     Laascaanoodi | Friday, September 22, 2000 - 09:00 am
THE NEW NATIONS OF AFRICA feel the need for execiting heroes, men whom the young can admire. Hence the general absence of written historical records presents a grave psychological problem to many African states.
Some are, of course, more fortunate, and the new Somalia is among them; for it possesses a dramatic personality in sayed Mohamed Abdullah Hassan al Mahdi, better known to the world as the "Mad Mullah of Somaliland."
Today, we drop the epithet "mad, " a miinterpretation of the Arabic concept for elated, fervent and saintly. It was applied to the Mullah because of his extraordinary daring, from 1899 until his death in 1920, in fighting against Britain, Ethiopia, Italy and those Somali tribes that opposed him.
But what seemed madness to his enemies was divide inspiration to his Derwish following. In historical perspective, this quality appears as an inevitable accompaniment to the assertion of leadership over a hitherto anarchic clannish community, suddenly conscious of its role and personality.
Tall, strictly handsomein his early days, but later running to fat, hirsute, which was unusual in the black, lean Somalis, Mohamed Abdullah made an impressive figure . His vituperative poetry, and his dogged persistence in action, permanently engraved his momery upon his people.
Here comes a figure--------------
A Somali elder. "The Mullah's alliterative speech spoke of what the Somalis understood: the drought, the rinderpest" and their grievances against the British Military
Often defeated, he never surrendered to the blandishments of governments, however dazzling the pension offered, and however hopeless his cause might seem. Unlike the "Mad " Mullahs in Asia, he carried on, convinced that his way was
only the true way of life. He led remnants of his Derwishes across the Ethiopian frontier in 1920, when, for the Somali boys and girls, who were sent to work in Berbera, preferred being clothed and fed in the Lazarist school to the casual labour of the docks, and an extension of this schooling would threaten the authority of the traditional Koranic teachers in the desert.
The Mullah's injunctions against the long lazy sessions of the townsmen, in which the intoxicant weed "qat" was chewed, against the gluttonous munching of sheeps' tails, the taking of snuff and the expenditure of scant incomes on sweetened tea, appealed to the past, had prevented a permanent sattlement of Berbera, and now feared the rise of a powerful Government that would menace their independent life and their power to exact fees from merchants wishing to trade in the interior.
To their delight , the Mullah in his sermons generally used Somali, unlike the Arab holy men who spoke the virtually unknown Arabic. In an era agog with foreign religious messages--- Mahdist, Senussi, Wahabi, Mallawi---it came as an inspiration to hear the beloved traditional poetical metres, otherwise used for war epics, or love, employed in the cause of Islam.
The Mullah's alliterative speech spoke of what the Somalis understood: the drought, the rinderpest, the British military, who were exporting animals for the war against the Mahdi ?the holy man of the Sudan to whom God had given victory. Grievances being part of life, however, all this was still something that could be dismissed as talk. At the beginning of 1899, when the Mullah had grievance over camels raided by the Habr Yunis, his complaints to the British were still couched in correct terms.
Only when the British demanded the return of a government rifle did his tone change abruptly. On March 23rd , 1899, a reply written on the back of the government's letter, which in his rage he had painted red, put the Government in its place: "There is no God but Allah, nought have I stolen from you or any other. Seek what you want from him who robbed you. Serve him whom you have chosen to serve. This and Salaams."
Arms were no joking matter. Remingtons, which were denied to the Somalis, had been introduced by the Emperor Menelik into Ethiopia through British, French and Italian ports. Moreover, the Ethiopians had defeated the Italians at Adowa and captured masses of war material. Hitherto, the Somalis had been able to hold their own in the hot low lands against the Christian Ethiopians and the tribes that had gone over to them. When it was spear against spear, Bagheri could attack Bertiri, and Dolbahanta cavalry was a match for the Galla, but now it was a loosing game.
The Ogaden would soon be overrun; the pagan Galla Christianised not Islamised, and the Mullah villages, sacrosanct until now, would suffer as centres of muslim teaching. Fields had to be abandoned, taxes paid in precious stock, and, all the while, the bigger ports, Jibuti, BerBera, Mogadishu, were menacing and squeezing out Zeila, the Warsangeli ports, and the Majerteini and Dolbahanta ports at the tip of the Horn.
The Sultan of the Dolbahanta gave the Mullah his daughter in wedlock, and three thousand men rallied to his leadership; Arab slavers on the coast provided sixty guns. The Mullah knew that the British army was committed to South Africa in the struggle against the Boers.Even so, he first challenged the Ethiopians by withdrawing to Wal Wal. The Ethiopian Commanders, Banti and Bero, lost one thousand two hundred men in the first encounters, the Derwishes displaying reckless courage. Neutral tribes were punished by Mullah, and the Habr Gerhajis lost two thousand camels to him. Galla enlisted under him, as well as two holy men from Zeila, and in no time he was the head of all who were chafing under the new ways.
Here goes a figure
Ethiopia and the Somalilands; tribal names are shown in italic capitals
Mohamed Mullah was only one, although by far the most outstanding, of crusading holy men of the period. In the South, invading Kenya, were the men of Mohamed Zubeir, who slew Jenner, the British sub-commissioner. The Mullah could count on their co-operation, and even among pro-British tribes he could use internal disputes to further his cause. Among the Habr Yunis he first supported a pretender to sultanship, and then dropped him as the Sultan himself swung to the Derwish cause. The success of the Eithopian hierarchical system was implanting new ideas in the sultans, who now sought to establish themselves as executive authorities, backed possibly by a foreign protecting power. The Mullah, when it served his purpose, supported them; but, when he was opposed in his wishes, he furthered a tribal split or invoked Somali egalitarianism against them. Important to him, for instance, was the Sultan of Obbia.
Having expelled the Hawiya from that port, this chief had made himself independent of the Sultan of the Mijertein. First he raised the Egyptian flag, and then, in a bewildering succession of international affiliations, sought Zanzibaari, then British and then Italian protection. In reaction, the Mejerteini treated with the British, the Germans, whose ships plied the Benadir coast towards Dar-el-Salaam, and lastly with the Italians also.
Co-operation among the imperial enemies of the Derwishes was imperfect and, in the vast semi-desert expanses, their troops could seldom make contact with the Derwish forces. A new Ethiopian army of ten thousand, raised in janaury 1901,
Never encountered the Mullah. Another got as far as Faf; but it was a pro-British chief who suffered most from its attentions.
In March the Mullah was expelled from Ethiopia, and it was now up to the British to take the initiative, lest he entrench dangerously at Burao, a parmenant well-centre in their Protectorate. Colonel Swayne, at great sacrifice, repulsed the Mullah was given asylum by the Mijerteini, contrary to their undertakings. As the British victory was inconclusive, a third expedition had to be mounted in 1902; once more it was triumphant in open battle, this time at Erigavo, but fruitless in its consequences because the Mullah remained at large.
It was therefore decided to send a much larger expedition, under a higher ranking officer, and with Ethiopian and Italian co-operation. General Manning advanced from Italian Obbia, while another colum started out from Berbera. An Ethiopian force, accompanied by British officers, made a third column. Manning's force was ambushed by the Mullah and defeated at Gumburi on April 17th, 1903. The second column suffered many casualities in a fierce fight at Daratola on April 22nd, 1903. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian force conducted some hit and run fights in the Webi Shebelli Valley. In short despite its size, its international character, its careful preparation and its senior command, the campaign was a failure.
Its lessons were studied in two volumes of war history, but the next immediate step was to try again. Under General Egerton on January 9th, 1904, a fourth British expedition, with fewer Somali and more British and Indian troops, did very well at Jibali; but again the Mullah escaped.
Could yet another campaign take advantage of the Mullah's weakness and guarantee his capture? Mr Ritchie, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, thought not. Humouring the House of Commons he ingenuosly.
" confessed that for his part he did not clearly see the end of the job. (laughter) He was afraid that we should not locate this Mullah. (laughter) That if we did not locate this Mullah we should not catch him (laughter), and that if we did catch him, probably another Mullah would arise in his place." (laughter).
The larger the force, the more supplies it had to carry; and whereas small units could be ambushed , large ones lacked mobility. Riding camels, introduced from India , demanded more water than was available, once away from the large wells, and they were slower than the ponies. Encounters with such expert camel thieves as Dolbahanta cavalry were especially costly. The press spoke of the need for a railway on the Sudan model-at £3000 per mile. But where was the water to be found for the locomative? Motor traction was still too much in its infancy. And how was the Derwishes excelled in "military intelligence."
The Mullah was a veritable jack-in-the-box, who at one stage, when harassed, went right through the British lines and attacked from the rear. In the meantime, public opinion in England was wearying of imperialist adventures, and the Liberal victory at the polls in 1906 brought this feeling into the open.
Colonial war expenditure had stood at £23 million in 1899, and at £73 million in 1904. The third and fourth campaigns in Somaliland, which by any reckoning was a marginal territory, had cost £2.5 million. Many Liberals saw in the Mullah deftly exploited the current mood:
"I have no cultivated fields, no silver or gold for you to take. My country is no good to you. If the country was cultivated or contained huoses or property, it would be worth yur while to fight. The country is all thorn jungle, and that is no use to you. If you want wood and stone, you can get them in plenty. There are also many ant-heaps. The sun is very hot. All you can get from me is war, nothing else. I have met your men in battle and have killed them. We are heartily pleased at this. Our men have fallenin battle have won paradise. God fights for us. We kill and you kill."
Thus we enter a new phase. "Discredited fugitive" though the Mullah was said to be in 1904, the imperial powers decided on a pacific policy and negotiated the peace of Ilig. The Italian Consul, Pestalozza, and the Mullah on March 5th, 1905, "agreed, in case of future disputes, that there will be convened a mixed Anglo-Italian tribunal." The president would be Italian, for by the treaty the Mullah would become an Italian protected person, established as a kind of Sultan at Ilig.
Commerce with the Hinterland was to be free; and the Derwisheswere allowed to graze their stock in the Nogal. The Mullah knew, sandwiched as he now was between the Mejerteini and the Sultan of Obbia, that he could play one off against the other. In a wider sphere, he foresaw that the Italians would try to derive some imperial gain---additional wells by which to control him, When this was refused by the British, Because the cession might disaffect the British Dolbahanta, they shifted the responsibility for maintaining the peace on to Britian, For the Italian people were then even less inclined than the British to spend money on fruitless colonial wars.
A supplementary agreement between Britain and Italy became necessary, but it was not signed until after two yearsof negotiation. Its secret puspose was to push the Mullah into the Ogaden and let the Ethiopians deal with him. The Mullah, meanwhile, contented himself with recovering his strength, playing off Mijerteini and Warsangeli, by supplying different sections alternately with arms, and siding with or against a particular raiding party. He personally kept in the background, and the British did not dare to open fire. They had to stand by as the Habr Yunis killed forty-tree Habar Awal at Mandera, only a day's ride from Berbera. The Mullah, ostensibly a reformed citizen, sent a peaceful caravan of one hundred and fifty camels into Berbera; at the same time, from his home base at Wal Wal, and to the concern of the Italians, he was intriguing in the Webi shebelli valley, which he saw as a good area for future expansion, and in the Mijerteini lands that might provide another.
To the embrassement of the British authorities, a mass migrationof Mijerteini into British territory took place in December 1906. They asked for protection, which the Italians had failed to provide for them. They were not repatriated, and this annoyed both the Mullah and the Italians, who also suspected British connivance at Ethiopian incursions into the Italian areas. At the same time, Ethiopian attacks on the Bagheri were bound to arouse the Mullah, and the uneasy tension increased.
The Pestalozza treaty had contained a significant phrase of the Mullah's, "You knowmy condition," which meant that he was by no means obliged to execute arrangements that he might have concluded with infidels on account of temporary political circumstances. He was, as a slave of God, beyond good and evil, and a master of men. There were no illusions on this score;
Here goe a figure s
LIJ YASU (center), Emperor of Ethiopia from 1913 to 1917: "congenitally friendly to the Moslems." On his right, his successor RAS TAFARI, now the Emperor HAILE SELASSIE
Yet, when British ship was fired upon in january 1908, he was told by letter that the retaliatory action by Britain was not designed against him. The Mullah, in a relatively friendly reply, pushed a little harder, and demanded that the government should further prove its benevolence by interceding on his behalf among his apponents.
"You made an intrigue with the Abyssinians. You spoiled our relations with the Italians, by advising them to fight the Derwishes for the sake of their subjects. You intrigued between us and the Mijerteini. Do not now play a double game and spoil our relations with others. You should rather reconcile us with the Ogaden and make peace between us. Their property is kept by me, and you requested to arrange and give them back their property and give us back ours which they have. Also arrange to reconcile us with the Mijerteini and give back to each his rights from the other."
In short, the Mullah hoped that the British would help him by antagonizing Obbia. If Menelik could play play on international rivalries, so could he. He knew that Italy was in no fighting mood, for the most senior Italian officer in Italian Somalia was no more than a major. Misunderstandings accumulated between the British, the Italians and the Mullah. On one occasion, the British Commissioner was infuriated that the Italian Consul should have sent an abusive letter to the Mullah through him, leaving him ignorant of its content. Meanwhile, the Italian consulate as Aden was the centre of an espionage network, for which the Mullah blamed the British, since Aden was a British dependency. Understandably the British, as the senior power in the area, seemed responsible in his eyes for all that happened. He wtote:
"We do not the Italians but we only know you, and the good or evil that they do towards or against us we attribute to you. This is the case with the Abyssinians also. We have only one ear, and if you want to have peace and to become friendly we ask it from you and not from anybody else."
But the Mullah did not have it all his own way. Italy was not unsuccessful in her efforts. Eager to keep her administration inexpensive, the conculate gave preference to those officers who spoke Somali. Some of them married Somali wome. "Women are the curse of everything" said the Mullah. The Italians were often recruited in Egypt and so spoke Arabic; they were able to dispense with the Indian clerks and interpreters used at Berbera, with their unpopular Hindutani forms. Moreover, they were known for their pro-Moslem and anti-Turkish policies. From Massawa they maintained close trading contacts with the Emir of Mecca, who was moved to send out seven holy men to preach against the Mullah in the mosques of Mogadishu and elsewhere.
The head of the Mullah's order, Saleh himself, was also induced to denounce the Mullah. He declared:
"'Henceforth I wish to have nothing to do with you and your belongings. I will not write to you and I do not want you to write to me. You call yourself a Sayed. Where you get that title from I know not, nor that of Mahdi or any such thing."
This seemed a psychological moment for the British to strengthen their military position at Berbera. After some heart-searching, one thousand four hundred Nyasaland soldiers were depatched, reinforcing the seven hundred Indian troops in the country. But the mounting costs dismayed the treasury:
Year Grant (in £'s)
78,000
76,000
37,000
89,000
1908-9 190,000
These sums, spent on a fundanmentally defensive line, seemed prohibitive. Yet Berbera asked for more. Its resources were "Not large enough to take advantage of the setback received by Saleh's denunciation, nor of the gradual demoralization of the Dervish followers." The Commissioner wrote on January 4th, 1909,:
"The Mullah's organization depends for its very existence on movement and activity. It cannot stand still, it must either go forward or go finality can only be reached by the despatch of a special expeditionary force."
The magic of the term "finality" ?at any rate against this particular Mullah?received a special urgency because of Menelik's illness. After his death the Ethiopian Empire might dissolve, and the Mullah get possession of the entire Ogaden and Harar. But when all was considered, the British Gogovernmenthied away from an offesive, nor did the Opposition cry out when the Supply Vote in 1909 was cut to £52,000.
Actually, the defensive position cost almost double the alloted sum, and in 1911, to the horror of the Berbera had said the defensive was useless. The government agreed by ordering a retirement to the cost! The Berbera authorities now wrote home that "anarchy is steadily spreading over the country and becoming permanent "; they met with a glassy response. The friendly tribes would have to reply upon themselves, and the traders come to secret understandings with the Mullah. He even made a surprise attack to Berbera itself, Which was promptly ascribed to the Berbera authroties as a Machiavellian move to solicit Treasury support. In 1913 a British reconnoitring party, acting beyond its instructions, was attacked and its commander, Sir Richard Corfield, killed. It was August, a poor month for news, and the headlines in the press proclaimed the "Horrible disaster to Our Troops in Somaliland." But no expedition was sent to avenge them. By 1914 any renewed offensive action was out of the question.
As the next year's Arab dhows from Basra arrived on the Somali coast, they unloaded with traditional freight the news of British reverses in Mesopotamia. Turkey had occupied Lahej outside Aden, adnd the Turkish commander immediately recognised the Mullah as " Emir of the Somalis." Sudanese fugitives joined the Mullah. The German Minister in Addis Ababa, the Austrian Consul-General, and the Turkish Consul-General in harar, now gained an enormous prize.
The Ethiopian Emperor Lij Yasu, successor to Menelik, was pro-German, pro-Turkish and in love with a moslem girl. Italy had joined the British said in the Great War on the understanding that she would be rewarded with territorial gains in Africa. To Lij Yasu, this meant the resumption, with Anglo-French assistance, of the Italian ambition to link their Somali and Eritrean posssessions-that is, the dismemberment of his Ethiopian Empire. He naturally lent his ear to the Germans and the Turks. As a son of Ras Mikael of the Wollo Galla, the Emperor was "congenitally friendly to the Moslems," for his father had been converted to Christianity only by force.
Now Lij Yasu moved his headquarters from Addis to Dire Dawa and Harar, into a mainly moslem milieu. He unfurled a new flag, with a Star and Cresent and the device "there is no God but Allah." He declared himself a descendant of the House of the Prophet, not of Solomon. He negotiated with the Mullah, the Mullah with him, and both with the Danakil sultans. Fifty thousand rifles were promised them by the Germans.
In this story of sudden changes, this was the most unexpected turn of fortunes. Admittedly, the Mullah could remind his following that the first Salehiya Khalif in the Horn was a karanle, depedent on the Ethiopians. Always ready with a convenient genealogy, the Mullah now suggested and proposed a marriage of his daughter to Lij Yasu. The Mullah often used in correspondence "al Hashimi" as an affix to his name, referring to the legend that traced the Somalis to the Prophet's cousin. He now featured as "the Governor-General of all the Somalis " for the moment , at least, under under Ethiopian sovereignty. The Mullah and the Ethiopians operated together in Arussi country and again in Beleth Uen, where pro-Italian tribes were raided. The two men were to meet in the Jigjiga area in 1916.
With the help of Turkish and Yemenite artistans, the Mullah had built a formidable fortress at Taleh and was glad to have a German sent to make ammunition for him.
Emil Kersch was accordingly despatched from Harar to the Mullah. Kersch had been a merchant in the French Somali port of Jibuti when the 1914 war broke out , and escaped internment by going to Harar. He little foresaw that he would be held at Taleh as a prisoner, despite the imperial guarantee for his safety, and tortured when he proved unable, for want of the necessary raw materials, to compound more gunpowder. The Mullah had wanted to keep him as a hostage until peace came, but the German escaped with his Swahili servants?only to die on the road through the waterless Somali country. In extenuation, the Mullah said that Lij Yasu had secretly told him to keep Kersch in custody. His actions showed that he felt less secure than was commonly thought.
Unity among Somalis was further removed than it had ever been. "Have I not put prayer mat on this flood to join together the Moslems who were not brothers?", the Mullah had once demanded in a poem; and , to detribalize them, he gave the Habr Gidir a military name, calling them "the scratchers" or pioneers. Likewise, the Mikahil became "the shooters." Openly the Mullah now played the part of dynastic head of the Ogaden. A peace mission to him was taken to task for containing men of "slave origin." Although Saleh had disowned hismovement, the Mullah's men still went into battle with the mournful song "Mohamed Saleh"; and, although the Derwishes' system was a denial of tribalism, they had, in effect, become a new tribe with a territorial seat. Taleh was its capital. There were other contradictions.
The Mullah had modelled himself upon the Mahdi, but he was now an ally of Turky. He was a sworn enemy of all Christian foreigners; yet he co-operated with Ethiopians, Germans and Austrians , gradually broadening in his diplomacy and abandoning his guerilla tactics. As a personality, he showed the change both physically and in his habits; his homely and often-repeated: " I am but the humblest son of Allah teaching the word," were not uttered with a sultanic grandeur of manner. He began to condone, with quotations from the Koran, first-cousin marriages, and other practices alien in Somali eyes.
Nevertheless, the trade of the country languished, and the Somali people could not take advantage of the country languished, and the Somali people could not take advantage of the favourable opportunities created by the Great War.
Figure goes here
The mountainous regions of the country provide a remarkable contrast to the flat and sweltering lowland areas: Mait Pass, Erigavo District
It only required a change in the international scene for the Mullah's regime to be displaced. In 1917, he lost his most valuable international support, when Ethiopian Emperor's schemes collapsed and he became a fugitive in the Danakil country. The Christian clergy, above all Archbishop Mathios and the chiefs in Addis, rose against Lij Yasu, putting in his place Menelik's daughter, Zauditu, and, as her chief adviser in all matters of international relations, Ras Tafari, the present Emperor Haile Selassie, who had begun his career in the Ogaden Fighting the Mullah. Tafari's first act was to cashier Dejazmatch Balshia, the commander of Harar, who had, in fact, been playing safe in his relations with the Somalis. Tafari carried off all animals he could lay hands on and forced the Shebelli to affiliate with pro-Ethiopian tribes.
Some preferred to abandon the Ogaden. Among them were the Rer Isa, who left for Italian Somalia, making common cause with tribes hostile both to Ethiopia and to the Mullah, who was now suddenly isolated. British fortunes had meanwhile taken a decisive turn and, after the victory over Germany and Turkey in 1918, the Mullah's days were numbered. The war had taught the possibilities of a new Europian weapon: the use of aeroplane, which could bomb towns and encampments. At last, the necessary mobility was in the hands of the Europeans. The Colonial Office persuaded Lloyd George to send the Ark Royal to Somaliland with a load of planes on deck. The main air-raid on Taleh took place on February 4th,1920. The heavy walls of Taleh withstood the bombardment; but the novelty of the attack sent its defenders fleeing into the open country. A new era in the Middle East had opened, which was to last into our own day. Yet it was not to be inaugurated without difficulty; for the Mullah escaped once more across the Ethiopian border.
Already a sick man, the Mullah was unused to the colder climate of the upland plateau where he took shelter; yet he still carried on from his perilous hide-out. His was incontact with his ally in misfortune, Lis Yasu; but he did not hesitate to send a friendly message to Ras Tafari and to the Empress Zauditu-an act of sheer bravado, for his messenger was put in chains. He scoured his clansmen for reinforcements and, in a remarkable offensive in the Ogaden, seized sixty thousand head of cattle. The King's African Rifles lost twenty-five askaris, who deserted with a machine-gun to him. A new military promenade seemed necessary. The old dilemma was once again with the British. But, fortunately for them, the Mullah died on November 23rd , 1920.
The death of sayed Mohamed Abdullah Hassan al Mahdi was caused, not by one of his many enemies' grape shot, spear or bomb, but by influenza. The long, struggling war came to an end, scarcely noticed by the British public. No great economic or educational schemes were launched to mark the coming of a new constructive period for Somaliland. Instead, there was a sense of futility. "We live in stirring times, "wrote Punch, when the news of the Mullah's end came back. "Willesden has won the London draughts championship and the Mad Mullah of Somaliland has been beaten again."
Was the mighty be-turbaned figure, with his indomitable thirst for authority, once more to elude each and all from his grave? Governor Archer cultivated his son and intended him for Gordon College, where he would learn Arabic and English; but he left protectorate for Kenya instead of the Sudan. Another son is now in Ethiopia as a Senator. A third is on the frontier. They are of of count politically, unlike the Mahdi family in the Sudan, or the Senussi who is king of Libya. Somalis may credit the Mullah's amazing survival after so many attacks to miraculous powers, they may recite his poetry, name streets and squares after him; but ever seeking for new forms, they prefer new types of leaders.
They come, not from the backward interior, but the advanced, internationally minded port towns. This does not mean that the new Somali politicians will be any less formidable, or restlessly implacable than the Mullah. On the contrary, hemmed in as they feel themselves to be, and alarmed at the prospect of Ethiopia's receiving help both from America and the Soviet Union, they are likely to engage in global diplomacy, rouse opinion at the United Nations, where Somalis are already well known, in Peking where fugitive former premier of Jibuti now lives, and send to Egypt for teachers and instruction.
For one lesson they want to teach the world: African peoples are far less isolated and prochial than the world thinks. They will not be taken for granted. Somalis are among others in their eager desire to play a part in twentieth-century world-history?intensely proud that it was one of their own people who gave the world a forcetaste of the fierce and wily spirit that will henceforth bestride the Horn of Africa. |
