The Paradise of Somalia and the Hell of Abyssinia. Refutation of Ezekiel Rediker´s Fake Ethiopia
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
January 13, 2010
To exemplarily refute an Anti-Somali, Anti-Ogadeni falsification of East Africa´s History, I selected the article "The Ogaden: A Microcosm of Global Conflict" by Ezekiel Rediker (http://www.tcr.org/tcr/essays.htm); I republished excerpts of the 20-page article about Somalia, Ogaden and Abyssinia (fallaciously renamed Ethiopia), and refuted the errors point by point.
In the present article, I continue the refutation of the aforementioned article´s excerpts. Latin numbers inserted in the text correspond to points of my commentary. Modern European numbers in the text corresponds to the author´s footnotes. In forthcoming articles, I will complete the analytical refutation.
The Ogaden: A Microcosm of Global Conflict
By Ezekiel Rediker
The History of Conflict: 1400-1855
Fighting between the two powers ceased, (XXI) and Muslim herders, (XXII) who previously avoided the Ogaden because of hostilities with the Abyssinians, (XXIII) migrated to the region in large numbers.5 (XXIV)
Muslim herders began to bring their livestock to the Ogaden for annual pasturage. (XXV) They migrated in and out of the Ogaden according to rainfall, and combed the region for the most fertile grazing spots. These Muslim herders were ethnic Somalis, and to this day, the region is peopled almost entirely by their descendants.6 (XXVI)
The Ogaden thus became a land of Muslim Somali herders, (XXVII) a migratory people (XXVIII) who followed the predictable patterns of rain and pasturage. According to Dr. Said Samatar, the "precolonial Somali lived in a world of egalitarian anarchy."7 (XXIX) Somali nomads have no centralized government, and according to British anthropologist I.M. Lewis, this "lack of formal government (XXX) and of instituted authority is strongly reflected in their extreme independence and individualism."8 (XXXI)
Lewis also noted that the Somali nomad has "an extraordinary sense of superiority as an individual" (XXXII) and believes that he is "subject to no other authority except that of God."9 (XXXIII) Various Somali tribes fought wars over territory and cattle, and a delicate power-sharing balance was created to preserve cordial relations between the clans. Fierce clan loyalty and the refusal (XXXIV) to accept a centralized Somali government later contributed to the collapse of the Somali state in the 1990s.10 (XXXV)
Between the late 16thcentury and the early 19th century, the peoples of the Ogaden lived largely in peace. They were relatively unaffected by the struggle between Arab merchants and the indigenous Somali clans for control of East African seaports (XXXVI) such as Mogadishu, Bimal, Merka, and Baraawe. As herders, people of the Ogaden did not play a major role in the slave trade, which was the primary cause for conflict between ethnic Somalis and Arab traders.11 (XXXVII)
Commentary
(XXVI) This sentence is in striking contradiction with the previous. The author speaks first of an Amhara blow against the Somalis in the aftermath of the death of the King Ahmed ibn Ibrahim. He then suggests that peace prevailed; if this was so, the hypothetical blow would be meaningless. Even more so, because as we will see below, despite of the hypothetical blow, Muslim herders are mentioned to have migrated to the area claimed by the Amhara. What is the importance of a blow that proves to be unable to prevent subsequent "hostile" infiltration?
Of course, the overall subject is interesting only as an error analysis and refutation of Ezekiel Rediker´s forgery. As I already said, such blow never occurred.
(XXVII) The expression is part of the forgery. Who are the "Muslim" herders? Is it perhaps necessary to imitate Ezekiel Rediker´s extremist, Evangelical – Zionist, confrontational style and, calling the English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese colonial armies "Christian" invaders, to thus trigger an earthquake that would "blow" all the Christian churches in America and Europe?
It would perhaps be wise for the pseudo-intellectual terrorist Ezekiel Rediker to present his excuses to all the Muslims and the Somali Nation in particular, confessing that his text consists in an entire forgery, and returning his fake award to the forgery promoting, pseudo-academic institution TCR.
Historical forger Ezekiel Rediker´s "Muslim herders" are a two-level fake! First of all, if they existed they could be either Somalis or Afar; as he presents them as ancestors of today´s Ogadenis, we have no reason to doubt that he intended that they were Somalis.
Then, why avoiding the term ´Somalis´?
The answer is simple; Ezekiel Rediker and many other English, French and American forgers of Eastern African History do their ingenious best to eliminate the ethnic name of Somalis, and the name of Somalia itself, in order to usurp Somali History´s contents and devilishly attribute them to their evil fabrication ´Ethiopia´, a total historical fallacy.
In fact, Ezekiel Rediker´s undertakings consist in intellectual terrorism and intentional contribution to an all-national genocide. As such, he should be dealt with by all Somali and particularly the Ogadeni patriots.
But in fact, the "Muslim herders" Ezekiel Rediker is talking about ….. never existed! He tries to present the following false concept:
1. There were Amhara – Somali wars in the area of Ogaden.
2. Because of this, the entire Ogaden was uninhabited.
3. The wars ended with Amhara victory and annexation of Ogaden.
4. Following the pacification, Somali herders, the ancestors of today´s Ogadenis, settled in the area.
In fact, never ever an Amhara soldier arrived in Ogaden before the middle of the 20th century for reasons of military occupation and state control. We already clarified that for the tiny, unstable Amhara state that had no capital city and no stable palace for their ceaselessly defeated pseudo-king, Ogaden was totally out of reach either during the war with the Awdal Somali King Ahmed ibn Ibrahim or for many centuries afterwards.
So, the aforementioned fake structure is all wrong and unrealistic!
What is even funnier with Ezekiel Rediker´s erroneous assumption is that, according to the aforementioned scheme, Ogaden must have been totally uninhabited as late as the 16th century! This is totally absurd to pretend and anyone who does so, merely discredits himself.
Ogaden as part of the entire Somalia represents a continuity of at least 3500 years that corrupt liars like Ezekiel Rediker simply will always fail to erase from the memory of the Mankind and the historical records.
(XXIII) Certainly this statement is false because these hostilities did not take place at Ogaden, not even in its immediate periphery. But there is worse; the concept that people "avoid" areas where wars take place is a fake. It merely reflects today´s corrupt mindset that prevails in the West. People stay where they are and do engage themselves in wars; eventually they retreat and come back in force, according to the balance of power per moment, but that is all. The idea that a vast area (and Ogaden is as large as Italy) remains totally uninhabited because loacal and/or neighboring populations flee because of occurring wars is a factoid, not a fact.
(XXIV) Similarly with the previous lie; there is no evidence or and reference to such a hypothetical event in any historical source. This is made clear by the author´s own mistake to annotate his irrelevant text. In support of the hypothetical, mid-16th century, ´early´ Ogadeni migration to the falsely assumed under Amhara control Ogaden (that would thus have become their own land), Ezekiel Rediker puts a note to his text. One could expect a historical source (in Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, Somali, Amharic or Tigray); but in vain! There is no such a reference in any related historical source. Then, Ezekiel Rediker to make his text look serious, refers to a brief and totally mistaken entry to Encyclopedia Africana (third edition, Microsoft, 2000; s.v. "Ogaden") composed by Marian Aguiar, an Assistant Professor in the Literature and Cultural Studies program at Carnegie Mellon University, e.g. written by someone who is totally unrelated to the subject.
(XXV) To intensify his lies, the author repeats his fake concept, as if following Nazi propaganda techniques introduced by Joseph Goebels. Yet, he is very silly in implementing this method in his own writing. His repetition is in fact self-contradictory. If the 16th century early Ogadenis "migrated to the region in large numbers", this means that they settled there. And this is what Ezekiel Rediker seems to pretend, if we judge on the basis of further parts of his article. Then, the next sentence is dangling, because if, as Ezekiel Rediker suggests, they then "began to bring their livestock to the Ogaden for annual pasturage", this means that they did not migrate to Ogaden but to other lands in the vicinity – from where only they would hypothetically be in a position "to bring their livestock to the Ogaden for annual pasturage".
As a matter of fact, if a people "migrated to" a "region in large numbers", this means that they also brought their livestock with them, and then settled there. If they settled there, they could not have the chance to later "bring their livestock" to that area "for annual pasturage".
All the confusion goes back and forth in the next sentences where Ezekiel Rediker suggests something that is more vague and elusive, namely that later they "migrated in and out of the Ogaden according to rainfall". Of course, herders migrate according to weather conditions and seasons; but the falsehood in this case lies in the words "in and out of the Ogaden". In not a single part of Ogaden´s borderline can this happen. In fact, herders either settle in one place and per season move to other nearby places or spend time in one place and then move to another only to go back to the first in the proper season. Either cases can happen in many parts of the world, not only Ogaden. But this does not involve migration "in and out" of a certain land.
(XXVI) Of course, it is totally irrelevant to pretend that Ogaden was uninhabited before the early 16th century, and that Ogadenis´ past can only be retraced as back as that period. Again, the note 6 is totally irrelevant to the point (Graham Hancock, "Somalia: Wounds of Nationalism that will not Heal," New African Development Journal 11 (1977) pp. 634-635).
(XXVII) All the aforementioned lies are said only to support Ezekiel Rediker´s foremost need of Eastern African History´s falsification, namely the reduction of Ogaden´s historicity and the elaboration of a distorted portrait for the Amhara and Tigray Abyssinians as emanating from an greater historical and cultural background. This is totally wrong, as we already discussed in previous parts of this refutation.
(XXVIII) In another extreme falsification effort, the author depicts the Ogadenis as a "migratory people". This fallacy contributes to the previous distortion, serving the effort to malignantly deprive the Ogadenis of Somalia´s great past and 3500 years long History. In fact, the Ogadenis have been in Ogaden for more than a millennium before the alien, non African, Abyssinians sailed from Yemen to the Red Sea´s western coastlands.
(XXIX) Every serious falsification effort follows the same patterns:
"when you say a big lie, depict its origin as belonging to those whom you target"
and
"if you try to tarnish someone´s image, do it by using them as source and/or evidence".
There is no doubt that Dr. Said Samatar wrote the sentence "the precolonial Somali lived in a world of egalitarian anarchy". But he certainly meant it in a positive way, as this situation involves freedom, egalitarianism, peacefulness, justice, and social balance. But the pernicious Mr. Ezekiel Rediker presents Dr. Said Samatar´s excerpt to the average readership of corrupt, unjust, unbalanced, iniquitous and evil societies of hypocrisy, pseudo-democracy, extreme criminality, widespread misinformation and disinformation, and ultimate degeneration in order to vilify the Ogadenis.
In a way, Ezekiel Rediker presents the image of the Paradise to the demons of the Hell in order to further intoxicate them against the Paradise. The effort goes on, and Ezekiel Rediker proceeds to the epicenter of our societies´ evilness that was absent from the almost perfect, humane and peaceful, Ogadeni society before 500 years. He mentions then the lack of centralized government.
(XXX) Focusing on Ogadenis´ character, idiosyncrasy and socio-behavioural identity, Ezekiel Rediker refers to an English social anthropologist, I. M. Lewis, renowned for his classical publications on Somali pastoralism. Lewis, to his credit, opposed the UN ill-fated efforts to produce a fake solution for Somalia in the year 2000 – which however failed.
What Rediker selects from Lewis is not a general conclusion or a specific point of analysis. He simply picks up few words that correctly illustrate the Somali, Ogadeni or other, idiosyncrasy and identity, but at the same time create a terrible contrast with the model of the ´good and stupid citizen´ in the Western, consumerist, materialist, anti-Christian, immoral, corrupt and quasi-defunct societies. On the basis of this contrast, Ezekiel Rediker attempts to further vilify the Ogadenis for his evil purpose.
The lack of formal government and of instituted authority is truly good if compared with today´s Western European and North American societies; why should there be any kleptocracy to deceitfully rule and progressively corrupt an entire society?
It is far better for a society to keep its authenticity, preserve its own culture and traditions, and markedly stress its identity without "formal government and instituted authority" than to be corrupted and disfigured, besotted and kept out of control of its own affairs because of the secretive grip (over the said society) exerted by an uncontrolled secret organization that on the basis of secret hierarchy, hidden rituals, and systematic initiation imposes on the entire society its apparently pernicious and malignant agenda.
In a forthcoming article, I will further refute Ezekiel Rediker´s debased claims and biased approach.
Nore
Picture
Fake Ethiopia split as per wish of more than 82% of the therein imprisoned, subjugated, tyrannized and massacred populations. From:
http://free-oromia-free-oromia.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html
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