Eat, Pray, Herd.
How an I.T. guy found career happiness owning 78 camels.
“Miserable would always be the man who owns no
camels”
Qawdhan Duale.
It took 78 camels but Mohamed Isaaq is no longer miserable.
In a reversal of the usual way of things, Mr. Isaaq has fled the stress of city life in the West to become a camel herder in the drought-stricken
scrublands of eastern Africa.
After decades working as a computer network administrator in Ottawa, his life now echoes the nomadic ways of his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather and so on, going back some 15 generations.
He’s not in it for the money. On an average day he earns $150 selling camel’s milk, before paying his camelhands, his delivery driver and other expenses.
“What’s important,” says Mr. Isaaq, “is happiness.”
Some two million people born in
Somalia or Somaliland—a self-declared independent state within Somalia’s internationally recognized borders—have fled war and hunger there over the past 35 years, many seeking a secure livelihood and political stability in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Uncounted thousands have taken their earnings from Minneapolis, London, Toronto and other Somali enclaves in the West and returned home to build hotels, open stores or serve in government. But Mr. Isaaq is one of very few who have gone all
the way home, back to the herds.
“The nomad life is not easy,” he admits. But “this is our heritage.”
Mr. Isaaq is 53 years old, but looks much younger than his camel-herding peers, who have spent lifetimes in the bush. He worries about sunburn, and his nickname—most Somali men have them—is Mawlid, which means Babyface. He herds in a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and New Balance sneakers, simultaneously propping sunglasses and reading glasses atop his head.
He was 19 in 1988 when
forces loyal to Somalia’s then-dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, bombed Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, into rubble.
Mr. Isaaq’s parents could no longer care for him. So he walked to Ethiopia. He made his way to Canada, received refugee status, became a citizen and earned a certificate in computer network administration...read more
