ABSTRACT
Voice and Power, ed. R.J.Hayward & I.M.Lewis (ALC Supplement 3, 1996): 155-170.
In the spring of 1992, well over a year after Somalia’s erstwhile strongman, General Mohammed Siad Barre, was run out of town and the ensuing civil war engulfed the country in random violence and mass starvation, I phoned Professor B.W.Andrzejewski to express ‘my despair over my country’s thorough and senseless lurch toward selfdestruction.’ Characteristically, the mild-mannered Andrzejewski politely declined to offer an opinion on what caused the apocalypse to descend on Somalia. Instead, he suggested that I look into the country’s cultural and historical traditions for an answer, in particular, into Somalia’s fabled poetic heritage wherein may lie some clues as to the causes of the Somali collapse. He then asked cryptically: ‘Have you ever heard of the Somali war horse that feeds his master?’ I said I had an idea what he was alluding to but would still welcome some elucidation. Once again he declined to commit himself to a declarative opinion but promised to send me a few poems that may shed some light on the subject.
