, he told Ahmed, "Show me
the money." This sounded very
encouraging and Ahmed gave him the green
backs with high spirit. Ganey counted the
money. He counted it again, turning both
sides of the American green backs. Then he
suddenly pulled out an electronic gadget
from the breast pocket of his safari suit
and fed the crispy bank notes into the
counterfeit detector. He smiled, trying to
cover the gap in his mouth with the palm of
his free hand.
Today every businessman in Somalia carries
this gadget in his breast pocket.
"They are genuine Benjamin
Franklins," said Ahmed.
"Huh?"
"I mean they are genuine American
dollars."
"Who is Benjamin Franklin," Ganey
asked suspiciously.
"He was one of the past presidents of
the United States. His picture is on the
hundred dollar bill."
Until now Ganey didn't care much about the
pictures on American bank notes. All that
matters to him was their denominations and
their authenticity with the help of his
pocket counterfeit detector. But now he
began to take keen interest in Benjamin
Franklin, with is receding hairline, which
the Somalis call Bidaar. Then he pulled out
several crumbled dollar bills from his
custom-made safari suit and read the names:
GEORGE WASHINGTON, GRANT, JACKSON, LINCOLN,
HAMILTON loudly.
"Am I missing something here?"
"W-What?"
"Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford,
George Bush and Bill Clinton?"
"Well, the American constitution does
not allow the images of living presidents to
appear on their currency and postage stamps.
Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and
Bill Clinton would be given that honour
after they pass away," Ahmed said. He
himself was not sure about the US
Constitution on the subject of monetary
policy
"Would they give the same honour to
Richard Nixon with his Watergate
scandal?"
"I don't know. Perhaps they
would."
"Everything is OK," he said, with
two thumps up.
That night Ahmed and his family gathered in
their now bare dwelling to reflect.
Supposing…? What if…? They knew that to
try to escape from the tentacles of the
warlords was like signing your own death
warrant.
Ganey said it was the duty of the driver and
his armed guards to get them to Kismayu,
while the other driver, whose name is Karama
would take them out of Somalia close to the
nearest refugee camp in Kenya's Northeast
Province. After that they will be on their
own. Good Luck!
A SHORT STORY IN
SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH FOR OUR YOUNGER VISITORS
To be continued…
By
M.M. Afrah©2005
Afrah95@hotmail.com
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TAKING
POINT BY M.M. AFRAH
