an early daydream occurred

I just came back from the office and as I laid my head down against my pillow, my mind went back to 1998 when I went to visit my maternal grandmother in Galgadud, Somalia. During my stay there I went to the rural areas to see some of my paternal grandmothers (note; most Somalis will tell you they have more than one grandmother, who aren't their parents' mothers but the mothers of their parents' siblings.)
One of them, a very charming old-fashioned typical Somali grandmother, used to tell me tales of foregone history and past traditions. This was the first time I learned the history of the clan system. She had a hard time pronouncing some of the names of the Somali clans so she created nicknames that she associated with the pronounciations of the names. One particular day she was telling me the story of how my father's sisters got married.
One of them got married to a guy from the Murursade tribe but she couldn't pronouce that name so she called them 'xooggane' or 'xooganayaasha' because 'murur' has a close sound to 'muruq' which means muscle in Somali and 'xooggane' means 'the strong one.' As she explained how the ceremony of giving my aunt away occurred she kept refferring to them as 'the strong ones' and the funny thing is she isn't saying this particular tribe is stronger than the other tribes but rather she is using the phrase as a reference to help her remember who her daughter's in-laws were.
I wish we could go back to the days of my grandma when clans were solely used for the purpose it was created for; a way to know where you come from, to know your ancestors, your family, your forefathers and to have a sense of community.

With that picture in my mind I cannot comprehend how history has evolved into using that system for people of the same breed and background to belittle each other. I was having a conversation with one of my friends earlier on today. He told me how a group of people of the same immediate family chose to alienate one family member simply because of the person he chose to spend his life with. They do not know their nieces and their nephews and they are living in the same city! It is unbelievable.
I think of how some families are separated due to wars, displacement and political asylum in some instances and what they would give to see their families again and how short life generally is. What is the essence of life if you cannot spend it with your family, if you do not share your joys and moments of sorrow with them?
It baffles me that after the experience of the civil war that most Somalis either immediately experienced or were affected by it in some way, some people still have the audacity to alienate their family members when they have been lucky enough to survive and be united!