The Somali Homemade Utensils (Maacuun)

Milk Vessel curved out of Wooden

Despite the fact that Somali homemade utensils (Maacuun) differ in names due to the locality, they share the same usage and shape. The Somalis had the knowledge to make all the utensils used at home using their beautiful handicrafts to make from pot to spoon. Men and Women have equal responsibility for making and preparing home utensils, but the men have the biggest and most important role in making the essential utensils used at home. The woman has the role of making and crafting of milk and water vessels made from cactus if it is wooden, it is the responsibility of man. 

The Somalis regarded their selves are self-sufficient and needed very little from the outside world when it comes to utensils enjoying long-lasting and very beautiful materials designed and crafted at home. One of the most important and unpromising plants is Qabo which literally means to a cactus and is very essential to the nomadic weaver of milk and water containers as well as cups. The Qabo has white thorns and long stems and it has to be burnt before its handling so that the noxious thorns are destroyed. The herdsmen then collect and strip the outer covering of the cactus revealing a white fiber and then the womenfolk weave all kinds of vessels from large water and milk containers to small bottles or quarti-size milk jars. There are normally three different sizes of milk containers in different purposes; extra-large milk pail for camels or cattle, a small pail for goat’s milk, or even a vessel that has the capacity to hold about 15 liters of milk for guest and any other cultural practice events. 

Milk Vessel knitted and interlaced of Palm-Frond

The acacia and palm fronds are also used to make the different kinds of baskets (baskets used to separate granules, chaffs, and impure particles from sorghum, maize or beans, and baskets used to carry things), water container, cups for drinking water and tea. The woman has completely responsible when crafting the above materials, especially when they are from interwoven strips or wires. Men also have the responsibility of crafting and chopping water containers, milk jars, cups, and other utensils

Food Bowl & Wooden Spoon curved out of Wooden

especially when scrambling these containers from the stem of certain trees using different materials to curve out from the wooden. Both Somali men and women enjoy superb dexterity using aptitude skills to make the utensils they wish to have without the need of any imported materials. The curio that every Somali lady inherent from her mother and must know in order to produce materials is knitting and interlacing skills. The elements crafted by women include but not limited to; brush,

A wooden made cup (Nis) used to collecting milk or water and it has a long stick

basket, table-mat, fan, bags, all vessels and cups made from cactus, while men have an aptitude skill to master homemade artefacts such as; wooden milk and water vessels, wooden spoons, spatula and all kinds of cutleries,  troughs for watering animals, burners, Somali stove, food bowl (curved out of wooden), pestle and mortar, grinder, milk bowls, wooden milk jars, etc. 

Finally, both Somali women and men enjoy an erudite artefact inherited from parents and all the instruments to weave (prodding & stitching) and tools used to curve out certain utensils from wooden are crafted by themselves and they have been developing from generation to generation. All the wooden curved out utensils are made by the men while weaved and knitted materials are made by women. Of course, the above items are not only the artefacts domestically made, but they are the architect of their dome-shaped hut, bridles for the horses and saddlery for camels and preventing from chaffing when loading, ropes to tie mats, baggage, and other usages. As a matter of fact, in the last century, all the above traditional skills have been vanishing slowly by slowly due to the exportation of industrialized utensils and there are no considerable craft centers that train people for maintaining their culture which on the other hand if these skills are invested would have created jobs.

Elmi Samatar
elmileedo@yahoo.com

Somalia: The Lucrative Business in NGOs

The world has seen substantial worsening situations in terms of natural and man-made disasters in the different corners of the globe within the recent decades and thousands of non-profit organizations distributed billions of dollars of aid to every corner of the world over the past fifty years. An immense effort has been done by a large number of organizations and positively impacted communities delivering services in both big cities and very remote villages which are not easily accessible especially, during the conflicts, droughts or rainy seasons. A big thanks and appreciations go to the local and international NGOs that have worked under different circumstances while some of them lost their dedicated staffs during the assistance of starving people. Many NGOs have worked harder and exerted leverages influencing international and local donors to help the most marginalized communities, promoting inclusion and endeavoring to combat economic and social inequalities up to their level. Because of the commitments and tremendous efforts, some NGOs were able to curb emergencies, create jobs, invest marketable skills, invest small-scale projects and businesses that thousands of people benefited through grants and micro-financing schemes. 

The Lucrative Business in the Humanitarian Agencies; Despite all the above efforts made by humanitarian agencies to save the lives of the most vulnerable population affected by misfortunes, and every NGO has its own implementation policy and very restrictive measures including but not limited to; money-laundering policy, anti-corruption, legal and compliance mechanisms, and other aid delivery and administrative requirements which are legally binding to both staff, clients and partners, there is still a lucrative business mostly involved by very responsible aid staffs and aid bypasses needy. 

The deceitful action and corruptions alleged to the humanitarian agencies in Somalia does not only undermine the quality and effectiveness of humanitarian operations, but it also sabotages the credibility, integrity, and trustworthiness of humanitarian agencies and their staffs at large. The humanitarian embezzlement is under-researched subject and it has been said many times in different reports that the risks of mismanagement do not always come at the time of implementation but it starts from the needs assessments where the staffs involve the identification of the areas considered to be eligible for intervention manipulate the target areas favouring to the local elites, either by nepotism or cronyism or due to receiving bribes. Beneficiaries are excluded in the projects planning phases and they are not regarded as the key stakeholders of projects. Therefore, beneficiaries blame humanitarian organizations are the architects of their future and that is why many projects are not sustainable after their completion, because they are either irrelevant or poorly implemented. Organizations that work cash program transfer and opt manual payments instead of bank payments or mobile-money transfer are very prone to corruption where some staffs would be able to forge receipts, invoices, audit reports or make deal with gatekeepers and local corrupted authorities to facilitate payments made to ghost beneficiaries. 

Procurement together with the supply chain is regarded as one of the highest risks in the humanitarian operations. Procurement staff are in advance deal with specified contractors and create phantom companies to lessen the risk of competition in the bidding processes. The favoured jobberies are either give agency staff to predefined percentage when they finally get the offer or they are invited to be company shareholders, or they own companies by themselves. The corruption network is not only peculiar to the procurement and program staffs, but also from biased recruitment or promotions made by the support team to favour members of their communities, political parties, relatives, or for the intent of underhanded and crooked businesses. 

One of my friends is a supplier to a three different International NGOs and I have asked how it was possible to him to secure all these contracts with such long time and he replied: “You can’t expect to be a permeant contractor without not paying bribes and incentives to gluttonous officers”.I asked again how far the sustenance earned from this contract based on swindling can be legitimate and he replied “This is a requisite condition and I have only two options; either to pay the daylight bribery or to give up from the contract” and he added “what else should I do? We have to behave the way they are behaving because we want life”. 

Corruption Evidence; Recently UNDP published a long list of entities and individuals in several countries found fraud and corruptions with the recommendations of UNDP’s Vendor Review Committee. The debarred individuals and entities are ineligible to participate in any UNDP future tender actions and many other humanitarian organizations in Somalia did the same. In addition to that; UN Conference for Trade and Development discloses that poor countries transfer to rich countries billions of dollars of wealth per year and this is another evidence of the corruption level involved by both local and expatriate staffs. All these and beyond happen because thousands of organizations and institutions fundraise with impunity and operate under the radar of zero accountability, while NGOs reiterate repeatedly that they have no tolerance to the proscribed practices and corruption engagements that might be involved by their staff and partners, but this isn’t prevented the malpractices and the illegal aid diversions involved by aid workers. 

Finally, organizations will not be able to combat corruption unless they create a strong internal culture of integrity and everyone should subject to the organization’s code of conduct. For those involved and participated corruption practices, aid diversion, abuse of power, breach of their contractual obligations, or perform acts contrary to the organization’s principles should be punished as prescribed by the organization’s staff manuals.

Elmi Samatar
elmileedo@yahoo.com

Book Review: Somalia, The Missed Opportunity

Author: Mohamed Sahnoun

Reviewed by Elmi Samatar

This book was written by Mohamed Sahnoun of Algeria who was appointed by UN Secretary-General (UNSRG) Boutros Boutros Ghali of Egypt to Somalia on 28 April 1992 to facilitate UN’s search for peace and stability and to help the millions of people under starvation throughout the country. In his book, the author used clear and convincing language and the main intent behind the book are well defined. The author employed an authentic first-hand source and exposed extraordinary challenges he believed where mainly coming from his bureaucratic office in New York and other key mission partners. The first publication was made in 1994 by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington. 

Right after his appointment to the post, Mr. Sahnoun was able to reach out all warring sides persuading them to solve their differences in a peaceful manner and advised them to refrain hindering aid delivery while it jeopardizes the already exacerbating humanitarian situations on the ground. He also instructed his subordinates and humanitarian counterparts to act swiftly and distribute thousands of metric tons of food to the most affected areas and save many lives otherwise, the situation will continue to deteriorate due to the faction leaders that would contest the management of the limited resources. Obviously, it was clear that Mr. Sahnoun was experiencing at that time intermittent access to the bureaucratic UN office in New York that many times hesitated to take seriously the recommendations and other key decisions that Mr. Sahnoun considered to be important and that would facilitate his mission in Somalia.

Prior his appointment to the UN Special Representative (UNSR) to Somalia, he led a fact-finding mission that UNSRG Boutros requested and after he assessed the plight engulfed to the Somali people, he unswervingly criticized the UN and the International Community for deserting and desolating Somalia for such long time after the oust of Siad Barre. It was the author’s belief that if the International Community had intervened earlier, much of the catastrophe that has unfolded could have been avoided. The Somali government that failed to resist the SNM advancement in northern regions reacted heavy weapons and aircraft to repress the civilian and in May alone 1988, an estimated of 5,000 civilian members of the Isaaq clan were killed. It was the responsibility of the UN, intergovernmental organizations and the international community to take actions and this represents the first missed opportunity.

It was not only the UN’s procrastination and its agencies but neglect and watching Somalia descending into terrible situations that resulted in thousands of people to die and left many starving people in destitute. The United Nations agencies, other few NGOs and the international community were proclaimed to the world that they were involved in one or another way due to their presence on the ground and their limited response to the calamity that inflicted to the Somali people. In addition to that, the UN agencies made tremendous pledges and immediate responses to the situations as was done in Biafra and Ethiopia 1960s and 1980s respectively hence they were very reluctant to organize massive relief operations in Somalia. 

After the government bombarded the northern regions and fiercely reacted other insurgents fighting along the Ethiopian border and many people linked to the uprising movements are arrested indiscriminately in Mogadishu, a manifesto calling for national reconciliation was formed in Mogadishu in May 1990. The manifesto signatories were 144 intellectuals, businessmen, moderate political leaders and officials from the government. In a broad daylight, the manifesto group dared to blame the atrocities committed by the government forces and called national reconciliation conference, multiparty system, and constitutional change. 

The Manifesto team had every reason to fear for their lives after they criticized and denounced the government saying “what has the government did in northern regions is an affront move to its citizens.” For the sake of the national safety and bringing an end to the uprising, the Manifest group nominated a thirteen-person committee headed by Somalia’s first president, Adam Abdullahi Osman, and Somalia’s second Parliament speaker, Sheik Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein to lead the reconciliation initiative. This was a golden opportunity that Somali government missed using the Manifesto team that comprised the most influential individuals in the country and instead of taking that positive move, the government arrest former president Adam Abdullahi Osman and other key Manifesto signatories and others fled the country fearing for their safety. The fulmination and the arrest of Manifesto contingent instead of listening to their advises represents the second missed opportunity. 

On 26 January 1991, some Manifesto leaders ally to Ali Mahdi appointed him as Somali interim president just one day before Siad Barre fled from Mogadishu and promptly his rival chief Mohamed Farah Aided boycotted the appointment. The author also highlighted that Ali’s government invited all faction leaders to national reconciliation at least two times which was not fruitful. 

In July and August 1991, the Djibouti government attempted to hold serious reconciliation efforts to the Somali people with the support of some regional governments after the UN refused without explanation to take part the efforts. Soon after the negotiation commenced in Djibouti, the meeting had failed and among those problems that hampered are; the delegates to the meeting had only limited to control of the forces on the ground, the conference attended by only some regions and finally, the delegates were unwilling to sit the political part of Siad Barre’s clan.  After the failure of this conference, severe fighting between the United Somali Congress (USC) factions broke out on 17^th November 1991 and instantly spread to other regions including areas controlled by Somali National Movement (SNM) in the northern regions of Somalia. 

For the month of March in 1992, above 30,000 died hunger and hunger-related diseases and above 500,000 were without basic services while more than 3,000 mostly women, children and old men were dying daily due to starvation. Despite the civil war that has erupted, the two-year-old drought has further compounded and the clan-based conflict spread in the rural areas that have had bad implications to the agriculture and livestock and hundreds of thousands of lives had already been lost when the international community started to respond. In early 1992, SOS was the only hospital in Mogadishu that was functioning and other very few NGOs including ICRC were able to maintain their presence. 

Therefore, if the international community could have assisted the Djibouti government initiatives of bringing together warring parties in Djibouti, much of the catastrophe could have been avoided and this represents the third missed opportunity.

When the UN adopted its third resolution on 24^thApril 1992 on Somalia and appointed the UN special representative to Somalia on 28^thApril 1992, great hopes were raised and the preceding resolution established the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). When the announcement has been made, it created jubilation, but the Somali people do not comprehend why the UN and world community had kept distance when the Somali people need them most. 

The representative’s argument was breaking the vicious conflict and the food scarcity and restore the most important social services including but not limited to; communication, water, electricity, transport, and health services. The representative’s plea to the NGOs and international communities to maintain their offices in Somalia instead of preferring to remain in Djibouti or Nairobi in order they afford to deliver extra relief efforts has been disappointing and already over one million children’s lives were at risk. Although ICRC, WFP, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and other international NGO and countries started to bring thousands of MT of foods, there were massive banditry and looting that hindered the effective aid delivery and the UNOSOM team had proposed to divide Somalia into four zones for easing the operations (Berbera, Bosaso, Mogadishu & Kismayo). 

One of the critical moments of the UNOSOM team is that they have learned a Russian plane chartered by a UN agency carrying currency and military equipment landed northern Mogadishu several times to extend support to the interim president. The UNOSOM team protested against those agencies and individuals involved in the incidents and diverted the mission objectives and demanded investigation while nothing has been done in the investigation. The Somali people questioned the impartiality of the UN and alleged them fueling the war. 

While the UNSR is facing all the above challenges, Mr. Boutros Ghali told Sahnoun that the USA militarily intends to intervene in Somalia. Then, Mr. Sahnoun announced his idea about the decision that has been made and vehemently protested against the move saying “The intervention will turn to disaster” and then resigned from his position as UN Special Representative to Somalia. The UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros Ghali appointed Mr. Ismat Kittani of Iraq to be his Special Representative to Somalia on 3^rdNovember 1992 to replace Mr. Sahnoun who had resigned in his tenure.

The book has many insights and I recommend to everyone who is in the research industry or interesting to understand why many journalists described Somalia as hell or want to know more about why Somalia and many other similar countries descended into terrible civil war and prolonged social unrest. 

Elmi Samatar
samatar2020@hotmail.com

Thank you