With a flourish
of Diaspora coming back to Somalia, it brought assurance and hope. This meant that
individuals and families had sensed that we were in progress. I remember when
schools shut for summer years back, we would book flights to Canada or other
parts in the Middle East where we had families stationed. But this summer was
unique and different. This was because Toronto or Cleveland was not the
destination for holidays anymore but rather Somalia.
Youths and
parents had all agreed upon each other that visiting Mogadishu was the only
goal. I remember this past June, seeing youths from abroad all over the city. You
can pick them up from a crowd easily because of the dress code, style or walk.
With Diasporas’ keen to return, this has also caused a stir amongst locals.
With media
outlets expanding across the nation, some took full advantage of this to start
a smear campaign against those coming from abroad. Whether it’s out of envy or
competition, it has gotten to a point where gossip and propaganda started to
emerge.
One recent
article I had read weeks back from a Somali news outlet stated that locals were
moving seats when Diasporas’ had came in for coffees. This was due to “having
fear that those from the Diaspora would commit suicide bombs.” Are you kidding?
I have never laughed at utter nonsense since the days of MPs fighting out in parliament
in Nairobi.
There’s a campaign
at the moment to demonize the Diaspora community and it’s sad really. A community,
which funded almost $1 billion every year, through remittance programs, is now
turned against.
Ridiculously
unnecessary cheap shots will only be coming more. I took an caasi (bus) couple
of days back and had no cash so wanted to send through EVC (mobile phone
banking) and had the driver state “you Diasporas love to show off with EVC”.
How do you reply? When almost 4 others before me paid through the same system
and where locals?
We are
heading into a dangerous route, being driven by individuals who lack self
belief and caused them to feel totally dis-moral by fellow Somalis arriving back.
This has lead to some locals to believe an ideology of “us versus them”
mentality.
Of course
there are those Diaspora individuals with arrogance walking around town. But
one person does not count for the rest. Nobody believes that all locals are war
minded, gun-toting, clan mentality fighters, so why assume all those coming
from abroad are full of each other?
But not all
of Mogadishu is like this. You get a lot of groups who are welcoming and love
hearing stories from abroad. Family members, community members, co-workers,
friends and whatnot.
We are all
Somalis so let’s work together and share our knowledge in order to seek this
goal we all crave for, peace.
Mohamed Hassan (Dj)
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