'Mother Africa was finally rescued': Halgan published a poem titled Mother Africa
Mohamed Haibe Kahin wrote the anti-imperial poem, Mother Africa, targeting Ethiopia and the USSR in his verses
I promised to move away from war and high politics, and this week I bring you all a poem (which is highly political as you’ll learn). It appeared in Halgan, the official journal of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, the party’s mouthpiece, so this poem didn't exactly twirl in step with Oscar Wilde’s “art for art's sake” philosophy. The poem, titled “Mother Africa,” was featured in the November 1977 issue of the magazine.
For context, the poem was published five months after Somalia invaded Ethiopia, in order to annex the Ogaden region. Somalia at the time had a treaty bound friendship with the Soviet Union which had built Mogadishu’s military and armed the Somalis to the teeth. Moscow, however, was reluctant to throw its full weight behind Somalia whilst Ethiopia was in throes of its own conversion from a feudal monarchy to a socialist republic. The Soviets decided in the end that Ethiopia had greater potential and quietly accepted the fact that Somalia was now leaving their camp. David Ottoway was writing for the Washington Post during the Ogaden war, and described what followed as a “superpower flip-flop” when Somalia dramatically dumped the Soviet Union, and began courting America, and the USSR got behind Ethiopia.
Fidel Castro and Leonid Brezhnev did their best to end what one writer called a bizarre bout of “Marxist-on-Marxist” violence but to no avail. By mid-November, Somalia had renounced its treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union, expelled all “Soviet experts”, reduced Moscow’s diplomatic presence and gave the boot to all Cubans in the country. A statement read out by the Somali information minister reported by the New York Times in 1977 accused Havana and Moscow of “brazenly” interfering “in the struggle of the peoples fighting for their liberation from the Ethiopian Government” and said their intention was a joint attack with Ethiopia on Somalia. The Soviet Union said the breakdown in ties happened because of the “chauvinist, expansionist moods” of the Somali government. Castro was unhinged in his assessment of Barre which you can find in the piece below.
You get a sense of how Kahin interpreted the entire debacle in the passage below, were he writes:
“The old fool still clings to the territories illegally acquired,
And despite his Marxist-Leninst rhetorics, continues the colonial legacy,
Denying the right to self-determination of the people of Western Somalia and Eriteria!”
He employs the terms “villainous whites” and “imperialists” interchangeably, failing to draw any distinction between the agendas of Europe’s imperial powers in Africa, whether it be the Soviet Union or France (which is strange because the USSR was an important player in the continent’s decolonisation). Kahin was a hype man for the government, especially as anti-Soviet and anti-Cuban sentiments gained traction throughout Somalia. The prevailing sentiment across the country, particularly as Mogadishu sought to navigate its precarious course in the sectarian world of Cold War politics, was that Africans “should not dance to the tune of the imperialists, asserting their own rights and privileges.” It was also a quirk of Somali anti-imperialist currents that they tended to view Ethiopia as the most threatening imperial power, and after 1977 added the USSR to that basket.
Somalis haven’t forgotten about that era. Whilst Russia, a nuclear armed P5 power, became a necessary actor for Somalis to engage, relations with Cuba remained sour. Mogadishu and Havana only resumed bilateral ties in April this year, almost half a century after the rupture. So deep was the Somali animosity at the perceived betrayal, that one Somali journalist likened Castro to Bush for Iraqis, calling him an “imperialist warmonger.”
The reference to Eritrea right at the end can be understood by reading this interview with Mohamed Kheir Omer, a former member of the Eritrea Liberation Front who told me Somalia’s support for Eritrea was “crucial”.
I have also endeavoured to find out about the author but to no avail so far. I’m told that many writers used pseudonyms. Anyway here is the poem, accompanied by a short introduction written by Mohammed Haibe Kahin, which is as much a love letter to Africa as it is a brazen attack on her enemies which he conveniently conflates with the enemies of Somalia at that particular juncture.
The history of the emergence of Africa as a respectable continent is one of toil and sacrifice. There was a time when Africa was known as the "Dark Continent", and the word "Negro" was synonymous with "Slave". Africa has been the victim of the worst possible form of exploitation at the hands of the imperialists. But then, we the people of Africa, pulled ourselves out of this toil and abyss owing to our unity, combined with the justified ambition to be recognised as free nation of the world. The unity that was responsible for our deliverance ought to be maintained and fellow African nations should not dance to the tune of the imperialists, staking their own rights and privileges. The poem that follows containing a message for Africa in general and for Ethiopia in particular.
Who is unaware of the past gloomy days of Mother Africa,
Of the ebony-skinned Mother held fast in the servile chains,
Of her sufferings borne as the victim of colonialism and strife.
Of the ships that put off her coastal harbours in pursuit,
Whereby thousands of her off spring forcibly deported for sale,
And all her treasure and riches carried to alien lands,
Of her fabulous body whose colour as black as the night,
Rendered bloody by the hands of the villainous Whites,
Who tore her up into micro-states and deprived her of human rights.
Indeed Mother Africa is torn and tortured to a piteous extent!
With the tortured cry of agony distorting her innocent lips, With her long range call for help far to her children,
Thousands, inspired by her call, took up their weapons to deliver her;
The long bitter struggle ensued thus ended with the Whites’ defeats;
Mother Africa was finally rescued and history has taken a new turn.
Decades and centuries passed till at last Mother Africa’s day arrived,
Walls fell that had barred her earlier from the progressive world; The glorious days of spirit spread with a refreshing force,
Cheers for Africa’s deliverance echoed through the continent!
Now are Mother Africa’s cherished dreams to be fully fulfilled.
Woe for her sad fate! Mother Africa again turned pale and ill,
The worst, never expected tragic event, has befallen her:
The eldest son [Ghana], her future hope, was fooled and led astray;
The White imperialists had influenced the fool and he sided with them;
He became a black imperialist and colonized his own flesh and blood!
But alas! Even though most of the white colonialists were forced out,
The old fool still clings to the territories illegally acquired,
And despite his Marxist-Leninst rhetorics, continues the colonial legacy,
Denying the right to self-determination of the people of Western Somalia and Eritera!