A few days ago, there was some tribal tensions in the northern region of Somaliland , precisely between Qabiley and Borama. I wont go into any specifics of the incident , since I have heard only one side of the story and am not very familiar with the whole situation. Let's just say there were Gunshots through 24 hours, Tribe Seniors Locked up and protests leading up to civilian clashes with the police - not very pretty at all.
So with a tribal feud building up slowly , what better way to settle it all than in the field with a ball - It was GAME TIME !!!! . a day after the tension started , there was a match between Qabileey and Borama. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said the whole town was glued to their screens through the 90 minute game. - and if it isn't clear yet , it wasn't because the whole town were interested in football.
You even had the Old women on standby and everytime a goal was scored , they'd ask who scored [ that's how oblivious they were to the whole game. to them it was just a bunch of men running around with a ball , but what they knew was they were playing the so called enemy !!!! ] and when they were told it was Borama - The drums would be playing and the whole ilyilyilyilyilyyy was the national anthem for the next 30 seconds. this was clearly tribalism invading football , a more diplomatic way of solving issues. No Guns involved , just loads of sweat on the field and a ball.
You even had the Old women on standby and everytime a goal was scored , they'd ask who scored [ that's how oblivious they were to the whole game. to them it was just a bunch of men running around with a ball , but what they knew was they were playing the so called enemy !!!! ] and when they were told it was Borama - The drums would be playing and the whole ilyilyilyilyilyyy was the national anthem for the next 30 seconds. this was clearly tribalism invading football , a more diplomatic way of solving issues. No Guns involved , just loads of sweat on the field and a ball.
I dont particularly remember the score , but Borama did win that day and the Gunshots and clashes from the day before were followed with celebrations, drum playing and a joyful feel in the air.
Peace is restored once again to Borama, thanks to the beautiful game of Football :).
PS: To the readers of the blog, I'd like to introduce myself . I am the co-writer of this blog while Fatma is away. I will simply go under Anonymous for now but I will add my contact info to the "about me" page for those of you who are interested in knowing me . Hopefully I will be able to bring you an interesting read .
