Hussein Adam how an ordinary boy became an extraordinary man

[XidigtaJSL]

Special Event in Honor of
Dr. Hussein Adam

By Professor Said S. Samatar
Friday August 17, 2007


Good evening, colleagues and comrades.
We gather here tonight to celebrate a legendary life, to renew old friendships, and to make new ones.

The title of my remarks goes something like this:
HUSSEIN ADAM: How an ordinary Boy became an extraordinary man
But first, a disclaimer on behalf of Hussein Adam. He did not want this trouble. He was dragged into it, kicking and screaming. He did agree that it is time that Somalis learned to honor their own, but he wanted the honoring to go to someone else. So, he rattled out a string of names—what about so and so?

No, I ain’t interested, I replied.
What about this, that or the other?
No, I ain’t interested.


Tribute to Dr. Hussein Adam - Coutessy of Bartamaha.com
After six months of speechifying in which I talked at him, around, over him, under him, the man began to fear I might talk the hind legs off him. So reluctantly, he finally relented, and I rejoiced!

I’d like to start, if I may, with a Somali cautionary tale:

Waxaa la yiri: Shimbiri maalin bay dabqaaday, maalintiina Gurigii hooyadeed bay gubtay

Translation: Once upon a time a bird tried to do something good for her mother by offering to transport the fire for the family, and she ended up burning down her mother’s house.

This is the first time, ever, that I’ve tried to do something good. And I hope I don’t end up burning down your house, Hussein!

To go back to the beginnings: In the lush green valley on the foothills of Mount Mero, 50 miles away from Hemmingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” in the Tanzanian city of Arusha, in April 1943, a baby boy was born of a Somali father from Hargeisa and a mother with a mixed pedigree of a Masai woman and an Indian Muslim. Exotic, isn’t it? The boy was a Madi, Somali for “an-only child,” and yet he was destined to make up for that “deprivation” by siring 7 children—children who, now as grownups, are in their turn busy siring. This means that Hussein will have increased the Somali population by no mean percentage. Talk about psychology!

According to my passport—nobody knows for sure the year of my birth because I was born among the camels and camels do not keep records--according to the arbitrary date on my passport, I too, was born in 1943. Obviously, genius has an excellent sense of timing. Thus, 1943 heralded the birth of two stars.

Being raised in a strange land necessarily involves growing-hazards.Dr. Adam reminisces about one particularly traumatic experience when he was a school boy. I quote it verbatim from the notes he provided me with:

“One of the memorable moments of my life took place when I was in the 4th grade. During the usual school parade, the African headmaster asked four of us Somali students to step up to the front of the parade. He then proceeded to humiliate us in front of the whole school. He chided us with the following words that have been ingrained in my memory: “Look carefully at these 4 beggars. They are begging us to stay in our paradise, green land of (the then) Tanganyika. This is because they have no land to go to. A friend who fought in the war [WWII] visited Somali areas and confirmed to me that there is nothing but desert sand, sand and sand; and a very hot sun. They should thank us for saving them from the sandy hot desert.”

Being mocked in front of an unruly mob of school boys is devastating enough; but when the mocker is the supreme authority Figure who is looked up to as to a god, the impact on a young sensitive child can be a shattering of a kind that leaves a permanent wound.

But the boy was gifted with an inner strength, in truth a steely hardihood that was to stand him in good stead throughout his life. Instead of being crushed emotionally, he characteristically, responded with an in-your-face gesture of defiance. He recollects:

“It was at that public humiliation moment that I resolved to love sand and deserts. I resolved that at the end of my studies, however long it takes, I would go straight to help Somalia even though I did not even speak Somali, whereas my Swahili was more than
excellent. The humiliation made me love everything Somali: the beaches and the sand, the anthills, cities like Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Burao, Beled Wein, Bosaso and Garowe, and [also] love the food, and above all, really love Somali women!!!” Amen, brother, I second that sentiment!

For the gift of Hussein, we have that Bantu headmaster to thank. Here a vignette may be worth telling: during the height of the Spanish Inquisition, the Muslims and Jews of Spain were confronted with three stark choices: convert to Christianity, be exiled, or worse still, be put to death. The Muslims retreated to their sanctuaries in North Africa. But Jews had nowhere to go. Then in an episode that both testifies to the liberal tolerance of the classical age of Islam and the debt Jews owe to Islam, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481-1512) invited the hapless Jews to settle in his dominions in complete religious freedom, with the rider to the Spanish king: what kind of sovereign is it that “impoverishes” his kingdom, while “enriching mine” by dispatching the best of his citizens “to me?” By analogy, what kind of Headmaster is it that impoverishes Tanzania, while enriching Somalia by sending Hussein to the latter?

At his secondary school: “there was a lot of bullying. Fortunately I was protected by Ismail Okash, Head Prefect, a fellow Somali from the Ogaden.” Despite the bullying and general brutalities—brutalities that included being bounced out of bed at 5:00am in order to till the land for the school elite--he graduated at the top of his class, and then sat for the Cambridge-administered exams wherein he scored six distinctions and one credit.
On account of that impressive scholastic achievement, a letter came one day from out of the blue, containing an offer of a scholarship to Princeton—Ivy League Princeton, Woodrow Wilson Princeton.

At Princeton the boy from Arusha came to rub shoulders with, among others, the eminent General Muhammad Abshir Haamaan, founder and commander of the Somali police force, which was judged at that time as one of the best in Africa.

The rest is history, BA from Princeton, MA from Makerere - Makerere then was referred to as the Oxford of East Africa. Another MA from Harvard, then the icing on the cake: a PhD. Dissertation title: “The Social and Political Thought of Frantz Fanon.” You remember Fanon? The titan in African thought? But then it takes a titan to tackle a titan! With the Harvard PhD, Hussein Adam must surely have scored a stunning first—the first Somali to earn a doctorate from that super-prestigious institution.

Dr. Adam’s professional career is too vast to recount. A few highlights: in addition to his formal degrees, he received diplomas or attended seminars at the following: Institute of Social Studies, at The Hague, Holland, American University, Cairo, University of Paris, (I did not know, Hussein that you got mixed up with the French, too, and are French-speaking!)

By turns he taught at the following: Makerere University College, Somali National University, where he helped and educated a generation of Somalis, Brandeis University, and last but certainly not least, the College of the Holy Cross where he serves as a distinguished member of that University’s department of political science.

Impressive scholarly output, too: author, co-author or editor of , by my count, 9 books, the latest just hot off the Red Sea Press entitled FROM TYRANNY TO ANARCHY: The Somali Experience. If it is on display at the Red Sea Press book stalls on campus, don’t leave home without it. Scores of essays in learned journals; book chapters galore. Awesome. Dr. Adam’s academic honors and awards are equally too numerous to recount. I will not even bother to go there, nor will I wander into his extra-scholastic stints, like his tenure with the U.N. as a consultant and his role in the formation of IGAD—Inter-governmental Authority on Development.

Hussein officially migrated to his beloved Somalia in 1974, where he began a new life in new country. As it turned out, beloved Somalia was not always kind to him. During the long reign of Muhammad Siad Barre, he was repeatedly passed over for government positions worthy of his stature. Repeatedly, year after year, illiterates were appointed to choice ministerial posts on account of their ethnic connections, while the Harvard don looked on. If that jackal that went by the name of Siad Barre had a drop of patriotism in his blood, he’d have appointed Hussein, at least, ambassador plenipotentiary to the three East African countries of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. With his native Swahili, exceptional learning and urbane manners, diplomatically he’d have run circles around the bloody Abyssinians, and Somalia might have been spared the fate that was to befall her.

If there ever was a man with grounds for grievance and bitterness, it is Hussein. But he took it all in stride with grace, and without bitterness or grudges. And that, ladies and gentlemen, bespeaks character, it is the distinguishing mark of noble substance. But in a sense this injustice might have been a blessing in disguise. If he had gotten embroiled in the world of politics, he would have been lost to that of Somali education, where scores of Somali students have learned from his giving nature. He gave much and received little in return.

By the way, lest some of you think that I am given to singing panegyrics, may I remind you that Hussein and I have had a few guerrilla skirmishings, which on occasion flared up into a veritable sniping. For example, he once called me an opportunist. I won’t tell you what I called him to return the favor!

The ancient Greeks used to take it as a verity that pain and suffering lead to redemptive wisdom. If so, maybe what followed in Hussein’s life would have a meaning. He was going from success to success, living the dream life with his family, when abruptly his world came crushing down around his ears. In 2002, disaster struck. His beloved wife, Faadumo, suddenly succumbed to a coma. Instead of ditching her in a morbid hospital bed, as surely many would do, he took her home where he has been ministering to her needs to the present. And this, in spite of a full schedule of teaching, researching and writing. After all, the man is the bread winner of the family. Again, that bespeaks character, substance, grace. In other words, Hussein was plunged into the fiery furnace of tragedy a mere man, and emerged a hero.

As the English bard reminds us—it turns out that Shakespeare was a pot head; when they recently examined his pipe, it wreaked of reefer scent—as the English bard reminds us “Some (men) are born great, some acquire greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Undoubtedly, by his gallant response to the calamity that befell his family, Hussein has acquired greatness. And don’t be fooled by his frail seeming demeanor. The man is made of steel, with an abundance of inner fortitude and with a wealth of prodigious energies.

To sum up: In Hussein, we have a man, a father, an educator, a scholar of unparalleled versatility, and a patriot—in short a national treasure. Hussein, I salute you. Please rise to receive a token, a certificate of appreciation that I offer in the name of the SSIA. It reads:

SPECIAL EVENT IN HONOR OF
HUSSEIN ADAM
FRIDAY AUGUST 17, 2007

The Somali Studies International Association (SSIA) is pleased to offer you this token of appreciation in grateful recognition of your patriotic contribution to Somali national life and in respectful observance of your role as the FOUNDING FATHER of the SSIA

_____________

[XidigtaJSL]

Faisal Roble
Friday August 27, 2007


On the evening of Friday, August 17, 2007, under heavy and thunderous skies of Columbus city in Ohio, one of Somalia’s eminent scholars, Dr. Hussein M. Adam, was honored by the Somali Studies International Association (SSIA) for his sustained contributions to Somali Studies.

Professor Said S. Samatar of Rutgers University, who skillfully served as the MC, organized a by-invitation-only dinner; it was to be an exclusive banquet, or so we thought, until a horde of uninvited individuals crashed in, prompting Professor Samatar to snap at them, in order to shame and eventually steer them into paying up, but to no avail. Ala Somali culture, they quickly transformed themselves into hard-to-ignore guests, just like the nomad who for the first time came to a city and, when ignored by its pedestrians, retorted “ Magaaloy waligaaba i dhaaf dhaaf, haddee aduun baa marti laguu yahay.”

In its thirty years of existence, founded in 1978, the Association did not give such an honor until now to anyone of its elders or founding members. As a founding president and the inventor of the very name of the association, Said‘s eloquently delivered an engaging tribute, with which he entertained us during the course of a three-meal delicious dinner, that introduced Hussein the author, the activist and the extraordinaire intellectual to a captive audience.

In honoring Hussein, or, as he is nick-named, “Hussein Tanzani”, Professor Samater hit a home-run for his effort to familiarize us with Hussein the prodigious child, the man, and the soon-to-be senior citizen. In between is a long narrative of his survival, the premier learning institutions he has attended, a range of contributions to a nation-building campaign. But above all, we came to know the stick-to-it and loving husband that he is to his ailing wife, Fadumo Abulsamad.

With his unparalleled command, and, may I say, agility, to tap dance around and massage the written word, thence mincing at each line that he artfully weaved into a tasty and pertinent text, the master of ceremony of the night took us to the foothills of Kilimanjaro and the environment that shaped Hussein’s childhood, a child longing for returning to his forefathers landscape in exchange for East Africa’s alienating society. Born to and raised in a mosaic world of a Somali father, a Masia and Indian mother, Hussein, we came to know, had been an outsider and has always defied categorization for most of his 63 years; he longed for a social and political space of Somali dominance, to mainly embrace its values and in turn be embraced.

I first met Dr. Hussein in 1978 when I was a junior at Lafoole College, Somali National University, where Dr. Hussein’s footprints are hard to erase. My early impressions about his intellectual browse and his leftist orientation were cemented at the wake of the 1979 Annual International Franz Fanon Conference, held in Mogadishu, Somalia. The “who is who” of Pan-Africanism (Amiru Baraka, Granga, founder of the “Kwanza” tradition, Claudia Mitchell-Kernnon, Vice chancellor of UCLA, who was instrumental in my admission to that institution in 1982, thanks to her unbridled love for Somalis after that conference, Karim Abdul-Jabbar, yes, that Abdulkarim-Jabar! et al) descended into the Mogadishu of 1979, a city of peace and prosperity.

It is fitting here to add that Dr. Hussein wrote his dissertation for his Harvard Ph.D. (in Political Science) on “The Social and Political Thoughts of Frantz Fanon” - a manuscript that I devoured on (in 1978) at the then bustling but modestly stocked Lafoole library. As a young Marxist, or so I thought of myself, who fled Ethiopia’s oppressive conditions, Hussein’s dissertation, a comprehensive review of Marxism in the tradition of Fanon, left me with lasting impressions. (Hussein Bulhan’s follow up, “Fanon and the psychology of the Oppressed” is a fitting companion to this now disappearing Somalia’s intelligentsia tradition).

Moreover, Hussein’s earlier pan-Somali writings, partly a product of his intellectual activism and, as Samatar reported in his tribute, a promise he dearly protected in his prophetic mission to do something good for his ancestral land, Somalia, is captured by this endearing and theoretically sweeping quote from one of his treatise: “Clan and lineage antagonisms do not preclude a will to unite or a feeling of common destiny, especially with regard to the common foe. Somali (tribal) genealogies serve both to distinguish clan-families and clans and, at the same time, to remind them all of common ancestry.”

Well, to those who are sharpening their pencils to hastily doodle their first lines of the obituary for the demise of Somalis, Hussein’s concept of the organic nature of the Somali society may serve them as a cautionary note to hold on their horses! At least for now!
The evening also featured another [Somalia’s] eminent and patriotic scholar, Dr. Ahmed Ismail Samatar of Macalester College, MN, who humbly reminded the audience the undyingly valuable advice that only an older brother, in this case Dr. Hussein, gave to his upcoming [younger] brotherly scholar(s) - that is the Samatar brothers. From the intimate accounts by Professor Charles Gashekter, to Bereket Habte Sellasie's emotional words, to Lee Cassanelli’s at times fanny, friendlier, and uplifting words, to John Johnson’s sobbing and heavily southern accented remarks, to the words of gratitude by Endow and a women whose name eluded me who bore witness to Hussein’s helping hand which he kindly gave many a times to admission-weary prospective young Somali graduates, all spoke to the honoree’s energetic commitment to scholarship. But a theme that none left out is the extraordinary husband and father of seven beautiful children that he is.

Some thirty (30) years ago, this association hosted its first and most memorable conference in Mogadishu with a smashing success – a subject I will revisit next week as part of my own personal experiences in Columbus. Thirty years later, when the very existence of the Somali nation is confronted with localism and an unfettered dissipation of the very sense of oneness that Dr. Hussein expressed numerous times, SSIA’s timely choice to honor him and Professor Said’s gigantic tribute to familiarize us with him in the city of Columbus, in the state of Ohio, home to a bustling thirty-thousand strong Somali community is a prospect to revel on.

I am honored to be part of this special and overdue tribute which the association extended to Dr. Hussein.

Faisal Roble
WardheerNews
E-Mail:Fabroble@aol.com
_____________

[DawladSade]

[quote="XidigtaJSL"] familiarize us with him in the city of Columbus, in the state of Ohio, home to a bustling thirty-thousand strong Somali community is a prospect to revel on.
[/quote]

Of which 95% are beesha Sade. get outta here drunk qaldaans

[XidigtaJSL]

Ignorat Siyadist Morexaars, claim your caydh and be happy your not starving in Gedo

[Enemy_Of_Mad_Mullah]

[quote="DawladSade"][quote="XidigtaJSL"] familiarize us with him in the city of Columbus, in the state of Ohio, home to a bustling thirty-thousand strong Somali community is a prospect to revel on.
[/quote]

Of which 95% are beesha Sade. get outta here drunk qaldaans[/quote]


Wallahi oo billahi oo tollahi, mar mar waan kula yaaba!

[DawladSade]

Can you say we are drunks falling down on the streets like you qaldaans

[XidigtaJSL]

Published Aug 28, 2007 - 01:41 AM by hargeysa

Waxaa shirweynahan loo yaqaan Somali Studies International Congress uu ahaa kii 10aad, iyadoo isla markaa loo dabaaldegayey sannadguuradisii 30aad.

Shirweynahan waxaa uu ka dhacay Magaalada Columbus, Ohio iyadoo ayna martigelisay Jaamacadda weyn ee Ohio State University. Waxaa shirkan sidoo kale hore u martigelisay Hargeisa University.

Waxaa shirweynhan lagu soo qaaday cilmibaadhisyo kala duwan oo inta badan khuseeyey Somalia iyo dhibaatooyinka xaadirka ah ee haysta. Waxaa lagu casumay oo ka soo qaybgashay gabadha u qaabilsan U.S geesska Africa oo iyadu halkaa ka sheegtay mowqifka mareykanku ka taaganyey Dawladda ku meelgaadhka ee Somalia oo ah inay waqtigan xaadirka ay tahay inay taageeraan cidii wax wadda, waxay ka loo sheegtay inay tahay mid transition ah oo aan xidid weyn ku lahaan doonin mustaqbalka siyaasadda Somalia.

Waxaa shirkan quwad weyn oo baaxad leh ku lahaa Dr. Hussein M.Adam (Tanzani) oo ah ninka shirkan aasaasay muddo 30 sannoadood laga joogo. Waxaa Dr. Adam si gaar ah oo xushmadi ku ladhantay loogu sameeyey Casho Sharaf ay ka soo qaybgaleen Professors, Siyaasiyiin, publishers, iyo dadweyn aad u fara badan oo shakhsi shakhsi loogu soo casumay Cashadaa. Waxaa aad goobtaa loogu dheeraaday taariikhdii Dr. Hussein Adam. Aydoo halkaa lagu xusay dhalashadiisii magaalada Arusha, iyo horumarkiisi tacliimeed ee taxanaa ilaa uu noqday Somaligii ugu horreeyey ee ka qalinjabiya isagoo da’diisu ka yartay 30 jir jaamacadaha qiimaha weyn leh IV league loo yaqaan sida Harvard University.

Waxaa goobtaa isaguna ku soo bandhigay buugga cusub ee uu qoray Dr. Hussein Adam nin ka madaxa u ah Red Sea Press. Buuggan oo magaciisa la yidhaa “From Tyranny to Anarchy- The Somali Experience” www.africaworldpressbooks.com soona baxay August 2007 waa buuggi sagaaalaad ee uu qoro Dr. Hussein. Waxaa kaloo aqoonyahankani si isdaba jog ah u soo saara qoraallo siyaasadee kuwaas oo lagu daabaco qoraallada iyo
wergaysyada waaweeyn ee dunida. Waxaa kaloo uu aqoonyahankan u dhashay Somaliland yahay ninka ka Chairman ka American Peace Institite qaybta Somalida, isla markaana dejiyey qaabka uu u dhisanyey ururka IGAD ee dawladaha Horn of Africa ku bahoobeen.


Haddaba gunaanadkii shirweynaha ayuu Dr. Hussein ku soo hadalqaaday shirka sababaha ay Somalia ay nabad uga aflixiweyday. Wuxuu si weyn uga hadlay inay meesha ka maqantay iska indhotirka Waddanka Somaliland iyo hormarka nabadeed ee ay gaadhay. Tan iyo intii shirku socday marnaba lama sheegin Somaliland ayuu yidhi Dr. Hussein isagoo ku daraya kalmadahan ‘kani waa gabagabadii shirka waqtigan aan halkan taaganay, waxaa dhexdeenna jooga oo aynu marwalba iska indhotiraynaa Maroodi weyn “The elephant in the room” kaas oo marna ina dhexjooga marna hareeraheena jooga oo kolba meel kaga jira qolkan aynu fadhinno. Hadda maroodigu maaha xayawaan ama wax qofka indhahiisu qaban Karin, ee waa wax laxaadka buuxa ee intaa le’eg ilaah siiyey. Haddaba, maxaynu u arki weynay oo aynu iska indhotiraynaa? Maroodigu waa Somaliland oo baaxadda intaa leeg leh, taas oo ayku gaadhay horumarka dhanwalba leh ee aynu aragno. Markaa lama dafirri karo ee waa inay Somalia ku dayataa oo ay u qirtaa si ay meeshay mareen u marto.” Markuu intaa yidhi ayaa dadkii uwada sacab tumeem.
Waxaa uu aqoonyahanku ku caddeeyey halkaa Somaliland inay xortay oo aan ku dayashadeeda laga maarmayn, dadka aqoonyahannada sida kuwa shirka ka qaybgalyana ay xaq ku tahay inay siiyaan ahmiyad dheeraad ah Somaliland iyo horumarkeeda.

Issa Awaleh
USA.
======
Dr. Hussein Adam, A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1989, Adam received his B.A. from Princeton University, M.A. from Makerere University College, Uganda, and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His teaching and research interests include comparative politics, social and political thought and international development. His recent published work includes “Horn of Africa” in the book State of the Race, (Diaspora Press) and “Somalia: International versus Local Attempts at Peacebuilding,” in Durable Peace: Challenges for Peacebuilding in Africa (University of Toronto Press). He also served as co-editor of War Destroys, Peace Nurtures: Reconciliation and Development in Somalia (Africa World Press) and has a forthcoming book o­n Somali politics due in August 2007, From Tyranny to Anarchy: The Somali Experience (Red Sea Press).

[DawladSade]

Shiiq Enemy, why?

[Sadaam_Mariixmaan]

[quote="DawladSade"]Can you say we are drunks falling down on the streets like you qaldaans [/quote]


Murda