So the book of Raage Ugaas ( 1835-1884) has finally came out. I was aware of the efforts to collect his poetry by various Daarood revisionist and propagandist to crown him the master of the Somali poetry. Of course such claim is baseless .
From the 1960s Xirsi Magan and Shireh Jaamac both Daarood literature supremacist attempted to promote Raage Ugaas as top poet. They attributed to him many pioneering claim:
1- that he supposedly invented the Somali poetic meter.
2- that his poems are the most ancient of Somali poetry.
3- that he invented the poetic traditional preface " hoyalaayeey hoyaaleey hooby ".
4- that he divided the Somali literature into tix and Tiraab.
During the reign of Afweyne, Idaajaa basically had an absolute monopoly on all Somali media both radio and print media. Throughout 1970s and 1980s he promoted Raage Ugaas in his radio Mogadisho and in Xidigta October and Ogaal weekly. They also incorporated Raage Ugaas poetry into school curriculum to familiarize him with all Somalis.
In case that was not enough Afweyne personally interfered and built and named an school in the capital after Raage Ugaas ( an elementary school) to imprint the name of Raage Ugaas on first graders.
It wasn't long after that this revisionism bare fruit. Most Somali song composers and play writers began to quote Raage Ugaas in their lectures of interviews. The obvious reason was that Raage Ugaas had became the most famous personality from the 1800s. Gaariye, Meygaag Samatar and others in somaliland took the bait and swallowed the propaganda. In the 1970s Meygaag Samatar an educated Isaaq had written a paper on one of Raage Ugaas poems.
Tix iyo Tiraab is the title of the new published Raage Ugaas book. The two words in English can be translated as " poetry and prose ". All Somali literature can be divided as Tix ( poems) and Tiraab ( prose) the title is not accidental the Daarood also claim Raage Ugaas himself divided the Somali literature into these two.
Raage Ugaas never advanced such ridiculous claim himself, he just mentioned these traditional Somali phrases in his poetry:
Hadal waa tiraab iyo tix uun, waxaad tidhaahdaaye.
Simply by stating the traditional division in his poetry doesn't mean he invented them. But the modern Daarood will use that as an evidence for him introducing these divisions. Similarly Raage Ugaas stated that most Somali poems begin with the traditional chant Hoyaalayeey Hoyaalayeey Hoobay:
Hooyaalayey gabyga waa ugu horeeyaaye
Halla uma tartee maansadaa, lagu hagaajaayee
Here he simply stating that phrase is preface of all poems and it doesn't mean much its only used to embellish the poem.
The author of the book is one Ogaadeen with the title of Dr Axmed Nuur Maxamed. I watched his book been promoted in a Daarood t.v network. I watched the interview to see if he would substantiate all their claim. Sadly the interview and the t.v host both are below standard, the host was not up to the standard he seem completely ignorant of basic knowledge. Here is the cheerleading segment:
I advice not to waste time on the interview just continue reading.
The rest of their claim is soo ridiculous to warrant a debunk, they are typical of Daarood madness run a mock in the effort to promote their tribe.
The one about Hoyaalayeey Hoyaalayeey Hoobay is so ridiculous that even our ancient cousins the Masai would laugh at this Daarood claim.
This is a traditional Masai chant in the bush. Watch the conclusions of the song 3:14-3:18. Here the Masai conclude their song by saying " hoyaalayeey hoyaalayeey Hoobay "
I won't be the least surprised if Voltage and the Daarood supremacist argue yes that Raage Ugaas telepathically taught the Masai hoyaalayeey hoyaalayeey Hoobay.
