Walking through the market, a friend explained that when I Al-Shabaab controlled the city, they cleaned up the chaotic streets of the market and created a working system. They have ordered all the shop owners who used to ‘rent out’ the space outside their shops to petty traders to stop renting out an illegal space that is supposed to be a public street. They ordered the removal of all the shacks blocking the streets and now you can comfortably drive or walk thorough Bakara market.
People are selling
everything you can imagine, from construction material, cheap made-in-China
nylon clothes unsuitable for the Mogadishu heat, to university degrees! Yup,
you can have a degree from “Oxford University” conveniently made in Bakara for
few dollars. No need to pay a fortune and spend years stressing in the real
Oxford Uni. I passed up the opportunity today coz I couldn’t think of a subject
I would like to have an Masters degree on. I will think hard and go back to get me a home-made
MA in minutes.
I spent the last month and a
half in a Presidential campaign, meeting crooks, so called elders, wannabe ‘Ministers’
with absolutely no clue how government is run. It was an eye-opening experience
but also depressing to get a glimpse of our future misleaders. A day spent in
Bakara market gave me hope that we are not doomed. With this level of hyper
active entrepreneurship, surely, we can’t totally go wrong? At least the ratio
of honest hard working folks to the get-rich-fast from politics fat men gives
me a bit of hope.
The most curious thing about
Mogadishu markets is the visible presence of female traders at every level! How
can we have a culture where women are equal, if not more dominant in trade, to
men in business but totally invisible in politics?! Some of these women must
be wealthy and influential, how come they are not trying to push for their
agenda in politics and support women candidates or political organisations? I
have so many questions and I can’t wait to meet women traders to ask them
directly.
Of course, not everything I
have seen in Bakara was good. I find it baffling that some male traders are
rude, call you names, shout at you and expect you to buy something from them!
WTF moment, lots of moments, actually. Men shouted at me “naa hooy,
naa hooy, kaaley oo wax naga gado!”, which loosely translates to “hey you, hey
you, come and buy something from us!”. In Somali it sounds a lot more
aggressive. What do u say to that? “Mofo, thanks, but no thanks?” Lol. You will def scream "Dayuusbaro" and probably get shot. You better ignore them and walk on.
The other totally depressing
thing you see everywhere in the market is the mistreatment of donkeys! They are
overloaded, beaten, harassed, and looking malnourished. These animals must be
the ultimate slaves for humans, how horrible for them. I am told since there is
no enough food and they won’t work properly if they are not fed well,
they are given drugs! Mixture of qaat leftovers and pills!! No wonder they look
so skinny and permanently hangover, poor things! I won’t be surprised if one
day these 4th class slave citizens of Mogadishu go on rampage and
take over the city. That day, I will arm them and help them find an escape
root, eff this inhumane treatment. If you ever think you were born in the wrong
clan and get treated like shit, think of these guys. They don’t even have a
clan elder to speak on their behalf.
