The Futility of Using Racist Labels

September 3, 2013
By Hassan M. Abukar

I woke up early Tuesday morning and was checking the latest news with my laptop when I saw a flashing headline in Wardheernews titled, “Midgaans and the Ethiopians are fighting for the last Place in Somaliland.” The article was written by Mark Hay and reprinted from Vice. My initial reaction was one of bewilderment. Is this a typo? The word “Midgaan” is a pejorative in Somalia. It is a word used by clannists and the ignorant to refer to a cluster of minority groups. The problem is more acute in the Somaliland region than any other part of Somalia.

The reporter from Vice himself mistakenly wrote that these minority people’s “actual name” is “Midgaan” and that the groups encompass “the Timal (sic), Yibir, Gaboye and other groups.” He also noted the name “double[s] as an insult.”  He added that some “Midgaans” still “see it as a connoting pseudo-slavery in Somali society, where they have traditionally been restricted to ‘unclean’ work like barbering, blacksmithing, infibulation, and leatherwork.”

I am disappointed that a major Somali website like WDN would reprint such a vulgar and tasteless article that demeans an entire community in the name of investigative journalism. It is one thing to cover the plight of a minority group, but insulting them by using the very name that they were given by their oppressors is abominable. A similar example would be writing about the lack of employment opportunities for many African-Americans in inner cities and then debasing them in an article that starts with the “N” word.

The piece did not add to our knowledge of what the minority groups face in terms of loss of job opportunities. Last year,

WDN posted a TV news clip from the Universal channel that dealt with Daami, a neighborhood in Hargeisa that is inhabited by minority groups. That show was informative and analytical and not a single pejorative word was uttered. This kind of news coverage is what we need, not knee-jerk articles that perpetuate racist labels and symbols.

Each of the minority groups the article mentioned has a real name. The Tumal, the Yibir, and the Madhiban are proud of their names, but they feel insulted when they are called “Midgaan” a pejorative label that connotes a sense of superiority by its user. These minority groups have traditionally performed skills that other Somali nomads could not or did not want to perform. What the writer calls “unclean jobs” (barbering, blacksmithing and leatherwork) are what has sustained Somalia’s economy for hundreds of years. It is ironic that these so-called “menial jobs” are careers highly touted in many parts of the world. What is wrong with barbering, leatherwork, and blacksmithing? It is perhaps only the ignorant who do not appreciate such lines of work. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “There are no menial jobs, only menial attitudes.”

Hassan M. Abukar

Email: Abukar60@yahoo.com