DAVID SMITH in Gabiley, Somaliland
ATHLETICS 5,000M PREVIEW: THE TINY homestead lies deep in the savanna, far from any road; tyre marks in the dirt offer the only trail. Nearby, a cow and a donkey drag a wooden plough in uneasy tandem. Looking on is Faisal Farah, who has receding short hair, two prominent yellowing front teeth – and a blue jacket that says “Team GB”.
Today Faisal will walk four miles to Wajale, the nearest village with electricity, to watch his brother Mo race for a second Olympic gold in the 5,000m.
Their mother, Amran, who has remained in rural Somaliland despite Mo’s success abroad, will be with him in the crowd around the TV, just as she was for the 10,000m final last weekend.
“When he won, I exploded like a bomb!” says Faisal, a farmer who, at 37, is eight years Mo’s senior. “I ran out in the streets shouting.There were a lot of people delighted and cheering. I celebrated and gave people gifts of khat [a bitter-tasting leaf] and meat.”
Mo will run for Britain in the 5,000m, but Somalis will be watching just as closely, claiming him as their local hero. The runner was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, and his family lives in the semi-autonomous Somaliland region, where Mo returns about once a year to widespread adulation. Locals speak admiringly of him visiting orphanages and refugee camps and setting up a charity. Faisal says Mo has built two houses for the family.
Mo is the fourth of eight children, according to Faisal, who is the eldest. Faisal lives far off the beaten track, close to the Ethiopian border, and a world away from the lights and noise and logos of the Olympic Stadium.
Visitors are advised to travel with armed guards, following a road lined with abandoned petrol stations and a sign offering assurance that the area has been de-mined. The final part of the journey requires a Land Cruiser to bump and skid through bushy terrain and muddy quagmires.
Faisal, who must trek to Wajale every time he wants to charge his phone, leans against a tractor and reminisces about looking out for his younger brother when they were growing up.
“Mo was always interested in sport: football and athletics,” he says. “He always ran in the streets as a child. He was very smiley and happy all the time. We played together, we walked together. We played football and sometimes we raced but he was faster than me. He was a dynamo.”
Watching Mo’s Olympic glory in London, he feels no sibling rivalry, he insists. “It is as if I myself am running, so I cannot be jealous of him.”
Their father was a businessman and the family lived comfortably in a substantial stone house. But Somalia was sliding towards two decades of civil war.
“People in our neighbourhood died or were injured because, like us, they originally came from Somaliland,” recalls Faisal. “I remember gunfire and explosions, often targeted at us. I don’t like it when the memories come back. I try not to remember.”
The family moved first to Somaliland, but conditions were harsh. “We were refugees. We left our business and money. We were poor, living in a very small tent in a refugee camp. The country was destroyed and there was every problem, like lack of food and power. Luckily Mo was a healthy boy.”
They then sought relief in neighbouring Djibouti, while Mo’s father returned to London, where he had been born and raised. Mo followed at the age of nine and joined his extended family in Hounslow, barely able to speak English.
Faisal had no desire to follow.
“Mo went for better life, but I don’t want to go there,” he muses. “I like the benefits of this country. Of course I miss my brother but he communicates by phone day and night. He tells me, ‘If you start training, maybe you will reach the Olympics one day!’ When he comes back each year, we share a lot of stories.”
It is difficult for their parents to live continents apart, Faisal adds, “but my mother doesn’t want to go there. She doesn’t like the city.”
Neither Faisal nor others here seem too troubled by Mo wearing adopted British colours. He continues: “He’s a Somali, whichever flag he holds, and he’s my brother. He can be a double citizen. If he ran with the Somaliland flag it would be great, but he has British nationality so he must run with the British flag this time. We hope he will run all the way and be a famous man.”
Somaliland declared independence in 1991 but is still not internationally recognised as distinct from Somalia. Faisal says that, although he and Mo were born in Mogadishu, they still regard Somaliland as home. Mo has previously posed for photos with the tricolour of Somaliland, not Somalia’s flag of a white star on pale blue.
But south of here, in Mogadishu, Mo has plenty of fans who care little for politics but a great deal about hope. Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes – the line is apt. Although a combination of insecurity, poverty, Ramadan and a two-hour time difference means there will be few public gatherings to watch tonight’s race, it seems almost anyone with satellite TV at home will be tuned in.
Among them is Amal Mohamed Bashir (18), who watched the 10,000m with her mother and sisters and jumped to her feet when Farah clinched gold. “It was a very big night for me because he has a Somali name and Somali origins,” she says. “Whichever country he runs for, he’s still Somali.”
His victory also created a huge buzz among Somalis inside and outside the country using social media. “Tonight, the little giant rose to amazing heights,” read one message that was rapidly circulated after the 10,000m. “Tomorrow, we as a nation can do the same. After all, Farah is our own.”
© 2012 Guardian Service
