 I
believe most of us must have read with
interest the Weekly Letter of the President
of the Republic of South Africa, His
Excellency, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, dealing with
the events in Somalia, published in the
official mouthpiece of the governing party,
ANC, and appreciated it. However, I found it
necessary to clarify certain aspects of the
Letter, particularly where the occupied
Somali territories are concerned. I have
written to the President the following
letter for his kind attention.
New Delhi, 31 January, 2007
His Excellency, Mr.Thabo
Mbeki,
President of the Republic of
South Africa,
Pretoria.
Your Excellency,
I have the honour to convey
to Your Excellency, my best compliments. I
read your letter published in the ANC TODAY,
(Volume 7, No. 1. 12-18 January 2007) on the
recent events in Somalia. I wish to offer my
comments on your letter as follows:
Your Excellency, in your
letter, you rightly state that “For many
years and afterwards Mogadishu and Somalia
remained in our memories as African places
of hope for us,
a reliable rear base for the
total liberation of Africa, including our
liberation from apartheid. Indeed, in later
years, others of our comrades returned to
Mogadishu, this time to work with the Somali
government to prepare for the clandestine
infiltration into South Africa of cadres of
Umkhonto we Sizwe [the military wing of
the ANC], who would travel to apartheid
South Africa by sea, secretly departing from
the Somali ports!”
As the saying goes “A
friend in need is a friend indeed”. If
South Africa, the Big Brother, could not
give generous assistance to Somalia in this
critical moment in its history, at the least
it should not disseminate distorted
historical facts on the Horn of Africa. I
am not asking that South Africa return the
favour of what Somalia contributed towards
the struggle of the people of South Africa,
led by the African National Congress, ANC,
as it was a genuine duty of Somalia as an
independent African country.
In your letter in ANC TODAY,
page 3, you said:
“This process of the
unification of the Somali-speaking people
however also led to tensions with
neighbouring countries, Djibouti, Ethiopia
and Kenya, each one of which has a
Somali-speaking minority. The worst
manifestation of these tensions was, of
course, the 1977 war with Ethiopia, when
Somalia tried to annex the Somali-speaking
Ogaden region of Ethiopia. (Feudal Ethiopia
had managed to seize part of Ogaden during
the 1880s, and later succeeded to get the
whole of it through an agreement with
colonial Britain).”
As Your Excellency may be aware of, Somalia
was the only country in the Horn of Africa
which was divided by the colonial powers
into 5 parts. They are not, as Your
Excellency’s Letter says, territories which
have “Somali-speaking” minorities. But they
are Somali territories illegally given to
Ethiopia and Kenya by the former European
colonial powers.
For Your Excellency’s information, there has
never been tension between Somalia and
Djibouti, as Djibouti itself has been one of
the Somali territories under French colonial
rule since 1862. It was known as Cote
Francaise de Somalie or French Somali
Coast. Following the age-old policy of
“Divide and Rule” of all colonial powers,
France changed territory’s name in 1967 to
the “French Territory of Afars and Issas”,
just to eliminate the name Somali. Contrary
to what Your Excellency said in the Letter,
each and every subsequent Somali Government
and the people, as a whole, have given total
support to the freedom and
self-determination of the territory until it
gained independence on 27 June 1977and
jointed the United Nations as the Republic
of Djibouti.
As far as the territory under Ethiopian
colonisation is concerned, known as “Ogaden”,
it is not just a territory with a
“Somali-speaking minority”. It is a
territory, well known to the world, which
even Ethiopian government recognises it as
the SOMALI region (I attach here
copies of the maps I printed out from Google
(Map of Ethiopia).
This region used to be called
in the British map “Abyssinian Somaliland”
(see Sketch map of Somaliland – War Office,
July 1909. This is a Somali territory given
to Ethiopia (Abyssinia) by the Envoy of
Queen Victoria, Rennell Rodd to Emperor
Menelek II on May 14th, 1897 and
ratified by the Queen, on July 28th,
1897. Later Britain gave to Ethiopia the
Haud and Reserved Area in 1954.
Until now, the border of the two countries
is known as “artificial boundary” and the
region is referred to as “disputed”
territory.
Your Excellency’s Letter also
mentions about “Somali-speaking minority” in
Kenya. It should have been correct and the
duty of the Editor of the ANC TODAY, or the
Press Secretary of the Presidency, or even
Historians at the many Universities in South
Africa, to verify the historical facts,
before publishing such an important Letter
dealing with a very sensitive subject,
carrying the name and the signature of the
President.
Your Excellency mentions
tension also between Somalia and Kenya.
Between Somalia and Kenya there is, as with
Ethiopia, a dispute over the territory
called the Northern Frontier District (NFD),
which is a Somali territory given to Kenya,
again by the Britain, in 1963, just when
Kenya obtained independence, despite the
fact that the majority of the people chose
to join Somalia in a referendum organised by
the British Government in 1962. It is not a
question of, as your letter describes,
“Somali-speaking minority”.
Prior to Kenya’s independence
in 1963, the NFD, has been separately
administered by the British and even to
travel to Kenya proper, the citizen in the
area were obliged to have, what they called,
“Entry Permit”.
Before granting independence
to Kenya, British Government decided to
arrange a referendum to ascertain the wish
of the people in the region. A commission
led by two prominent personalities was sent
to the area. They were G.C.M. Onyuke, a
Nigerian Judge, and a Canadian Officer, M.P.
Bogert. There is an official document
published by the British Government on the
referendum dated December 7, 1962.
Prof. I.M. Lewis, a British
Anthropologist wrote at that time the
following:
“The Commission found that
the Somalis who they estimated made up 62
per cent of the NFD’s population ‘almost
unanimously’ favoured secession from Kenya
with the object of ultimately joining the
Somali Republic. At last, in March 1963, it
fell to Mr. Duncan Sandys, the new British
Colonial Secretary, to announce his
Government’s decision. To the satisfaction
of the Nairobi and Addis Ababa governments,
but to the chagrin of the Somalis, this was
that the NFD to be brought into Kenya’s
regional constitution. A new, predominantly
Somali Northern-Eastern Region was to be
created in which Somalis would enjoy the
same degree of local autonomy as had already
been accorded elsewhere in Kenya’s other six
Regions”.
Your Excellency,
With due respect, as a Somali, I expected
only justice, unbiased statement and no
favour from Your Excellency, a highly
respected leader in the beloved continent of
Africa. These are the territorial problems
that the colonial powers left behind so that
Africa would keep fighting after their
departure. As Eritrea became free from
Ethiopia’s Black colonialism, others too, I
have doubt, sooner or later, would be
free. Such distortion of historical facts
will not change, in anyway, the reality of
the situation in the continent.
Again for Your Excellency’s information,
among other things, Ethiopia’s forefather
Emperor Menelek said in a circular letter to
Heads of European States dated, Adis Ababa
the 14th Mazir, 1883 (10 April,
1891):
“If Powers at a distance come forward to
partition Africa between them, I do not
intend to be an indifferent spectator.”
Afterward, Ethiopia was handed over the
Somali territories by the former colonial
powers and it gratefully accepted.
The disastrous situation in
which Somalia finds itself today could
happen to any other country in Africa as the
continent is vulnerable to such a state of
affairs.
Because of these
difficulties, Somalis see their rights,
their sovereignty and territorial integrity
violated and those who are under black
colonial rules feel their right undermined
when they hear statements or read articles
written by Presidents, such as the President
of South Africa, esteemed statesman, whose
opinion is more important than a resolution
of UN Security Council.
Your Excellency,
I apologize for taking so
much of your valuable time. I assure your
Excellency my highest consideration.
(Signed)
MOHAMED OSMAN OMAR
Ambassador |
