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Reflections of
Midgan
by Rhoda A.
Rageh
Recently many
intellectuals from somaliland seem to have recognized the need to
correct some of the enduring ills of our society especially on the
issue of the gabooye community. However, as the discourse rages from
shifting blame and building awareness of "yassid" to weak
promises of support for the cause of the gabooye community, and
manifestoes from them suggesting proper political participation, I
deliberate on the problem itself and wonder if there is actually an
issue to support. Anyone who succeeds in identifying the problem has
to at least begin by putting his own bigotry aside before he or she
attempts to right the wrongs of this baseless misconception. We have
degraded a vital organ of our society, have deformed its vitality and
have subjected a group of people who has willfully and diligently
participated in every level of building our society to be treated with
serious discrimination. Our collective behavior calls for a more
serious reflection than overdressed speeches and entertainment
programs.
What basis do we
discriminate against them? Where do our differences lay and how
important or even true are these legendary differences? I have heard
many implausible legends justifying why we had or should eschew them.
Yet the worst I have encountered is the ugliest truth that glares
shamelessly at every intelligent person: our collective punishment
exacted on the group and the cruelty heaped upon anyone who has
crossed this artificial barrier. Our prejudice against them is neither
racial nor religious, but a useless defense to cover the harassment of
people which are founded on fanciful notions of clan superiority. The
blight is not limited to how we have isolated them but our inability
to recognize and overcome uncritical myth that have had serious
consequences. We were and perhaps still are inept to see how our own
fiction has trapped our minds without ever pondering on the effects it
had on others. Our actions have been a constant tragedy for some of
our citizens but the real tragedy is our inability to rise above our
own fabrication.
If we have now gained the
genuine conscience, the road out of our inadequacies should begin with
personal reflection. Anyone who is genuinely willing to disassemble
this nonsense should exercise individual freedom to cross the clan
barrier. The easiest and quickest way to remove this label is by
practicing what we preach: marry from them and allow our family
members to marry from them without punishment. Our society knows how
destructive the very few inter-clan marriages were. The problem is not
to support a cause that doesn't exist. It is to bluff a useless
discrimination. The gabooye community, as it call itself in this vast
pool of clan society, suffers from none other than the label we placed
on it. Our mythology holds no truth; but to unravel it needs serious
minded intellectuals who should act upon their convictions. Our
bigotry goes against our Islamic teachings, we should eliminate it by
modeling freedom for those chained by prejudice. This will put an end
to it. We do not need cloaks of political correctness but the genuine
desire should be to lead our minds and others from darkness to light.
Political participation should not be requested by manifestoes but
should be guaranteed and welcomed as citizenship right. What is there
other than to look inward into our own deficiencies that can solve
this problem?
Rhoda A.
Rageh
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