Different perspectives on Somalia. Part I.

Reflections of a former diplomat and his friend

Prior to Erdogan Hospital, named after the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has been fully reconstructed and refurbished by the Turkish government, there used to be Digfer hospital.

Italian construction company named Degola Ferreti, which the Somali people abbreviated to Digfer built the hospital and it was opened in 1965. It served the Somali people for a long time providing free treatment. A tradition that many expected to continue in the new hospital built by our new donor, Turkey which is subsidized but not free.

In Somalia, the days of free education and medication are over. And those who promote the success of today’s private sector and continue to fight against a functioning government are slowly beginning to appreciate the values of State and Nationhood.

This is the first of a short historical piece about the complexity of how  Somalia conducted its foreign affairs in the past viewed through a lens focusing on just one example. And what lessons we can learn from that experience.

In 1983 Somalia’s Ministry of Health requested assistance for repairing Digfer hospital from the government of Japan. There is nothing unusual about this since receiving aid from foreign countries was and still remains to be common practice in Somalia.

The Japanese government sent building engineers from Tokyo to Mogadishu to assess what was required.  When the engineers concluded their assignment,  a diplomat from the Japanese Embassy in Khartoum arrived in Mogadishu to meet the Somali Ministry of health officials and to discuss the options from the engineers of the hospital assessment.  

Some non-resident Embassies accredited to Somalia were based in Khartoum, Sudan in the 1980s. Therefore, the senior Japanese diplomat flew from Khartoum via Europe and Nairobi to reach Mogadishu for the sole purpose; to meet the Somali Ministry of Health administrators to discuss the repairing of Digfer hospital.

---

To digress, it used to be Somali government policy not to allow  Embassies in Addis Ababa & Nairobi to act as non-resident Embassies towards Mogadishu. This is an area that deserves further research for those interested to understand the source of the problems Somali faces today. Especially those who were educated abroad with Somali government scholarships and now are members of the diaspora- in clear language, pay the debt, the tax, whatever you want to call it. Any Somali who received free education between 1960 and 1991 owes the Somali people who are suffering today, owes his country a debt that must be paid!

---

Protocol Officer Hussein M. Mohamed (Mr. Hussein hereafter)* of the Somali Foreign Ministry was assigned to accompany the Japanese diplomat and has participated in the meeting that took place at the Office of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health. The purpose of this meeting between the Somali Ministry of Health officials and the Japanese diplomat was to discuss the recommendations of the engineers regarding the renovation of the Digfer hospital.  Mr. Hussein submitted a detailed report about the outcome of this meeting to his superiors at the Foreign Ministry.

The following is the recollection of Mr. Hussein, a former diplomat.  After seeing and assessing the repairs the hospital needed, the Japanese experts came to the conclusion that the best for the Ministry of Health was to keep and maintain the hospital as it was and to let the experts request from their Government a new project to build, equip and maintain a new and bigger hospital.    

But unfortunately, that recommendation was outrightly rejected by the Somali health officials citing the importance this hospital held for the Somali people and being the first modern hospital that was built for the nation. And besides this request for repairing the hospital has been in the process for a long time and to act against it now will not be in the best interest of the Ministry of Health of Somalia. 

When Mr. Hussein was seeing off the Japanese diplomat at the airport, he casually asked how long it will take for him to reach his destination. And the Japanese diplomat responded it will depend on which flight connection he takes, adding " You know, your Government obviously has its reasons for making our Embassy in Khartoum represent Japan towards Somalia. But as the norm is, I think our Embassy in Nairobi is better placed to be Japan's non-resident Embassy to Somalia. After all, Mogadishu & Nairobi have direct flight links with a less than the two-hour duration of flight time".

It took twenty years, but finally, Somalia decided to do what the Japanese diplomat suggested in the 1980s and now allows non-resident Embassy staff accredited to Somalia to be based in Nairobi.

So, after pondering some time, the Japanese diplomat added " You know what? I am really quite happy about that ".  To which our observant protocol officer, Mr. Hussein answered back: " I can imagine". This is a diplomatic language to remain polite while pointing out the unfortunate position many find themselves in while serving their countries.

One of the many lessons that we can learn from the historical note is that after more than 60 years of independence, Somalia has a long road ahead to become self-sufficient in any sector. That the country’s foreign affairs policies are not yet clear in many aspects as highlighted in the case described here from the past, and sadly the current status of diplomatic missions which have even regressed further over the years.

Where to from here? As a former protocol officer and senior diplomat, Hussein M. Mohamed shared this piece to highlight what led to major problems in Somalia’s interactions with other states whether bilaterally or through multilateral platforms.

The foreign affairs ministry of any nation is like a mirror the world sees how a country interacts with the rest of the world. And since the diplomats are the representative of the country, therefore, they have to work harder to ensure Somalia’s global image is not tarnished. So far, there is no evidence to suggest that this is a shared view among Somalia’s past and present leadership.

This short piece is one of a few that Mr. Hussein will share with all Somalis interested in rebuilding the country. The expectation is that this will shed light on some of the overlooked reasons behind the collapse of the Somali government. This we hope will help remind ourselves of the importance of history and the urgent need to learn from it. Many will remember Digfer as an old Mogadishu Icon, many more will remember it as a place where they were born or have received free medication.

As a primary school student, Mr. Hussein still remembers walking past Digfer hospital and even the Digfer Postcard which was very popular those days, when Somali Postal services used to work and many used to send letters and postcards to their friends**. Today, unfortunately, it is even hard to find a single decent photo of Digfer on the Internet, let alone buy a Digfer postcard. It seems as though there is a campaign to erase Somalia’s history. And it is with that note, I conclude this short piece and hope we in the diaspora can set up a mechanism to help rebuild our country.  Feedback and comments are welcome.

* *Hussein M Mohamed and I went to Casa Popolare Primary School, Hodan, Mogadishu in the 1970s. And later on, were first and second students who were admitted to the faculty of Journalism where he graduated and joined the Somali Foreign Affairs Ministry. He continued to serve the country as a diplomat, but I left and continued my studies at Monash University in Australia and may rapidly add not on a Somali government scholarship! We are now working on a book about Somali Foreign Affairs, stay tuned.

** An article about the Somali post will be published here soon.

Hussein M Mohamed can be contacted via hmm@somaliaaway.com