When it comes to the struggle of independence and liberty, the Dervishes appear, subject to reference being made to element of time, weaponry/logistics and economic power possessed at the time by the protagonists of the strife in question, on top of a long list of freedom fighters.  Much to the surprise of many historians, analysts and military strategists for that matter, the Dervishes, with so little resources and without any support from the outside world, had succeeded in squeezing the British colonial forces into a very small piece of land of northern Somalia namely the northwest regions (Hargysa Burao, and Borama).

The poem recited by the flamboyant Dervish commander: Ismail Mire narrating his presence, along with seven thousand Dervish fighters (anagoo Taleex naal jihaad taladi sooqaadney, todobatan boqol oo Darwish togatay neef door ah….) at Buuhoodle a city not far from Burao, one of the basis of the British forces, and the battle of Dulmadoobe (also not far from Burao) in which a British commander was killed is clear evidence that much of the northern territory were under the control of the Dervish fighters. Indeed, it was a question of prime importance for the British to spread Christianity throughout Somalia and had the Dervishes not became an insurmountable obstacle to the expansion of the British occupation, Somalia would have been today a country of religious diversity at best.  Having said that, all Somalis owe credit to the Dervishes who saved them from the risk of being christianized and it’s beyond one’s grasp that a Somali citizen in his right mind would regard the Dervishes’ breathtaking strife and one of the longest battles for freedom as mere fighters who wreaked havoc, along with the British, on the people, as recently asserted by some individuals inside the parliament of Puntland, and put them on the same moral footing as the hated aggressors who came all the way from Europe to colonize our people, impose taxes on them and suck their blood.   

It is widely known that the Dervishes fought on a number of fronts and their project was die or win struggle as they faced ferocious enemy with overwhelming powers.  Apart from being at war with the colonial powers, the Dervishes confronted the internal enemy or those who resisted the struggle and refused to join the Dervishes out of interest and felt like today’s Mogadisho warlords that they would be better off with the status quo being unchanged.   But there was the fifth column, so to speak, and collaborators coupled with propaganda machine applied by the colonialists who used by proxy the very language tools, including poetic skills, utilized by the Dervishes, in an attempt to insure that the Dervishes are hoist by their own petard as evidenced by poems critical of the Dervishes and sometimes demonizing them.  Among others, a poet from the northwest front recited, as part of the British propaganda, a poem portraying the Dervishes and reducing them to mere camel looters and we quote him as saying:

“Ninkii tooyo dhaqay baa Darwish kala tagaayaayeh
Haddaan tiro riyo ah leeyahay oo tulada ag joogo
Ma tunkuu isoo qaban haddaanan timir lahaa dhaafin.”

The above is just one of myriad of attempts made to discredit the Dervishes and demonize their struggle, but there were occasions when their true characteristics as die hard warriors whose their job was to crash the invaders and bring about their inevitable demise was portrayed by some individuals living in the territories controlled by the colonialists. A tribal chief from the northwest front cursed a British officer and predicted his downfall after he had ruled a dispute over camels against his clan.  Ina Weeso Xume's (as they knick-named him) wishes that the officer be killed was regarded as one of the most predictable occurrences in Somali history following his poem and the subsequent death of the British officer at the hands of the Dervishes. Ina Weeso Xumo is quoted as reciting:

“Sayedkoo wax galay raacdadoo la’isku soo gaaray
Adiga iyo gubniga aad wadaa gooba taal noqo eh
Girligaanku kaa joogsay oo guuxa kaadami yeh
Gu’ganna ha gaadhin adigaa tolkay gajadaas badayeh
Afkuna gow ku yidhi xaajadaad gees u badisaaye”

Even though most of the Dervishes’ fight with the British forces took place in Nugal and Togdheer regions, the eastern front wasn’t free from the conflict and blockade was imposed on the Dervishes denying them access to eastern ports and potential supplies.  The Dervishes reached, beyond doubt, at a moment when they could not differentiate the foreign enemy form the internal one and some Somali tribes repeated the same chorus and either attacked the Dervishes or looted their camels.  One of the late Sayed Mohammed’s poems gives us a clear picture of how the Dervishes were fought on many fronts and isolated. We quote him as reciting:

“Eebow gayiga oo dhan waa nalaka guuraaye
Eebow waxay nagu galeen Diinta soo gala eh
Eebow Greek koley ku tahay nala gamuneeye
Eebow gamaan iyo waxaan geni cad dhiibaayey
Eebow graw kagama helin golashaan wadayeh”

The invitation given to the Dervishes to station their forces in the eastern region, a maritime area where much-needed logistics could have been secured, and the promise to have access to the seaports for arms supply and provisions and the fact that this promise was not kept and the rules were changed in the middle of the game while the fighters, their families, livestock, horses and ammunition were halfway between their eastern destination and the Dervish capital, Taleeh speaks volumes. The most beautiful one of a long list of poems recited by Sayed Mohammed depicts the Dervish’s suffering and loss due to the long and exhausting journey, the agony and pain endured by them as a result of the tall order to return back to the remote area of Nugal Godan.   Apart from the British air raids, regarded as the determining factor of the conflict, the content of “Jiinley”, as Somalis call it, is a landmark tragedy, poetic arguments and vivid picture of the Dervishes’ chain of episodes of which the rest is history.

Seeking damages, whether direct or consequential, is long-awaited and overdue issue but to put the Dervishes on the same footing as the invaders and aggressors is like stripping those thousands of freedom fighters of their Somali citizenship while forgetting that they have paid with their lives to keep our country free and exhibited heroism and valor throughout the battles of Dulmadoobe, Beerdhiga, Jidbaale, Afbakayle just to mention a few and that they were the soldiers of liberty who fought, bled and gave the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of our nation.  Such allegations as the ones recently made by Suldan Bashir Cabdi Garase in Puntland parliament concerning the Dervishes’ struggle is unacceptable and have no basis both on the facts and as a matter of common sense.

Since the collapse of the Somali state, almost all the state’s properties, including the very symbols of the nation’s freedom fighters in question and statues of liberties, were gutted and looted and seemingly the time has come for some to put a history as precious as that of the Dervishes for sale and perhaps it is a high time for the Somali nationalists (if any) to intervene and call a spade a spade.   

Abdulfatah Ismail
E-Mail:abdulfatah.ismail@htd.ae

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