IN MEMORY OF BURCI XAMSA: A FELLOW STUDENT FROM CALIFORNIA

By Faisal Roble

“Crème de la Crème”

Nearly 53 years ago, Burci Hamza was a member of an exceptionally trailblazing young Somalis who were about to lead their nascent nation.Exuberant andeuphoric about their country’s independence, Burci and a number of cross clan students sought education from afar; they were sent on US provided scholarship to the Golden State of California.

The California-Somali student body to which Burci belonged came in two waves. Burci came with the first wave which established the basis for what the later one grew into a significant community in the 1980s that was started sometime in the mid-1960s.

Burci Xamsa
Burci Xamsa

With some notable Somalis, mainly from Northern Somalia, Burci attended California State University in Long Beach (CSLB), a beautiful campus located in a coastal city on the suburbs of Los Angeles. To his West was Dr. Ali AbdiRahman who arrived also at UCLA around 1966 to do a graduate degree in African history after receiving his BA from the University of Maine.

Also with Ali at UCLA was another Somali from Ethiopia, Hussein Ismail, who, in the 1970s and 1980s, became the only member of Somali origin of the Workers party of the Dergi. Hussein later on became a minister and governor of Deridaba in the Dergi years.

A number of Somali students were spread out in the greater Los Angeles area in the 1960s.  For example, Engineer Mohamed Hashi Elimi was at California State University in Pomona, CalPoli, one of the finest engineering Departments in the country. Before Mr. Hashi returned back to Somalia sometime in the late-1960s, he briefly interned with the Bureau of Sanitation of Los Angeles, one of the largest public utilities. (It is ironic that Hashi and I are born in Jigjiga, educated in California and worked at different capacities for the City of Los Angeles).

The largest Somali student body was at the Long Beach campus. Some of those that went to Long Beach for the freshman and sophomore years (i.e. 1964 – 1966) were the late Abdi Haybeh Elmi, the late Abdi Timir Ali, the late Osman Mohamoud Noor (Osman Waal), Osman Adam (Osman Badawi), and Burci Mohamed Hamza. Some were transferred elsewhere such as Arizona and Texas. Burci, however, stayed and finished his education in California and always maintained some connections no matter where he lived

Next door to Burci was the only Somali student, Ismail Ali Bayr, who was attending at the time the prestigious private university, University of Southern California (USC). Ismail, after a short-lived stunt as a lecturer at Lafoole College in Mogadishu, returned back to Los Angeles and became a successful president of a savings and loan bank. Through the 1980s, when the Somali student body became larger, Ismail was our gateway to banking and helped us in getting car loans without any collateral.

My last laugh with Burci Hamza

The last time I laughed with Burci was about a year ago when he was passing through Los Angeles, and spent some time at the residence of Dr. Amina Adan and Mohamed Cilmi Bullaale at Costa Mesa, California (former president of Somali National University).

I am sure he will want me to honor him by sharing with his family and friends some of his fondest and funniest memories about his golden days in Californian. I will just tell two brief stories he passed onto me a year ago.

Let me simply say these are stores between fellow Somali students, an interaction between a typical rer-Waqoyi and rer-Xamari. It is about Cusman Mohamud Nuur (aka Cusman Waal, or Cusman the crazy RIP), who was also my former Geography teacher at Lafoole and his cross clan roommates.

As told by Burci: relatively heavy set compared to otherwise small-framed Somali fellows, Cusman frequently bragged about his ability, size that is, to handle American football; one sunny day, he got the opportunity to practice the game with some big college students.

Dressed in full gear, Cusman took his defensive position in the center of the field; the referee signaled to the team on the offenses of the game or play. In seconds, though, Cusman was crashed to the ground: Bung! And he was lying down.

Next thing he knew was that Cusman was lying in a hospital bed; he did not remember any other events between that moment of the referee signaling the start of the game and when he woke up in his hospital bed. No recollection of his passing out; no memories of ambulance and any of the commotions on whether he was breathing or not. That was the beginning and the end of Cusman’s flirtation with AMERICAN football. As a matter of fact, he never wanted to mention American football except to say “it is a violent game.”

A second story he would want us to remunerate again concerns Cusman Waal. A number of Somali students including Burci and Cusman Waal were roommates. Although most of reEr-WaqOoyi, there were two reer-Xamar (Burci and another one, sharing space(s).

Often the reer-Xamar, owing to their urbane culture, would cook small, tasty and nutritious dishes. Pasta here, a little roasted beef here, thinly sliced stake there usually with some veggie as a side dish. Delicious you may think!

Not so to Cusman. A thorough and through anti-vegan Burcawi, Cusman would always loudly complain of not eating enough Hilib, Faxfax (boiled goat/lamb meat). But his friends never stopped promising him that the next meal, or the one after, would be Faxfax and Bariis. However, that did not materialize in due time.

Finally, with his frustration building up, Cusman came home one day after an arduous school work, only to find out to his dismay once again small pasta “sal-data” dish was awaiting him in the kitchen.

Highly agitated, he screamed and trotted towards the knife cabinet. Still in his underwear, with his relatively imposing physique, Cusman started chasing his light-skinned reer-Xamar roommate out into the passes of the campus. Soon many bystanders joined the Somali student escaping and mistook Cusman for a crazy person chasing an innocent student. The security of the school was alerted right away. Burci and his roommates were shaken. But yet, they had to explain to the security that Cusman Waal was one of them.

Burci was a cosmopolitan man, an academician and a statesman who spoke for a disadvantaged and under-represented group. He was a patriot who never got tired of serving his nation. RIP brother.

Faisal Roble
Email:faisalroble19@gmail.com

Faisal Roble, a writer, political analyst and a former Editor-in-Chief of WardheerNews, is mainly interested in the Horn of Africa region. He is currently the Principal Planner for the City of Los Angeles in charge of Master Planning, Economic Development and Project Implementation Division.

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