Maaney lived in Baydhabo with her husband and three children. Theirs was a typical Somali family in Bay, making a living from farming and raising livestock. Everything changed when her husband died unexpectedly.
She was suddenly faced with the stark reality that she now had to fend for herself. Her in-laws quickly came to claim the farm land and the livestock they had in the name of inheritance. The land she tilled for so many years and the livestock she raised her children on were suddenly no longer hers. She felt cheated. There is no way she wouldn’t inherit from her husband’s wealth. The way the inheritance was calculated and divvied up by her in-laws has injustice written all over it.
She sold 3 goats she had to her name and made the decision to go to Mogadishu with her children, in hope that her luck might fare better there.
After travelling on the road for a long time, Maaney and her children finally made it to one of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Ceelasha Biyaha, just on the outskirts of Mogadishu. She lived there for several years. Today she lives in the Faatah IDP camp near the Somali National University campus of Gahayr in Mogadishu. She makes a living from cleaning wealthy people’s homes and washing clothes. Her eldest son is now grown and has found work in Bossaso. Her daughter works as a maid for a local wealthy family.
Maaney still has some worries, particularly about the precarity of living in IDP camps, where one doesn’t have any land rights and can be evicted any minute. But she is relieved she can earn for her family and has raised her children to also be able to earn for the family.
It’s been a long journey, but Maaney dreads to think what her life and her children’s lives would be like if she stayed in Baidoa. She insists that her story of displacement is one of quiet contentment with hope for what lies ahead in the future.