Different perspectives on Somalia. Part VII.
SONNA: Guinea-Bissau or Guinea-Conakry!
Once we used to have diplomatic warriors…. This is Part VII of the reflections of a former diplomat and a friend of mine who after many years decided to share with me some of the interesting experiences he encountered while working for the Somali Foreign Affairs Ministry (FAM) and during his diplomatic career.
My Friend Hussein* told me the following…
In the age of fake news and the dominance of social media as a source of reliable news for many, especially in countries where the level of education is low or governments control the media. In the case of Somalia, while the former is true, the latter is not as the role of government in this sector or any other sector for that matter is insignificant.
The following is a recent discussion between my friend Hussein, the former Somali diplomat, and I as a part of the different perspectives on the Somalia series. What Mr. Hussein shared with me clearly demonstrates the level of professionalism, attention to detail, competency, and the serious approach of the then Somali public service when discharging their responsibilities.
Mr. Hussein correctly pointed out while many in today’s Somalia could easily say ‘It was not my job’, he reminds them ‘ what about our country's reputation?’.
After concluding a very hectic day at work, including a long morning ceremony to receive at the Presidential Palace newly accredited Ambassadors for presenting their credential letters to President Siad Barre, I was on my home in Hawl-Wadaag district near Bar Ubah intersection, when I heard from the vehicle’s radio, the main news of Radio Mogadishu at 1415 hrs regarding the event I have just attended.
As usual, the first news item in those days most likely was about what the President was doing, for example receiving newly appointed Ambassadors. That of course I knew. But my ear clearly caught something I did not expect when I heard the name of a country attributed to being one of the Ambassadors who presented the credential letters that morning. Shocked and dismayed, I wondered where that mistake came from. The correct written information of the Ambassadors and the countries they represent was provided to the President’s special correspondent, the late Yassin H. Ismail Jirdeh. I knew he was a talented, dedicated, and reliable journalist who knew his job well. Prior to his appointment at the Presidency, he worked for radio Mogadishu for a long time and was a famous personality in Somali journalism. Almost all the old generation remember his name and I for one recall vividly when I used to listen to him reading the main news bulletin in Somali in the late1960s and early 1970s.
So, returning to the subject at hand, just imagine what could really have happened if the concerned non-resident Ambassador heard the evening news in English or French which radio Mogadishu used to broadcast in. Incidentally, the Radio’s foreign language programs in the early eighties were available in Arabic, Italian, English, French, Amharic, and Swahili & Afar. Or even worse if this false news was published in the next day’s Somali newspaper - The October Star or the following Friday’s weekly English edition newspaper - Heegan.
Surely it was not my job to intervene in the duties of other ministries’ personnel, but I didn’t hesitate in this case to correct that mistake, diverting the car to the Ministry of Information – Somali National News Agency(SONNA) quarters on the ground floor right side of the building. Fortunately, I happened to know in person the one who was in charge of that afternoon shift, and I enquired about the news item relating to the ambassadors and where did they get that name from? The head of the shift immediately dug out the original copy of the report and instantly found out the mistake.
It turned out to be a SONNA correspondent, who was perhaps new to the job. He was the culprit to blame for the error because he was writing about a news item that happened in a country called Guinea-Bissau located in West Africa when he was brought the report of the ambassadors who presented their credentials from the Presidency. And so, the slip error happened while he was copying the story of the newly appointed Ambassador of Guinea on standard SONNA sheets, he made the mistake of writing Guinea-Bissau instead of the correct name that should be: Guinea#. I think it happened because firstly the two names resemble each other and secondly due to the fact that the correspondent just finished writing a news item about Guinea-Bissau which maybe was still in his mind. But they were two different nations who happen also to be Neighbours in West Africa.
Of course, that correspondent in particular and the Somali news agency team of that shift were elated and genuinely delighted, because apart from that midday news release only, all news dispatches to foreign language radio sections and national printing press were still with SONNA, and they have ample time to correct the error by just deleting Bissau from the dispatches. And it was corrected because I listened again to the afternoon radio (1700 hrs) news release to make sure everything was right to the point.
When I was seeing off the non-resident Ambassador from Guinea at the airport, I took notice while in the VIP room that he bought a set of two local newspapers each of Heegan and Xidigta Oktoobar. He also took care to make press cuttings relating to the event, carefully folding them and putting in his handbag with some pictures of him handing his letter to the President.
I could not help but ask myself what could have been the reaction of that ambassador had his country’s name was erred on the newspaper article of his presentation ceremony when he was actually representing his President and countryman. No doubt an important event in his biography, a milestone for anybody’s life who reached that great status called the Ambassador. It is not something to be underestimated, and I totally understood why he made the press cutting because he wanted to attach them with the report he was submitting to his superiors, as a testimony of carrying his duties when he represented his President Ahmed Sekou Toure and came to hand over his credence to another head of state.
I want to conclude here with this simple question: Don’t we should all shoulder responsibility for the common good of our country? At least then, when I and so many others like me were toiling to be diplomatic warriors of their own, helping each other, correcting mistakes, and making the country and its people proud was our first priority.
# There are three countries in Africa with the name Guinea: The modern-day country of Guinea (Guinea-Conakry) which lies on the West coast of Africa. Guinea-Bissau which is located immediately north of Guinea, and was previously known as Portuguese Guinea (when it was colonized by Portugal), and then there is Equatorial Guinea.
Hussein M Mohamed and I went to Casa Popolare Primary School, Hodan, Mogadishu in the 1970s. And later on, we were the first and second students who were admitted to the faculty of Journalism where he graduated and joined the Somali FAM. 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.
* Hussein M Mohamed can be contacted via hmm@somaliaaway.com
A sterling article!