Keywords: Somalia, Mogadishu, Puntland, pirates

G. L. KAPCHITS

Candidate of Philological Sciences

Voice of Russia columnist Georgy Kapchits, as a translator and consultant for a film crew of a Russian television company, visited all three parts of Somalia - this once unified country-in 2009. I met with presidents and ministers, fishermen and pirates, residents of cities and towns. Kapchitz is an author of books and articles about Somalia. Therefore, in addition to what he saw in this country for two weeks, he will share with you information about the way of life, culture and traditions of Somalis, who are now experiencing one of the most difficult periods in their history.

Until recently, few people knew about Somalia, which occupies a vast territory of the Horn of Africa. It became infamous for pirates who seized dozens of merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden of the Red Sea and in the waters of the Indian Ocean and received sums comparable to the budget of any of the three state entities located on the peninsula for their release. These are Somalia in the south, Somalia Land in the north, and Puntland in between.

It is in Puntland that the fishing village of Eyl is located, which was dubbed the "headquarters" of Somali pirates by the world's media.

I was there in May 2009 and saw three captured ships, but I couldn't communicate with the pirates. On the offer to go to them by boat, the head of the group, Vladimir Sinelnikov, replied that the studio did not have enough funds to buy out all of us, and he would not like to return to Moscow without me and the cameraman Sasha Kublitsky. The sea robbers, however, were seen in shackles a couple of days later in the prison of Bossaso, in the north of Puntland. But more on that below. And to better understand the most complex problems in Somalia, first you need to at least briefly get acquainted with the history of the country, how Somali society works and in what conditions people have to live.

It is believed that Somalia is the legendary country of Punt, which supplied myrrh and frankincense to the court of the Egyptian pharaohs. In the Middle Ages, the Arabs had a significant influence on the formation of the language, culture and religion of Somalis. By the end of the 19th century. The Somali peninsula was divided between France, England and Italy. In 1960, the British colony (in the north) and the Italian colony (in the south) gained independence and merged into the Somali Republic with Mogadishu as its capital.

In 1969, General Mohamed Siad Barre came to power, declaring a course of building socialism and establishing close relations with the USSR. The next eight years are remembered with nostalgia by all Somalis. Then thousands of them were educated in our country, and in Somalia with the help of Soviet specialists.-

Dozens of industrial enterprises, schools, hospitals and infrastructure facilities were built there. Then the proverb "Either Russian or rain", known to every Somali, was born, in which the good done by Russians was equated with the gift of heaven.

Somalia is an arid country. Precipitation is rare and falls mainly from April to June. Only two rivers that flow through its territory do not dry up. This is Juba and Webi Shabelle. The sedentary part of the population lives on the lands they irrigate. Farmers grow bananas, cotton, rice and sugar cane. Residents of the sea coast are traditionally engaged in fishing. Now this fishery, like much else in Somalia, is in decline.

It is believed that most Somalis are still nomadic pastoralists. One-humped camels (dromedaries) are the most valuable part of their numerous herds. Camels tolerate the heat well, and go many days without water or food. When changing the parking lot, they are loaded with a collapsible house-hut and the modest belongings of a Somali family. Camels are loaded by women, and all work related to the care of these animals (including milking camels) is performed by men. Somalis ' love for camels knows no bounds. "A camel is a camel," they say,"and they only exchange it for a camel."

A typical Somali family consists of a husband, one or more wives (Somalis are Muslims, and the Koran allows polygamy) , and children. Several closely related families make up the rer. This is the lowest level of the tribal organization of Somalis.

Several worlds that go back to a common ancestor form a "tribe". Several "tribes" make up a clan, and several clans make up a tribe headed by a chief. His power is absolute. It is not for nothing that they say that " A straight leader has a straight tribe, and a crooked one has a crooked one."

Judging by what has been happening in Somalia in recent years, there are no "direct" leaders left in the country. The highest level of the hierarchy is the association of tribes (clan). There are four of them - Dir, Darod, Javie and Digil-Mirifle. A Somali knows exactly the place he occupies in the tribal structure and, when talking about himself, first gives his name, the name of his father and grandfather, and then tells the "tribe", the clan, tribe and association of tribes to which he belongs. Tribal strife, which turned out to be stronger than the common language, culture and religion of Somalis, destroyed their statehood. This happened in 1991, when the regime of Mohammed Siad Barre collapsed under the blows of clan-oriented opposition forces. But the "first bell" rang in 1977. Then the country, which had built up its military muscle, decided to annex Ogaden, a vast area of neighboring Ethiopia inhabited by Somalis. A crushing defeat ensued, blamed by the ruling circles of Somalia on the Soviet Union, which did not support the military adventure. The Soviet Embassy in Mogadishu was destroyed, and Soviet diplomats and specialists were expelled from the country.

The word "Ogaden" was first brought to Russian ears by the poet Nikolai Gumilev. In 1913, he visited the Somali Peninsula with an ethnographic expedition. What he saw made a disturbing impression on him. He wrote:

  
 
 There are no thunderstorms in the whole of Africa 
 Somalia, 
 Their land is no more desolate. 
 
 
 

However, the country through which Gumilev traveled was inhabited not only by soldiers. As early as 1854, the English orientalist Richard Burton remarked that it was "teeming with poets." Perhaps Gumilyov knew about this - some stanzas of his "Peninsula" were written using alliteration, which is the basis of the Somali versification.:

  
 
 So many whites pierced 
 in the darkness of the spear 
 At the sand wells of her, 
 To talk about their exploits 
 Ogaden 
 Voices of hungry hyenas*. 
 
 
 

A great poet was the leader of the Somali national liberation movement of the early 20th century. Syed Mohammed ina Abdille Hassan. The British called him "The Mad Mullah" because of his unyielding fighting spirit and fierce resistance. These traits are common to many Somalis who have gone through a harsh "survival school" in the arid expanses of hot, rocky plains.

MOGADISHU. 20 YEARS LATER

Until my last trip, I had only been to Mogadishu once , in 1989, when the Somali Academy of Sciences invited me to attend the Somali Studies Congress. By plane (direct flight from Moscow to Mogadishu with landings in Cairo and Dar es Salaam) I saw two Africanists I knew. They said that they were supposed to accompany the director of the Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences Anatoly Gromyko (son of the then Foreign Minister), but he changed his mind at the last moment.

The news of this did not reach Mogadishu, and not only all the employees of the Soviet embassy arrived at the airport (by that time, diplomatic relations, which had actually been severed in 1977, were restored), but also prominent representatives of the Somali leadership. When they found out about the incident, they immediately left, but they did not change the program designed for the distinguished guest. So we were put up in the best Uruba hotel in the capital and taken to meetings in a government limousine.

After the congress, President Mohamed Siad Barre hosted a reception in honor of the participants. He was no longer young, tall and heavy, and he was standing in the courtyard of the palace.

* Gumilev N. Sobr. soch. in 4 vols. Washington, 1964. Vol. 2, pp. 91-93.

by the ocean. Next to him is General Morgan, Minister of Security, son-in-law. Ruthlessly exterminated the opposition. Terrifying the country. The only one the president trusted. The scientists came up, greeted each other briefly, and then went to the set tables. When it was my turn and I turned to Siad in Somali, he smiled and shook my hand. I also said hello to Morgan, but got no response. The general was looking at something with empty eyes.

A year and a half later, Mohammed Siad Barre was deposed and fled the country. He wanted to settle in neighboring Kenya, but the opposition protested, and he left. He died in Lagos, Nigeria, on January 2, 1995. I didn't know much about General Morgan.

...This time, after 20 years, no one was expected in Mogadishu but us, but the meeting was no less impressive. When we got off the plane, exhausted from the day's flight and squinting in the sun, we were surrounded by a dozen Ugandan soldiers from the African Union peacekeeping contingent and taken to the spotty armored cars waiting nearby. Bristling with machine guns and roaring horribly, they drove us to the best hotel in the capital. Now it was no longer a luxurious Uruba (we saw its ruins the next day), but a modest building of the former Embassy of the People's Republic of China, which was occupied by members of the federal government created in February 2009.

The Somali leadership could not have done more credit to the guests from Moscow. Modest living conditions (air conditioning only worked during the day, cold water was only available in the evening, and there was never any hot water) were compensated by reliable security and the availability of"news-makers". You could arrange an interview with any minister in the corridor, in the dining room, or in the courtyard. It wasn't forbidden to just knock on his door.

A meeting was soon held with President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. He is 45 years old, a teacher by profession. Prior to his election to the highest State post, he headed the Union of Islamic Courts and opposition armed groups that enjoyed the support of a significant part of the Somali population. When Sharif Sheikh Ahmed came to power, there was a split in their ranks. The radicals joined the Islamist movement Al-Shabab, which now controls many parts of the country.

Somalia is the only State entity in the former Somali Democratic Republic that is recognized by the international community. The President began his conversation with us like this:

"I'm glad you came. This is a good sign. I hope for the restoration of Somali-Russian relations. We have sent a message to the Russian President requesting a meeting and expect a positive response. As soon as he arrives, we will go to Moscow. We want to discuss our problems with the Russian leadership. 18 years of civil war have done their job. There was no statehood, the country collapsed. Moreover, there were pirates. By threatening navigation off the coast of Somalia, they are primarily harming their own country."

We drove to the presidential residence for an hour, slowing down at the checkpoint and avoiding the spike belts. Security guards - eight haphazardly dressed soldiers and a colonel in military uniforms-asked not to lower the windows and not to lean out of the cars. The sun was at its zenith, the city was empty, and dead houses stared out of broken windows. One of the Somali proverbs asks: "Which is better: where it is bare, but calm, or where it grows, but it is dangerous for life?" I don't know which is better. I know what's worse - where it's both naked and life-threatening. For example, in Mogadishu.

After Mogadishu, the film crew went to Puntland. On the highway between the cities of Cardo and Bossaso, our guide, also a Siad, handed me a mobile phone. I heard: "Hello, George. This is Morgan. Do you want to talk?" After 20 years, General Morgan "found" me!

PIRATES OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Until 2004, the word "pirate" was not used in the Somali language. Nor was there any "piracy"derived from it. Although the prerequisites for the emergence of the phenomenon denoted by this word have existed for a long time. This is the endless coast washed by the waters of the Indian Ocean (in the east) and the Red Sea (in the north), the busy trade routes running along it (from the Persian Gulf and Asian countries to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal and to Africa), the militancy and navigation experience of a part of the settled population. However, there have been no incidents of attacks on foreign vessels, at least in recent Somali history.

So Morgan, a former security chief who called from what turned out to be Kenya, said that" when he was there " no one had even heard about pirates in Somalia. I replied that there was nothing to be surprised about. The dictatorship that General Morgan has worked so hard to establish and preserve is a power without limits. Modern piracy is a manifestation of anarchy. In Somalia, it reigned in 1991, with the collapse of the regime of Mohammed Siad Barre. However, the capture of the first foreign ship was still 13 years away.

All these years there was a civil war in Somalia. It had its own peculiarity. It wasn't the "top" and "bottom" who fought, although Somalis have both: gob (nomadic pastoralists, fishermen, and other "free people") and gong (artisans from the "lower" castes who enjoy their patronage).

First, the war was between clans (tribal associations), then - between tribes within the clans themselves. Relatives who had lived side by side for centuries, spoke the same language, and prayed to the same God were exterminating each other. Somalian traditional law required that one hundred camels be given to relatives for killing a person. But when the war " all about-

They had to forget about the code of oral laws - even the 6 million camels that were available in Somalia in those years would not have been enough to "pay off" for the blood spilled. The warning of the ancestors was fulfilled: "If brothers love each other, they have many cattle and few graves, and if they hate each other, they have few cattle and many graves."

Over time, human resources were exhausted (hundreds of thousands fled the country, tens of thousands lay down in the ground), and the intensity of the fighting began to subside. First in the north-west, where the Dir and Darod clans formed Somaliland, then in the north-east, where Puntland emerged, inhabited mainly by the Darod tribes. And in the south (in Somalia), the war continued, while changing its color - from sky blue (the flag of Somalia) to bright green (the banner of Islam). It is still going on - religious fanatics are trying to overthrow the government of national unity.

Somalis say: "War is evil, but it's where men learn who's worth what." They have five male age groups. Two were at war - shield-bearers (young men from 15 to 22 years) and "black-bearded" - men from 22 to 35 years. Those who survived and returned home saw the biblical " abomination and desolation." Businesses built with the help of Soviet friends were in ruins. Cooperatives created during the transfer of nomads to a sedentary lifestyle have ceased to exist. Even worse, the coastal waters were no longer ploughed by the tiny felucca boats of their fishermen, but by the huge seiners of other poachers. Soon, taking weapons, the militants "took" a couple of them. They were released in a hurry, taking the fish and threatening to sink it if they came again. Others came, they were captured, but they did not get off with a catch.

Pirates operate in Puntland, "driving" captured ships to the village of Eyle (on the coast of the Indian Ocean), to the city of Laskorey (in the Gulf of Aden) or to deep-water bays far from human habitation and eyes.

When we arrived at Eyl, there were three cargo ships in the roadstead, which had been negotiated for a long time about the terms of their release. The mayor of the village of Abdirizak, Yusuf Muse (he is also the owner of the inn where we stayed for the night, a man with humor), when asked to take us to the pirates, said that he would bring one. He was found on land, as "he was wounded in the leg and temporarily lost his ability to work." We waited a long time for the pirate, but he didn't come.

And in the morning there were only two ships at sea. The third one was bought out and sailed away. The money between the bandits was divided by the "lame", having received a fee of 15 thousand dollars. Everyone in Ayla was talking about it. In the village, in Puntland, and in all of Somalia, there are no secrets from anyone. And how can it be otherwise, if "what is said in whispers comes where people gather"?

..In the capital of Puntland, Garowe, there was an "anti-piracy" rally. Hundreds of two hundred men, women and children listened to President Abdirahman Mohammad Mohamud's fervent "Farole"speech. When the rally was over, he invited us to his house. The president is about 50 years old. Born, studied and worked in Somalia. He became the head of the country in January 2010. He wears traditional clothing - a round "chief's cap", a light shirt untucked and a long loincloth (maavis).

"Piracy is one of the biggest problems," the president said. "But not just ours. Security is one for all, and if one person is threatened, then everyone is threatened. We resent the capture of foreign ships. By undermining international navigation, pirates are harming their own country. Puntland ports are no longer used by ships. So we fight the pirates with all our might. But we don't have much strength. There is no army, no coast guard. Warships of many countries are trying to take control of the situation. But they can't do it without us. That's one side of the story. There is another one. We have a lot of young people, but there is nothing to occupy them with. You need to study - there are no universities. I have to work, but I have nowhere to go. We are counting on the help of the international community. We recently convicted 60 pirates. Some were given two years, others-life imprisonment. The others, I'm sure, will suffer the same fate."

A one-story prison in the city of Bossaso (in the north of Puntland), where pirates serve their sentences, is surrounded by a three-meter wall. There is an exclusion zone all around. A hundred meters away - the Red Sea. Of course, you can't see him from the cameras (there are five or six of them). The cell has only three walls. Instead of the fourth, there is a grate facing the courtyard. The temperature in the yard is plus 50 Celsius, in the cells-no less. The prisoners ' hands are free, and their feet are chained. They rattled when they saw us and jumped up to cling to the bars.

Those who are handed over to the authorities by foreign sailors are sentenced to two years. The leniency of the punishment is explained by the lack of evidence-they are taken without weapons and "not in action". Pirates who are caught by the Puntland authorities (always at the scene of the crime) are given a life sentence. But it seems to me that there is no difference. Bossaso prison leaves no chance for either of them to be released.

...Each participant of the 10th conference of the International Association for Somali Studies, held in 2007 in Ohio (USA), in addition to the usual set-a folder with a program, notepad and writing supplies - received a large poster with a picture of the Somali peninsula taken from space. Its outline is similar to the horn of an African buffalo and the tusk of an elephant (see map). And on the bowsprit* boarding a pirate ship.

* Bowsprit - a horizontal or inclined round beam extending beyond the stem of a sailing vessel (editor's note).

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