The Current Tragic Situation
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The Current Tragic Situation
With no organized systems of learning in place now, millions of Somalia’s children, young adults and adults are all at the mercy of whatever informal education ‘bestows’ upon them. Informal education, seen in this context as what is randomly learned from the general societal situations, may sometimes, and depending on the situation, enhance social development. In Somalia’s case, though, the country’s situation in the last 7 years or so would lead us to believe that informal education is not only destructive at the moment, it also seems to be legitimizing a host of negative consequences, and in the process, it is self-perpetuating. Hence, and to use Bayart’s (1993) term, it is of longue duree.
The overwhelming destructive nature of informal education in current Somalia is conspicuous in the lives of millions of former schoolers and would-have-been schoolers who are no longer in the business of future-building. Instead, Somalia’s youth are fast adopting the culture of thuggery, war-like attitudes toward life, clan and sometimes sub-clan rightings, and survival on the fringes of an otherwise disintegrating society. The social formation that is taking place within the lives of Somalia’s children in these situations, therefore, is conspicuously capable of diffusing in them a wanton desire to destabilize the human and physical environments in which they must function. As Samatar (1991a) points out:
Even if the unthinkable happens, and the warring factions manage to honour the terms of the cease-fire agreement, Mogadishu is unlikely to see peace. The reason is not far to seek. Of the estimated 20,000 armed militia roaming Mogadishu, only about 5000 are commanded and controlled by the two main warlords. The remaining 15,000 are thugs who are answerable to no one. So many hungry, Qaat-crazed youths armed with assault rifles are likely to use their weapons as a means to gainful employment. They will continue looting, pillaging and terrorizing the city. (p. 141)
The 15,000 former potential students may now be hundreds of thousands all over the country. In terms of any changes that have affected their lives, one could only guess that whatever has been happening to them is impacting on their lives more negatively than positively. More importantly, the qualitatively discouraging effects of the situation are not the results of any deliberately planned schemes by the youngsters themselves. As adults, we should be cognizant of the fact that children are social beings who will do mostly what they are socialized to do. In today’s Somalia, children are not being socialized, at least not formally, for responsible and accountable future roles.
Moreover, as these young ‘fighters’ become fully anaesthetized to life in the potentially fatal lane, they may be more hostile to any peace and reconciliation efforts. To them, a government that restores law and order, would reduce the demand for their services as potential gangsters, robbers and bandits (Finnegan, 1995). It may be safe to assume, therefore, that as long as the psychological dispositions of these children are in the current state of affairs, they may prefer to see the current political situation maintained. After all, this is what these children know, and anything different may seem alien and dangerously unpredictable.
The impact of the several efforts to rehabilitate some learning centres by UNESCO and a few other international organizations (UN Humanitarian Affairs Department, 1993), and some efforts by some independent Islamic societies could be, if not practically insignificant, woefully inadequate. In effect, most of these programmes hardly got off the ground. Hence, there is the possibility of the current bleak situation perpetuating itself for many years, if not decades to come.
In terms of the present condition of former centres of higher learning, the buildings are, at least, not useless. They have been overtaken by former pastoralists after the majority of the city dwellers fled the urban centres. The flight of the urbanites was instigated by factional fighting in and around the major cities (Samatar, 1994). The lack of doors and windows (already looted) in most of these buildings does not seem to bother the new occupants who, having been used to living in small huts in open spaces, may now be savouring the luxury of the concrete buildings. This is also true for most of the city’s nicer houses, where in the words of Finnegan (1995), the people who are now inhabiting these homes are from the countryside, and are, therefore, ‘enjoying their first sojourn in the city’ (p. 68).
As far as the effects of the physical and ecological transformation of the educational institutions are concerned, Finnegan (1995), for example, describes the current condition of the former College of Education:
The low-rise, modern looking building of the former College of Education is now a displaced persons’ camp. The classrooms and dormitories were full of families; the walls were blackened by cooking fires ... The library was a world of dust. Books were piled everywhere, on sagging shelves, on toppling heaps. Some were stained and disintegrating, but most were intact. Every title I saw seemed, under the circumstances, absurdly ironic: ‘The Psychology of Adolescence,’ ‘Adolescents Grow in Groups,’ ‘Primitive Government,’ ‘The Red Badge of Courage.’ Sunlight drifted through high windows on the west wall. A cow mooed somewhere. The dust was so deep that it was as though the desert itself was creeping through the walls, burying the books in fine sand. (p. 76)
The overwhelming destructive nature of informal education in current Somalia is conspicuous in the lives of millions of former schoolers and would-have-been schoolers who are no longer in the business of future-building. Instead, Somalia’s youth are fast adopting the culture of thuggery, war-like attitudes toward life, clan and sometimes sub-clan rightings, and survival on the fringes of an otherwise disintegrating society. The social formation that is taking place within the lives of Somalia’s children in these situations, therefore, is conspicuously capable of diffusing in them a wanton desire to destabilize the human and physical environments in which they must function. As Samatar (1991a) points out:
Even if the unthinkable happens, and the warring factions manage to honour the terms of the cease-fire agreement, Mogadishu is unlikely to see peace. The reason is not far to seek. Of the estimated 20,000 armed militia roaming Mogadishu, only about 5000 are commanded and controlled by the two main warlords. The remaining 15,000 are thugs who are answerable to no one. So many hungry, Qaat-crazed youths armed with assault rifles are likely to use their weapons as a means to gainful employment. They will continue looting, pillaging and terrorizing the city. (p. 141)
The 15,000 former potential students may now be hundreds of thousands all over the country. In terms of any changes that have affected their lives, one could only guess that whatever has been happening to them is impacting on their lives more negatively than positively. More importantly, the qualitatively discouraging effects of the situation are not the results of any deliberately planned schemes by the youngsters themselves. As adults, we should be cognizant of the fact that children are social beings who will do mostly what they are socialized to do. In today’s Somalia, children are not being socialized, at least not formally, for responsible and accountable future roles.
Moreover, as these young ‘fighters’ become fully anaesthetized to life in the potentially fatal lane, they may be more hostile to any peace and reconciliation efforts. To them, a government that restores law and order, would reduce the demand for their services as potential gangsters, robbers and bandits (Finnegan, 1995). It may be safe to assume, therefore, that as long as the psychological dispositions of these children are in the current state of affairs, they may prefer to see the current political situation maintained. After all, this is what these children know, and anything different may seem alien and dangerously unpredictable.
The impact of the several efforts to rehabilitate some learning centres by UNESCO and a few other international organizations (UN Humanitarian Affairs Department, 1993), and some efforts by some independent Islamic societies could be, if not practically insignificant, woefully inadequate. In effect, most of these programmes hardly got off the ground. Hence, there is the possibility of the current bleak situation perpetuating itself for many years, if not decades to come.
In terms of the present condition of former centres of higher learning, the buildings are, at least, not useless. They have been overtaken by former pastoralists after the majority of the city dwellers fled the urban centres. The flight of the urbanites was instigated by factional fighting in and around the major cities (Samatar, 1994). The lack of doors and windows (already looted) in most of these buildings does not seem to bother the new occupants who, having been used to living in small huts in open spaces, may now be savouring the luxury of the concrete buildings. This is also true for most of the city’s nicer houses, where in the words of Finnegan (1995), the people who are now inhabiting these homes are from the countryside, and are, therefore, ‘enjoying their first sojourn in the city’ (p. 68).
As far as the effects of the physical and ecological transformation of the educational institutions are concerned, Finnegan (1995), for example, describes the current condition of the former College of Education:
The low-rise, modern looking building of the former College of Education is now a displaced persons’ camp. The classrooms and dormitories were full of families; the walls were blackened by cooking fires ... The library was a world of dust. Books were piled everywhere, on sagging shelves, on toppling heaps. Some were stained and disintegrating, but most were intact. Every title I saw seemed, under the circumstances, absurdly ironic: ‘The Psychology of Adolescence,’ ‘Adolescents Grow in Groups,’ ‘Primitive Government,’ ‘The Red Badge of Courage.’ Sunlight drifted through high windows on the west wall. A cow mooed somewhere. The dust was so deep that it was as though the desert itself was creeping through the walls, burying the books in fine sand. (p. 76)