Ismail Mire
Ismail Mire Elmi (* 1862 in Lasadar ; † 1950 in Ogaden ) was a Somali poet and soldier . He served as the commander of the dervish movement. The airport Ismail Mire Airport in buuhoodle is named after him.
Ismail Mire lived a nomadic life before joining Mohammed Abdullah Hassan , the leader of the dervish movement. In 1910 he and his cavalry attacked the city of Berbera , then the administrative center of British Somaliland . This daring attack left a deep impression on the city's population and was an important psychological victory. In 1913 he led the dervish troops to victory over a British army in Dul Madoba and killed the British commander Richard Corfield. To inform Mohammed Abdullah Hassan about the battle, he sent him a poem in which he sang victory.
Mire used his talent as a poet to inspire the population through his poems for jihad against the colonial powers. When his wife complained that he was so absent, he wrote a poem in which he stated that the struggle was more important to his country and faith than family and a quiet life. His Somali opponents also responded with poems criticizing Mire and his struggle.
In 1920 the dervish state was finally defeated by the British when the Royal Air Force bombed the capital Taleh and several other important places. Apart from his wife, the entire Ismail Mire family died. After the defeat, he and his wife retired as nomads in northern Somalia. There he continued to criticize the new rulers with his poems. A good friend of his was murdered in 1936, prompting him to write poetry about the event. When the murdered man's son took revenge on one of the perpetrators in 1946, Ismail Mire was arrested for inciting violence in his poems. After his release he lived as a nomad again; around 1950 he died in the Ogaden region .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kwaku Akyeampong, Emmanuel; Henry Louis Gates Jr., Dictionary of African Biography . Oxford University Press, 170-171.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mire, Ismail |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mire Elmi, Ismail |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Somali poet and soldier |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1862 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lasadar |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1950 |
| Place of death | Ogaden |