I wanted to update this thread ...
Lamgoodle; One of Somalia’s greatest playwrights, Sangub wrote a play a few years before the demise of the communist regime. The play entitled “waa maadeeys aduunyadda dadkana waay matalayaan” (Eng; the world is a play and its inhabitants are all actors” was a rarity in a national discourse that was centered on “we are great” . Together with Aw Kombe’s Xamareey yaa arkay? (Eng; anyone seen Xamar?), Sangub’s play herald the beginning of critical theatre in which people questioned and predicted the fall of the regime. Prior to these enlightenment years which also saw the beginning of the disintegration of Somalia, the only differing voices were found on Yoobsan area (epicenter of gossip). There was one exception; the street philosopher Faarax Galooley who ridiculed the regime using idiomatic expressions which were often wrapped in jokes and as such not perceived as being counter revolutionary.
In recent years Sangub’s analogy is perceptible if one takes a look at Somali websites and Somali-speaking Televisions. Information and Telecommunications technologies have provided a plethora of opportunities including the ability to gain just in time insights. However, the abuse of these technologies becomes evident when we look at the many websites that have a city/village names and the abuse of paltalk where it seems moms and dads spend more time than they do working.
The village voices (i.e.many of the Somali websites) apart from enhancing a tribal discourse of “we are the best” and the occasional newsreels about the dire state of Somalia also contain photos of so called meetings that took place in the diaspora. The recent mega trend involves so called “ shir looogu hadlaayey occasions” or formations of “lalalala states”-; At these theatrics the spectator will witness men in suits, women in expensive garments and gold chains (many of them have bleached their skin for the occasion) and a bunch of so called Dottore, xildhibaan, madaxweyne, etc(new concepts that are testimonies of Somalia’s ills)
Your correspondent was recently invited to attend one of these “shows”. Wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt (Homer Simpson) I arrived at 7.55 PM- five minutes before the schedule start. The only people who were there were from the catering firm. The main reason why your correspondent decided to participate in this play was because he was hoping to find someone to reel and rock with till the end of dawn. The recent backache sent chills across his medulla that he needed someone to nurse him
Waited, waited… 9.25 the first group of people arrived. Men in expensive suits, women in colourful dresses and. By 10 PM, one of the suit wearing dudes (his tie did not match and it was not tied professionally) takes the microphone and says; bismilahi rahmin rahiim….we are gathered here today to discuss the problems of Somalia… but before we do that let us start this occasion with a few verses from the Holy Quran.. Another suit spotting dude takes the mic and recites the quran: just when he is about to end, a roar of clapping and what appear to be women wailing for non-somalis but a pleasant roar for Somali speakers erupts.
A pseudo dottore takes the microphone and informs the audience that Somalia is a great nation. He continues to present elementary facts about Somalia. One after one the speakers – many of them pseudo PhD holders, fake wadaads, tribalists, welfare cheats- speak about how great Somalia is and predict that one day all of us will go back home. Every time, these idiots take the stage, the audience undergoes a sense of euphoria and are hypnotized through music.
The next morning on several Somali websites I read about this meeting; the overture of the websites contained the conventional lines; a meeting attended by the Waxgarad (knowledgeable) Aqoonyahan (intellectuals) Culumudiin ( clergy) took place in XXX .
In my humble opinion these meetings serve only one purpose; to pass on the disease called Buufis to those back home who read these websites and watch somali TVs.
