By Ismail Ali Ismail ( Geeldoon)
I learned with sorrow about the end of the life of Ambassador Ahmed Mohammed Adan, the day it was announced in Hageisa, November 26, 2013. There is a time when life comes to an end for us individuals – and for all else as matter of fact. Truly, ‘All passeth away and God alone will stay’: life on Earth is but a short journey to a permanent abode whose quality depends on what we do here before we arrive there. The Somali people have mourned the death of Ambassador Ahmed wherever they are, and have prayed for him. Those who knew him, myself included, will attest to his good deeds on Earth.
Ahmed had a long life of fulfillment. He was born in Aden in 1930 where his father was working for the British forces. He was raised there and received his education almost up to the secondary level. But he never stopped learning, and he acquired in that process his Somali nickname ‘Qaybe’ (learner by heart). In those days of rampant illiteracy even a modicum of education was a gem in one’s hand, for educated people were rare and in high demand. As a result, lucrative employment (by the standards of those days) was assured and social prestige was guaranteed: nothing could be more satisfying than a well-paying job and a high social status. It was all the more so in ‘Somaliland Protectorate’ than in Aden considering the fact that the first elementary school was not established in Hargeisa until 1943.
Ahmed moved to Hargeisa in 1954 and was appointed as the Head Clerk in the District Commissioner’s Office. He was a stenographer in an era in which only few Indian expatriates were, let alone Somalis. This qualification augmented both his emoluments and his standing in the small colonial bureaucracy. In 1956 – only two years later – he was appointed as Executive Officer for the Local Government Council of Berbera, and in that same year was sent on scholarship to Edinburgh and Oxford universities for two years to study local government as well as general administration. He was appointed in 1959 as the Clerk of the Legislative Council. From January to June 1960 he was on a training attachment to the UK Parliament in order to observe parliamentary procedures, and debates, and learn how to report them. With constitutional advance in the offing the British foresaw the need for a clerk of the legislature and, having created the post, they trained him for it. However, the bewildering speed of the political events leading to independence took him elsewhere, for he was to serve as Cabinet Secretary where he was badly needed.
The euphoria following independence and merger was both intense and unsettling. Neither the British nor the Italians had prepared Somalis to take up diplomatic posts, and there was no foreign service on which to draw. It became necessary then to take the cream of the senior civil service and appoint them as ambassadors. From that point on Ahmed embarked on a long, brilliant and uninterrupted diplomatic career spanning thirty years as ambassador and crowning it in the last years with the post of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and finally as its Minister in the dying days of the Siad Barre regime.
He was sent in 1961 to Moscow as our first ambassador to what was then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and was moved from there to Washington in 1965 to replace Ambassador Omer Ma’allim. I was then winding up my undergraduate studies in Washington DC, and that was when I first came to know him personally. He was returned home in 1968, as is customary in the diplomatic service, to renew his Somaliness after two consecutive tours of duty abroad: fears about ‘going native’ or forgetting about the home country by staying out in the diplomatic wilderness for too long have a lot to do with calling diplomats back to base. Changes also happen of course when a new government comes in, and it was not surprising that Ahmed was succeeded by President Shermarke’s son in law.
With the military takeover in late 1969 Ahmed and I found ourselves without assignments. I was replaced as District Commissioner of Kismayo by the Military and he was still awaiting reassignment. Being thus in a limbo we shared a room in a decent Mogadishu hotel and that was when we came to know each other better. I remember vividly the night he was told (in early 1970) that he was reassigned to Moscow. He was very disappointed as he preferred – and expected – to be assigned elsewhere. Apparently, the Military selected him to be their man in Moscow because he had been instrumental in the momentous negotiations leading to various (including military) cooperation agreements with the Soviet Union.
Five years later he was transferred, much to his delight, to the Court of St. James’s as ambassador to the UK where he again served with distinction until he was moved to the UN in New York as ‘Ambassador and Head of Mission’. Once again he was called home in 1985 to serve as the ‘Permanent Secretary’ of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was undergoing reforms. The title of ‘Permanent Secretary’ was adopted to establish a level higher than the ambassadorial and heads of departments level. He held that post from 1985 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1991 he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Ahmed seemed to have been made for diplomacy. He was tall, handsome, had a naturally dignified bearing, and was always impeccably and appropriately dressed for formal as well as informal occasions. He was blessed with a measured voice, a friendly demeanor and a disarming smile. His English was fluent and flawless and he was supremely self-confident. These are qualities that make a successful diplomat, and I am sure they contributed to the success of all his diplomatic dealings. The pictures posted in the Somali websites provide sufficient evidence of these qualities to the trained and critical eye. It has been said, after all, that a picture is better than a thousand words.
He continued to serve the country in the post-Barre era in ‘Somaliland’ where his friend, President Egal, was at the helm and he became the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies in Hargeisa – a post he held for many years. However, the behavior of contumacious members practicing strident politics, together with advancing age and failing health, finally forced him into retirement. The Government of ‘Somaliland’, recognizing his excellent service, gave him a decent farewell in the form of national burial. For its part, the Government in Mogadishu led by President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud gathered in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to eulogize him, mourn his death and name the building of the Foreign Office after him in gratitude for his long service to the Nation.
His death was not only covered by the VOA and BBC but by all Somali media as well. And with his life history and pictures with world dignitaries splashed across the pages of Somali websites those who knew him and those who did not felt a sense of loss. President Hassan himself said: “I did not know the man because he was before my time. But I can see that he was a great patriot”. In his last year Ahmed attempted to put some glimpses of his experience together for posterity, and shortly before his death he called me to let me know that he sent me a copy of his book by hand of a friend and former diplomatic colleague. I had sent him a copy of mine.
Ahmed Qaybe was a good human being, a man of the world, and a good Somali. May his soul rest in peace and may the Lord forgive his sins and reward him generously for all his good deeds on earth. In sha Allah, In sha Allah, Aamiin, Aamiin, Aamiin.
Ismail Ali Ismail ( Geeldoon)
Email: [email protected]
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Ismail Ali Ismail (Geeldoon) is a former Somali civil servant, UN staff and the author of, Governance, The Scourge and Hope of Somalia. Ismail is also a regular contributor to WardheerNews.
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