Poetry
Oh Clansmen, Stop the War
Waar tolow colka jooja
Salaan Carrabey · 1920
Synopsis
Two related fractions of the Togdheer, the Axmed Faarax and the Reer Daahir, long set against each other by vendettas and raids, stand face to face, ready for battle. A sheikh has just read and translated the Quran to them to bring them back to peace, and one of the men has knocked the book from his hands. The poet then steps forward, saying he speaks a language these men understand, and addresses both troops, recalling their kinship and the dead who have already fallen, to the refrain “stop the war”.
Context
Hoyga Maansada dates the poem to 1920 and reports that it prevented a war between the two groups. The poet recited it before the two armies already lined up for battle, in the short metre of the geeraar. Transmitted from memory, it is known today through transcriptions, and Martin Orwin gave an English translation of it in an anthology of Somali literature devoted to conflict and peace, in 2009. The same poet composed, in the last years of the 1930s, verses that on the contrary fanned a quarrel between two neighbouring clans.
Who it is for
For readers interested in the role of Somali poets in clan quarrels, when a poem can stop a fight.
Prizes and reception
It is one of the Somali poems most readily cited to show what a poet's words can do for peace.
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