Bleeding Wound by Mohamed Abdikadir Daud (Stanza)

Mohamed Abdikadir Daud (Stanza) is a distinct Ogadeni poet and intellectual with great humanist culture, refined and combined Eastern – Western mores, a solid and wide academic background, invariably alternative political viewpoints, and very wide horizons.

In brief, he is the Ogadeni Citizen of the World par excellence.

This is reflected in his poetry where one could scarcely detect his Somali identity; to that extent his humanism prevails. Born in the Somali part of Kenya, and currently based in Khartoum, Mohamed Abdikadir Daud embodies the traditional values of Somali poetry, involving magnificent metaphors, dramatic contrasts, dystopian idealism, existentialist quest, original sentimentalism, and elaborate conceits.

Timeless setting characterizes his ‘Bleeding Wound’ where all the elements of Mohamed Abdikadir Daud’s poetry are integrated in an epic disparity between Good and Evil, sophisticated interpolations, and motionless drama. That’s why this masterpiece of contemporary Somali poetry, without losing in anything its political connotation, is utterly, emphatically, and ultimately religious.

Bleeding Wound is a Poem at the End of Time (Al Yom al Ahar).

Bleeding Wound

The world is full of war and wonders!
Peace died at the hands of the killers!
Prime lives are lost now and then;
Sisters cry and mourn for their brethren;

Oh the peace-loving brothers!
Ah the troublesome war-mongers!
I hate he who hates peace!
I love he who loves peace!

Look at the violation of human rights!
And say NO to all kinds of African plights;
Let us not forget Ogaden condition,
Let us cry for the troubled people in that region;

Ogaden is a big and bleeding wound,
A bleeding wound in the heart of the Horn of Africa,
Many lives are maimed and lost there,
But the world is ignoring or unaware!

Where are the African peace-builders?
Where are the continent's Nobel Peace Prize winners?
Hurry up please Nelson Mandela!
And mediate Ogaden and Ethiopia;

It is so long that girls are raped!
It is so long that heroes are killed!
It is so long that guns are fired!
It is so long that wounds are widened!

I weep for the African brothers and sisters,
Both Ethiopians and Ogadenians,
That lost their fathers and siblings;
Ogaden is an all-ignored African-Palestine!

I am an African peace-instructor,
I am an African trouble-shooter,
I am an African war-eradicator,
I am an African life-protector;

I am the brain-child of peace,
I am brother to peace and cooperation,
I was born at consideration,
And brought up at devastation;

My heart is burning!
My blood is boiling!
I like to see Africa at peace,
I yearn for Africa's stability;

World is at terror!
Africa is at turmoil!
Somalia is at negation!
Ogaden is at oppression!

I am a neutral writer,
A central solicitor;
An African trouble-analyst;
A born author and pan-Africanist;

I will phew as long as women are at risk!
I will whew as long as the world is at danger!
I will oppose as long as corruption is in Africa!
I will campaign as long as peace is at my reach!

I am here to erase racial discrimination!
I am here to criticise aggression!
I am here to call for war elimination!
I am here to compose songs of peace and love!

Written: Date: 20/8/2005