Poor Mohammed--Somebody's Always Yelling At Him

One thing I’ve noticed about Somali culture is that people are not afraid to be aggressive, argue and even yell at each other to get what they want. In fact, many times they yell not because they are angry, but just because that’s their way of being heard. Last week, my roommate and I were trying to set up a phone line and internet in our apartment (and we’re still working on it), so we made several trips to the telecommunications center. It was then that I noticed people kept yelling the same word over and over to each other. It sounded like “MAHMED!” Again and again, it was Mahmed-this, Mahmed-that. What could this word mean? I heard it on the bus, in our landlord’s office, in stores, at the market. Somebody was always shouting it somewhere. Finally, I realized it wasn’t “Mahmed” everyone was shouting, it was “Mohammed!” Because this is a Muslim country and people want to honor Islam’s prophet by naming their children after him (or they’re not that creative), it seems like every third man is named Mohammed. Poor Mohammed—he is the errand boy, the backroom stocker, the scapegoat, the assistant, the money collector. And he is always getting yelled at.