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The Demise of the BBC Somali Service
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The departure of Ahmed Hassan (Cawke) from the BBC Somali Service may have come as a bombshell for all those caring and concerned listeners who were hoping for an end to the inexorable demise of the Service over the last decade or so. His departure will certainly be a major blow to the Service but that would not have been catastrophic on its own if it was an isolated case. As it is, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Cawke may be a household name among listeners, but he is not the first announcer who left the service voluntarily or involuntarily. Another prominent announcer, Abdisalaam Hereri, had also left the Service only few months before Cawke. They both followed the footsteps of a dozen or so former famous BBC Somali announcers who were sacrificed on the alter of nepotism in order to make room for handpicked, inexperienced novices related (clan-wise), to the Head of the Service, Yusuf Garaad.
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Hereri, Cawke and some of the sacked former BBC announcers are now working for the Somali Service of the Voice of America (VOA). The loss of the BBC Service is of course the gain of VOA. The listeners, you may say, have lost nothing since they have the choice to listen to both Services. But the loss is deep. The BBC Somali Service can not be compared to the new Somali programme of the VOA. It was established in 1957 before the independence of Somalia and over this period acquired a unique, unimaginable status: a foreign station that has come to be cosseted as a national institution. Much of that credit goes to its dedicated founders, guardians and announcers -men like C.J. Martin, the dean of the Service, and announcers like Haji Abdi Duale, Aden Farah, Mohamed Abokor, Mohamed Abshir, Osman Sugulle, Mustafa Haji Nur, Idris Hassan Derie, Osman Hassan, Suleiman Daahir, Abdillahi Haji and Mohamud Hassan, just to name some.
Providing reliable and impartial programmes have been the mission of the Service. In the process, it has become ingrained in the national psyche. Somalis may have lost their state and remained 16 years without a government with all the deprivations it entailed, but at the end of the day they could always count on listening to the BBC and chewing their Qat, two addictions that provided them a needed break from their daily miseries.
The appointment of Yusuf Garaad had at once wrecked the two pillars of the Service: its impartiality and the management of its staff. As mentioned earlier, he sacked in one go close to a dozen, long-serving and experienced staff at Bush House. This was for no other reason but simply to make way for clan-related appointees. If men like Cawke and Hereri were spared, it was only because they had permanent contracts. Impartiality was also sacrificed to partisanship, entailing blatant alignment with selected, clan-related parties in the struggle of power in Somalia. On the basis of clan loyalties, the head of the Service had unashamedly sided with one or other of the warlords, the Abdiqasim presidency and the Union of Islamic Courts.
For the first time since the Somali Service was established, low morale, frustration and alienation among the remaining staff, other than his own protégés, had become the order of the day. Perhaps, they were meant to throw in the towel in desperation and leave the Service. As they say in Somali: “nin weyn tag lama yidhaahdo ee wuxuu ku tagaa la tusaa”. Understandably, they had no where else to go until unthinkable opportunities presented themselves at the VOA. It is the push factors at the BBC Somali Service at Bush House rather than the pull attractions at VOA in Washington that explains the departure of Cawke, Hereri and others that may follow them.
It is not as though the BBC Somali Service is unaware of the concerns and complaints of listeners. They had been. Notable among these is an open appeal to the BBC from more than a dozen former announcers who served the Service from its early days. Yet the BBC had turned a deaf ear. Whether they consider siding with their man at the helm is more important than the needs of the Service is any body’s guess. One can draw one’s own conclusions.
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| Members of the Somali Community in London demonstrating against the lack of impartiality of the BBC Somali Service. |
In the short term, listeners may have the benefit of two competing stations as Cawke put it the other day in an interview with VOA. But what about the longer term? Given the vagaries and uncertainties of American foreign policy, the future of VOA Somali Service cannot be taken for granted in the longer term. It was only created as a by-product of the war on terror against the Islamists. And once that war ceases to be dominant in American policy in the Horn, it could well seal the end of VOA Somali Service. Its predecessor, established during UNOSOM, closed shop once the USA was forced to abandon its mission in Somalia. In the meantime, if the BBC continues in its slide, the British Foreign Office may choose to close it, either because its listeners have declined or because it is redundant since the VOA is providing the same Service. It is not unthinkable that there may come a time in the future when the services of one or both the BBC and the VOA may be ended. If that happens, Yusuf Garaad may pride himself in entering the annals of its history as the one who killed it.
