When Mohamed Ibrahim Warsameh Hadrawi and other Somali artists arrived in the central town of Beledweyne, 300 km north of Mogadishu, on Friday, they were warmly greeted by local residents from rival clans in the town.

Hadrawi, the famous artist and poet in Somalia, has started his peace march from Mogadishu and went down all the way to the southern port town of Kismaio and he is now heading towards north.

Hadrawi's team, consisting of many composers, artists and poets,has been welcomed by hundreds of cheering people and the local officials in the town waving flags and green leaves, happy about their arrival in Beledweyne.

Beledweyne itself has been divided into two hostile areas whichis separated by a bridge that crosses over the river and the town has often been East and West mainly dominated by the Hawadle clan in the east and the Gudundhabeh in the west.

Even though the small scale business would cross the bridge still the heavy load trucks transporting the goods would not cross from east to the west or the vice-verse.

But, Friday has been a historic day, as Hadrawi together with other artists, as part of his delegation, have marched on foot through the bridge opening it for the public and hundreds of people have crossed with him cheering for the start of peace among the two sides of the town.

This bridge, before it was built as a real bridge, was earlier a small ladder-kind of a bridge crossing the river suitable only for the pedestrians, and it is where Hadrawi has in the early seventies met the girl whom called the most beautiful one he had ever met and he had composed then a song for her called Beledweyne after the town.

The song gave an extensive description of what the girl looked-like and her features and in the end of the song, the poet has blessed the town. So, this is what makes the poet still attached to the town and its people. The song had become and still is one of the best Somali songs.

The people of Beledweyne believe that the blessing of Hadrawi of the town has made fruits.

"Today, we export more than 40 trucks of vegetables each day to the neighbouring regions, and this shows how our town had become a prosperous city," said Abdullahi Abdi Ali Koffi, the acting governor of the region.

"The criss-crossing of the bridge by the people continued since last night and the people feel as a new day was born for them," Abduwahab Abdullahi Omar, a businessman in the town told this reporter by phone. "This is really building the confidence among our people."

To prove to the people that Hadrawi is there for them, he has walked through all the quarters of the town on foot with all his team members waving to the people and he was offered a big luncheon on Saturday at the western side of the town since he has slept on Friday night in the east.

Politically, the town is united as the governor is from the east and his deputy is from the west, but clan wise, the people have been having some friction which Hadrawi now aims at solving through dialogue.

Before making to Beledweyne, Hadrawi has spent a night in Jowhar town, 90 km north of Mogadishu, where he has been well received by the local authority and was offered a big dinner.

There are no problems at all in Jowhar town, and that's the reason why he would not spend more time there. This is the first time ever in the history of Somalia that such a peace march was organized and now it is the Peace and Human Rights Network organization, a local NGO, which is facilitating this peace march.

The Somali artists have been accused of inciting the civil unrest during the days when they stood firmly against the late regime in 1990, and now they feel obliged to play their role in calming the people down again.


Copyright © 2003 Xinhua News Agency