Extract From 'Ringing On My Mind'

... If I were them, I would not know how to live from minute to minute. But they, they are heroes and heroines of hope; faith and a love that never gives up. ...

"The world does not understand the situation!" Yinini says desperately. And fearfully looks around every moment even when there is no one near him. He is afraid that someone flew in the same plane with us to kill him. All the time he remembers the way they killed other writers in his country, Hashi and Yunus. And in other parts of the world he knew many dead writers. Natalya Estimirova's face would not leave his mind. But he was kind. He was very kind and gentle and would never kill.

At the airport, the women tuck in soft cloth around their faces and other body crevices. I look at the writer with me. He tells me of his two years in jail. Ringing at the back of my mind is a caller on BBC Kiswahili asking Somalis if they are jinxed or bewitched to be forever fighting.

He had fled his country in goodness. If you see him in your country standing out like a black Father Christmas would in Europe, force a smile on your lips, and greet him. Share a song with him. Tell him you know a few words from an African language and if he asks you why, tell him that humanity speaks one language. A language of heroism and love; tell him, he is not bewitched and neither is Somalia. Play with his eyes. Let the women dance to their songs, they have cried enough! Ringing on my mind are different questions that people are answering now, about a world run from elsewhere.

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