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Its all beautiful beaches 'till you get to Baraawe.
Marka never saw shellings or major signs of civil war. I was very amazed to see it intact when I went back in '06. Majority of the natives had long left, leaving behind their homes and businesses. Market was still in its usual location, most of the old Sufi masjids were closed, only a few were open, the old orphanage was still open, the fish market near xeebta aba nuur was still open for business. The road in to Marka was horrible though and the sand dunes were out of control, almost blocking one side of the main road.
Definitely a great place to retire to, provided the current inhabitants are returned to central Somalia and the original natives are allowed to return.
Berke,
I believe that area is near Mundul and is scarcely inhabited.
HalfDzed, from the pictures I saw, most people looked like natives. If you look at Central Somalia or Xamar everyone is black and miserable but the people in Marka looked glowing and happy which tells me there wasn't a huge demographic shift.
Marka was always different from Xamar. And when I say natives, I'm talking about cad-cadka, but you're right. There have always been others in Marka who were not cad-cads like the biyamaal who lay claim to the city and live in surrounding towns. Biyamaal actually took over leadership as soon as the government was toppled. From what I was told, they even refused USC to linger around. But there was also a major influx of people from central Somalia during this period and much later. Indhacade also brought his people to the city and changed the order of things. So in that sense, the city is no longer what I remember it to be in my childhood.
Now, Baraawe on the other hand saw a much larger relocation. Any Barawaani who was able to leave, left the city.
Last time I saw Baraawe was in '89 and Marka was '90, then in '06.
I saw a lot of cad-cad people in the photo album, it was recent too, like 2006. I'm sure most left but Marka looked like it had a very large population of cad-cad compared to other places especially Xamar.
When I was little, there was 1 abgaal family in the whole city and the dad's nickname was Hassan abgaaloow, he owned a corner store there.
We had male servants who could easily make 5-star cuisine. The number of dishes they could make from fish alone was incredible. Walahi you could eat fish 3x a day, everyday and never tire of it. The city was very tolerant and the people were awesome. Everyone knew each other, on every Friday evening, people would gather in the town square and play dominos, sipping on coffee. It was a very old city. And still had Swahili remnants. The architecture alone was ingenious. Houses were made from coral rocks and were cool. Marka is at least 5-8 degrees warmer than Xamar, but that was compensated with the open ventilations in the houses.
Someday when everything is restored, you should buy a vacation home there.