Police Captain Hajji Abdi Osman Aw Nour Jiceer is one the highest ranking most influential personalities during colonial days
This article is about people who have made important contribution to the development of Somali-land during colonial days provided snapshot of the history contest of the time. This also enlightens few world famous personalities who changed our world with path breaking ideas and actions. Usually people considered them as those who shaped our world include statesmen, leaders, political and police leaders. Historically significant figures leave statistical evidence of their past hind, if one knows where to look for it. There are certain data sources to fuel such ranking. There are ways to evaluate each person by aggregating thousands of traces and opinions. Significance is related to fame but measures different things. But reputation will be much more stable because this transition occurred long ago. By analyzing traces left by thousands there are undisputed figures that, their fame for their country is indisputable, as historical figure is a famous person in history that, their significance contributed human progress either military, police, government civil personalities, business communities and leading personalities on social affairs such as traditional sultans.
With respect the current issue of my concern related to the late great personality, police Captain Hajji Abdi Osman Aw Nour Jiceer, who was recognized as of one the highest ranking, most Influential personalities during English colonial administration days in Somali-land history on the subject of police administration. Once upon time, late captain Hajji Abdi Osman was the police commissioner for the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles in 1956, which on those days falling under the British colonial administration. The police ranking system during British colonial administration was similar the current British administration system. Appointing none national police commissioner carries significant importance and it may give the indication, such personality may not get locally.
The police forces of the United Kingdom is considered as benchmark for all world police regardless any part of the world in view of the high skills and all other required for an advanced police administration . The police ranking system in Somali-land during colonel days was like following beginning from top rank namely colonel, Major, Captain, Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant, Capet officer, Squadron sergeant, Staff sergeant, Sergeant, Corporal, Lance, Corporal, Private – first rank. Those days to evaluate up someone as a rank of lieutenant was extremely difficult, let alone a captain rank in view of the complication of the British police administration arrangement. Captain Haji Abdi was died 1991 in Burao just after few months the collapse of Siyad Barre regime in the same. Prior Somali-land independence in 1960, Captain Hajji Abdi Osman has trained many famous high ranking police officers for the protectorate such as General Ali Jama Korshel, General Jama Mohamed Ghalib, General Abdi Dhiboo, Colonel Saqadhe, Colonel Omar yare, Colonel Abshir Salah, colonel Balal. No doubt there are also tens of police officers trained by captain haji Abdi, however, above names are taken only as example.
The most international well known figure personality Somali-land during 1920ts was the late Muhammad ‘Abdallah bin Hasan that, the colonial powers nicknamed him as made mullah. He was born about 1860 and during his youth devoted himself to religious studies. In August 1899, with his followers of the Salihiyyah confraternity, he declared a holy war against the British, Italians, and Ethiopians. His resistance to the British lasted until his death in November 1920. Muhammad, also known as one of Somalia’s greatest poets, was the first to call for Somali unity. Other important historical figures include Sharif Abu Bakr bin ‘Abdallah al-‘Aydarus (d.1503), who founded the Qadiriyyah confraternity in the Somali region; sheikh ‘Ali Maye Durogba of Marka (d.1917), who founded the Ahmadiyyah sect in Somalia; and Sheikh Muhammad Guled (d.1918), who started the Salihiyyah sect in Somalia.
In the event anyone would to study the history of Somalia and Somali-land, the best sources of information are the book written by author is Ioan Lewis and published by Columbia University 2008. The book consist of 139 pages and ISBN No is 0231700849 9780231700849. Ioan Lewis is professor emeritus of anthropology at the London School of Economics and author of Arguments with Ethnography: Comparative Approaches to History, Politics, and Religion. Since we have detailed above famous personalities in Somali-land, we are obliged also to write few world international famous personalities and therefore, I have taken as a sample two freedom fighters namely Patrice Lumumba and Martin Luther King junior.
Patrice Lumumba’s was a Congolese independence leader and the first democratically elected Prime of the Republic of the Congo (now known as the democratic Republic of Cong. He was the founder and leader of the movement’s nationalist congeals and eventually lead to win his country’s independence from Belgium. Within twelve weeks, Lumumba’s government was deposed in a coup during the Congo crisis. . The main reason why he was ousted from power was his opposition to Belgian-backed secession of the mineral-rich Katanga province.Lumumba was subsequently imprisoned by state authorities under Joseph Desire Mobutu and executed by firing squad under the command of the secessionist katangan authorities.The United Nations, which he had asked to come to the Congo, did not intervene to save him. Belgium, the United States (via the CIA) has been accused of involvement in Lumumba’s death.
Another world freedom fighter, is Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech August 28 1963.I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of colour are concerned. Instead of honouring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.
Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicks ands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?”We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for whites only.”We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I has a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning, “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrims’ pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last. The following quotes are taken from martin king Luther. History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. More than 200,000 people were in attendance at the Lincoln Memorial when King delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, predicting a day when the promise of freedom and equality for all would become a reality in America. Other famous world personalities include: Winston Churchill,Gandhi,Theodore Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr.Queen Victoria,Mother Teresa,Abraham Lincoln,Josef Stalin, Henry Ford, Napoleon Bonaparte,Nelson Mandela,,John F. Kennedy,Muhammad Ali, Gamal Abdel Nassir, Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Ruhollah Khomeini, Muhammad Ali Jinnah etc.
In conclusion, all of the names listed above have left significant remake able contribution in their respected countries and world history. As the world is global village and Somali-land is part and parcel of the planet, certainly, we should live like the people in other countries and immigrate from tribalism which is deeply affected our culture. Few years ago, someone in Somali-land has organized so called event that, he named as Haldoor. In that event, those he gifted for the awards were 50 % of his close relatives. It is unfortunate some personalities that he awarded gifts are considered as war lords and by purpose; he denied recognizing the noble personalities that, their contribution have been noticed in every region and district of Somali land. Unless we emigrate from this immorality act, then the question of true is very distant. Note.Captain Hajji Abdi had married three wives and left behind him 23 sons and daughters and possibly his offspring’s children estimated now over 80 numbers. Source of the information is Engineer Abdinasir Garad Abshir Salah, who is the son for one of the daughters of the late Captain Hajji Abdi
Ismail Yusuf – Rabasoro55@hotmail.co.uk