A Touching Glimpse of History
and the Reunion of a Somali Royalty
Introduction
Few people know that the British exiled the most illustrious
and influential Sultan of the former British Protectorate of
Somaliland, Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shireh, in 1920, soon after
the defeat of Sayid Mohamed Abdullah Hassan.
Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shireh was exiled to the Seychelles –
the islands to which many prominent anti-colonial leaders used
to be exiled. Although the Sultan fought against the Sayid,
the British thought that he would be their next source of trouble
because he was vehemently and actively opposed to British rule
of Somaliland.
Moreover, having just emerged from debilitating wars, not only
with the Sayid but also with some European powers (WWI), the
British viewed with awe the prospect of another twenty years
of costly and protracted conflict against yet another local
potentate.
The Sultan – it is worth mentioning – was the brother
in law of the Sayid but the two could not see eye to eye on
many political, religious and social issues, and the Sultan
fiercely defended the independence of his Sultanate against
the incursions of the Dervish Movement.
In a similar vein, he never allowed the British Administration
to establish itself in his Sultanate and even after his return
from exile, the Administration never intefered in the internal
affairs of his Sultanate. As a matter of fact, there is ample
documentary evidence to show that the British Administration
was so careful to avoid his alienation that it sought out his
support for any major policy changes before they were introduced.
To that end, the Sultan continued to play a prominent role in
the affairs of the country until his death a few months after
independence.
To begin a long term and cruel exile, the Sultan of British
Somaliland protectorate, Sultan Mohamoud Ali Shireh arrived
in Seychelles from Bombay (India) on May 3 rd, 1920 on board
HMS Odin.
At the time when the Sultan began to serve his exile in Seychelles,
two African Kings, King Prempeh of Ashanti (Ghana) and king
Kabarego of Bunyoro (Uganda), and a former Prime Minister of
Egypt, Sa'ad Zaghlul Pasha, as well as other luminaries of leaders
in the wars of African resistance to the British colonialism
were also there as exilees.
It is related that the Sa'ad Zaghlul Pasha told the Sultan “your
father had spoiled your chances by not educating you; otherwise
you would have been a king.” Of course, this was true
because his lack of education severely circumscribed the development
of his area into a properly organized and administered Sultanate
over which his suzerainty would be recognized.
But, mind you, there were nonetheless, the rudiments of organized
administration which comprised of a protocol and decorum (which
included a certain manner of addressing the Sultan), a council
of elders which he summoned from time to time and presided over;
guards equipped with rifles, a large cavalry under his overall
command, but also with their subsidiary commanders; extensive
animal wealth which included more than a hundred, if not more,
thoroughbred Arabian horses which both British teams from England
and the Italians used to buy from him.
The Sultan also maintained a fortress, which is now, dilapidated
but still remains a historical landmark and a huge two-story
building (which was his palace) in Las Qoray. The Sultan also
maintained files, which contained correspondence, not only with
the British but also with the Sultans of South Arabia.
The Sultan, apart from his strong and charismatic personality,
was after all, the product of a six-hundred-year-old tradition,
which saw a long succession of Sultans of which he was the twenty-fourth.
However, the Seychelles saga in the Sultan's journey in life
gives us a very interesting human story today, which, because
it resembles a fairy tale, shows a rare instance in which real
life plagiarizes fiction. During the long years of exile, the
Sultan left behind in Seychelles a son and a daughter.
No one heard about them and not many relatives of the Sultan
knew about them. As always true with well kept secrets, the
days that the Sultan lived in the Seychelles and his family
life remained an enigma to all the subsequent decedents of the
Sultan in Somalia. Those who knew about these secretes did not
and could not know what became of them.
From Fiction to Fact – Stumbling across a lost blood
ties
Now, here is what might look like a fairy tale
but happens to be a true family tale. On a particularly auspicious
day in far away Tokyo, Japan, a Djiboutian diplomat (the late
Fuad Awaleh) saw, while walking along a main street, a slender
Somali-looking girl, who was going the other way.
He turned around and dogged her until she stopped at the crossroads
and he confidently greeted her in Somali, which she could
not understand. Mr. Awaleh told that he had thought she was
a Somali woman. On hearing that her face lightened up and
she told him that she was from Seychelles but that her paternal
grandfather was the “Sultan of Somaliland” (as
he was then known in those Islands) that his name was Sultan
Ina Ali Shire ,” as she put it.
He told her that he knows a Somali family in Tokyo and he
would ask them if they knew about him but that he would need
to know first what clan the Sultan came from. The young lady,
Ms. Amia Jovanovic-Desir who was a senior officer in the Ministry
of Tourism and Transport in Seychelles, called her office
and asked them to look in to the files and fax her the name
of her grandfather's clan. That was done immediately, and
she told Mr. Awaleh of Djibouti that her grandfather was from
the Warsengali clan of Somalia.
The Somali family in Tokyo happened to be that of Ibrahim
Meygaag Samatar, former Somali ambassador in Germany and a
resident of Somaliland. To Ibrahim a prominent Somali and
some one with a broad knowledge of the history of Somaliland
had no doubt whom Ambassador Awale was talking about. Ibrahim's
wife, Amina Cadhoole, equally an educated Somali woman from
the region where the Sultan hails from, took the job of finding
members of the lost tribe. She quickly got hold of the telephone
number of Ambassador Mohammed Garad (better known as “Garad”),
the best known of the many surviving sons of the Sultan Mohamoud
Ali Shireh. Garad thereafter quickly moved on to help establish,
for the first time ever, the long-sought linkage of blood
ties between the two branches of the Sulatan Mohamoud Ali
Shire family.
That was in 2000 and after so many telephone conversations,
Ambassador Garad was able to answer a long-standing invitation
to visit his brother, sister as well as his many nephews,
nieces (and the children of the children of Sultan Ali Shire)
in 2004 in Seychelles.
Postscript:
As is often the case with decendents of great leaders, Amb.
Garad has the natural traits of his father's leadership. A
resident of Maryland, U.S.A. and now a well respected elder,
Amb. Mohamed Garad is the patriarch of a large family that
has roots in many countries and continents, including North
America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
The Garad received his education in many countries including
England (Pitman College, London, 1962), Sudan (Omdurman Commercial
College, 1952 and Bakht Er. Ruda Institute of Education, 1949)
and Somalia (Sheikh, 1947 and Hargaisa elementary school,
1943).
Amb. Garad's work experience is extremely impressive and speaks
to his leadership both among his community and the Somali
nation at large. He has a long career in foreign affairs and
has held numerous diplomatic positions: Somalia Ambassador
to the State of Qatar, Republic of Uganda, Federal Republic
of Nigeria and political Counselor, Somalia Embassy in Bonn,
Germany. Amb. Garad had participated in many bilateral talks
on behalf of Somalia involving various interlocutors from
Africa, Asia and Europe. He is the recipient of “meritorious
Medal of the State of Qatar” in January 1988 by the
Emir of Qatar.
Waraysi
Maqal ah