History state something else.
Dhulbahante particularly like to refer to the Dervish history and their role in it to mark their ‘perennial’ opposition to the British protectorate and its apparent ‘successor’, the Republic of Somaliland. Yet oral and written history suggest a more complex picture. The summary of Maxamed Cabdille Xasan’s history in Chapter 4 presented the Dervish war as much as a civil war between and within various northern Somali clans as a ‘jihad’ and ‘nationalist’ struggle against the infidel and colonial intruders. Sheikh-‘Abdi (1993: 93-119) aptly described how various Dhulbahante, Ogadeen and Majeerteen sub-clans, as well as Isaaq clans, joined or opposed the Dervishes, depending on strategic considerations, inter-group animosities and the luck of war. This author also shed light on the brutal side of Maxamed Cabdille Xasan’s rule.455 The Sayid reacted to disobedience by massacring and robbing whole families, including women and children. Upon his orders, prisoners of war were killed and messengers sent to him executed if their messages did not please him. Those clan leaders who were in his way, like Garaad Cali of the Dhulbahante/Faarax Garaad, were assassinated.
Maxamed Cabdille Xasan’s arrogance and ruthlessness repulsed many Somalis, including Dhulbahante and Warsangeli. For instance Reer Hagar, the most numerous Dhulbahante sub-clan residing in the Buuhoodle area, refused to join the Sayid. Some of my Dhulbahante informants said ‘Reer Hagar waa fallaago’ (‘Reer Hagar were outlaws’) (interview with Cabdirashid Sheekh Cabdullahi Aaden and others, Buuhoodle, 15.03.04). There was some disagreement, however, about the question of whether Reer Hagar sided with the British or stayed neutral. Cabdirashid, who himself was Reer Hagar and whose paternal great-grandfather was a prominent Dervish, argued that ‘the Dhulbahante were two parts: the ones joining the Dervish movements and the ones refusing it; the latter were punished by the Dervish leader’ (ibid.). This kind of split was also typical of a number of other Dhulbahante sub-clans. Sometimes even brothers went to opposing sides. Nuur Xidigh and Suudi Xidigh were two brothers and famous warriors of Dhulbahante/Naaleeye Axmed/Cali Naaleeye/Bah Cabdalle. The first one was a Dervish and the second one supported the British (interview with Axmed Faarax Araale Laasasurat, Ceerigaabo, 18.06.2004).
Garaad Cabdiqani emphasised that the position today (in the first decade of the twenty-first century) of many Dhulbahante and some Warsangeli that ‘we are the Dervishes, we fought the Isaaq’ is ‘nonsense’ (interview with Garaad Cabdiqani, Laascaanood, 28.10.2003). Above I clarified that quite a large number of Isaaq were Dervishes. Similarly, many Dhulbahante and Warsangeli were either with the British or tried to stay ‘neutral’ (interview with Garaad Cabdiqani, Laascaanood, 28.10.2003). The Dervish war brought destruction particularly to the Dhulbahante, who lost many men, women, children and animals to Dervish as well as to British attacks.
Oral evidence indicates that, contrary to what many Dhulbahante and Warsangeli argued in the 2000s, the British controlled their area back in colonial times, and it was fully part of the protectorate. The first decade or so after the Dervish war was certainly a time without much administration in the eastern regions of the protectorate. In fact, many Dhulbahante and Warsangeli fled the area ravaged by war. Only in the 1930s did some administration begin to take hold, for instance with the foundation of the town of Ceerigaabo around a well (called af-weyne) previously used predominantly by Dhulbahante and Habar Yoonis. One Dhulbahante elder stressed that ‘between 1920 and 1940 there was no colonial rule in the area between Burco and Taleex. It was a fully nomadic region. In 1940, the Italians captured the area and looted the animals and the property of the people. The [Dhulbahante] nomads fled to the west and met with the British in Burco. There they joined the British against the Italians’ (interview with Ismaaciil Dubed, Taleex, 21.09.2002).
Another elder maintained that after the Dervish wars. John Drysdale, who was district commissioner in Laascaanood in the mid-1950s, mentioned that ‘the word “Dervish” was not in the vocabulary of Dhulbahante in those days’ (interview with John Drysdale, Hargeysa, 27.01.2009). Lewis, who conducted field research in the area between Buuhoodle and Laascaanood between 1956 and 1957, emphasised that he had never come across any reference to the Dervish movement as an expression of opposition to the British or Somaliland in those days (conversation with Ioan M. Lewis, London, August 2004).Besides these narratives, the integration of the Dhulbahante into the British Protectorate is illustrated by the fact that after the Dervish war a considerable number of members of this clan fled west to Burco, Sheekh and Berbera. There they intermarried with Isaaq/Habar Awal and other Isaaq clans. This history of flight is ‘stored’ in the biographies of the grandfather generation of many Dhulbahante living today. Moreover, one frequently finds Dhulbahante whose fathers and paternal grandfathers served as British policemen after Maxamed Cabdille Xasan and his movement had been defeated. Some of them had been Dervishes or at least the sons of Dervishes before.
the British came to Buuhoodle and Laascaanood and up to Yocadda [the border with the Italian territory in the east]. But the Dhulbahante used to stay further; some had fled to the side of the Majeerteen. The centre of the British administration in the region was Laascaanood. … In 1954 the British and the Dhulbahante had a meeting in Hargeysa. Garaad Jaamac (Baharasame), Xasan Deyl (Chief Caaqil of Cali Geri), Yuusuf Kooreeye (Chief Caaqil of Reer Hagar) and other elders went to Hargeysa to negotiate with the British. Peace was agreed upon. Afterwards, the Dhulbahnte and the British were on good terms. (Interview with Maxamuud Qarshe, Buuhoodle, 12.03.2004)
The issue of Caynabo obviously touched a nerve among many Dhulbahante, not only in Buuhoodle but also far beyond, and even among some Isaaq. During an interview about the role of traditional authorities in Buuhoodle, Maxamuud Xaaji Cumar Camey, the chairman of the local elders’ council (see Chapter 6), mentioned that ‘all the older Dhulbahante of the area were born between Horufadhi and Caynabo’ (interview with Garaad Cabdullahi and Maxamuud Xaaji Cumar Camey, Buuhoodle, 15.03.04). I interpreted this as a reminder that the Dhulbahante dominated the land up to Caynabo before the British enabled the Habar Jeclo to occupy it.
When talking about degaan among pastoral nomads in northern Somalia, a Dhulbahante/Naaleeye Axmed man in Ceerigaabo stressed that land ownership can actually change over time. To illustrate hispoint he stressed that Caynabo had been in the hands of Dhulbahante some 60 years ago; it fell to the Habar Jeclo during the course of some inter-clan fighting (interview with Axmed Xaaji Aadan Afqallooc, Ceerigaabo, 05.06.04).
Get over it