A reminiscence of Suvadive, 50 years later

His youngest memory is of when he took his first ride on a big lorry. During the incident that happened when he was only five years of age, he saw some essential things in his house being taken out over the wall. At that time there was a gathering crowd outside his home. There were raised voices and shouting over the fact that his father, Abdulla Afeef refused to accept the presidency of the breakaway republic created by the alliance of the southernmost three atolls, known as the United Suvadive Republic.

Afeef’s eldest son, Ibrahim Afeef remembers that day as a daunting day. From his father’s accounts later on, his father had already gotten threats that they would set fire to their home had he refused the presidency to the new republic. Ibrahim was taken away on the lorry that day to protect him from any danger that may have come.

His childhood memories continue with his father’s preparation for the flag hoisting ceremony of the new state; how his coat preparations went on at home the previous night. It was a green coat. There was a gold-like chain on the coat. Ibrahim was amongst those who attended the ceremony. He still fondly remembers how his interest with hoisting and “playing with flags” had begun there.

Among his experiences in Maldives, his next memory is that of a flag too. This memory is from just a few days before the Suvadive state dissolved and his family had to move to Seychelles. He had a small flag pole of his own at home where he would hoist a flag every day. One day he went outside to find that somebody had taken down his flag. He hoisted the flag a second time to find a little later that somebody had taken it down again. Thinking that somebody didn’t like the Suvadive flag, nine-year-old Ibrahim then hoisted the flag of England – only to find it taken down too later.

“Then my father told me not to raise any more flags, that it wasn’t safe. That day after Friday prayers, people started coming to the house to bid us farewell. That is when I knew we were going somewhere,” Ibrahim, now married to a Maldivian and living in Seychelles, told Haveeru on his recent trip to the Maldives.

Under the protection of the British, Ibrahim, his parents and his two younger brothers were taken to Gan in Addu atoll. They gave the small family tea from a cafeteria at the military base in Gan and then took them aboard a British warship. Even then he had no idea where they were going. Although his father had wanted to go to an Islamic country, the five-day voyage took them to Seychelles, then a colony of the British. There was a small population of barely 100 Muslims in Seychelles then.

They were under the protection of the government of Seychelles, who took them first to a hotel. After staying there for about 45 days, the family was taken to a house. After another three months, they were relocated again, this time to a permanent home.

Still, Ibrahim and his siblings always nurtured the dream of returning to their home; Maldives. Ibrahim found from a Seychelles paper that the British had finally granted full independence to the Maldives, and the first images that came into his mind were those of his return to the Maldives, reunion with his friends and how he enjoyed.

“At that time our mother and father had been in England, attaining medical treatment for mother. When they returned, we ran to them with the newspaper and told them that the Maldives is independent, that we can return home. But father shook his head and said that that was completely a different matter,” Ibrahim shared his memories of incidents that happened in August 1965 – two years past their migration to Seychelles.

His hope of returning to the Maldives was fulfilled 26 years later, in 1989. Ibrahim felt nervous at the beginning of his return to Maldives when he had accompanied his father on his first and only visit back as well. He was worried about what the local Maldivians would think of him and his father. He wondered worriedly how the people of Addu would treat them when they went there. This anxiety was brought on by a media group they saw at the airport on their Singapore-transit-flight home.

However, what greeted them in the Maldives was completely different; he experienced the warmth and friendliness of Maldivians during his days in capital Male. When he went to Addu, he met even friendlier people there. He had the chance to go sightseeing anywhere he wished without any hindrances. He and his father got the chance to revisit his childhood home, Finifenmaage in Hithaadhoo of Addu atoll. Seeing his own home in such a state had deep effects on his father, Ibrahim said.

“Father first asked me to take measurements of the house. I believe he asked me to do that in order to tell me that it was time to renovate the house. He became very emotional when he saw the state of the house. But he could not share his feelings with me, considering his state of health at the time,” Ibrahim, now 59 years in age, said.

Ibrahim is currently the Chairman and CEO of the Seychelles Media Commission. His two siblings who were born in the Maldives and the three other siblings who were born in Seychelles are all working at responsible positions. Ibrahim has recurrent dreams of retiring and settling in the Maldives. Although he can speak very little Dhivehi and Addu dialect, he regularly watches TVM and reads news from Maldivian online websites. He has been to the Maldives about six times now. Be that as it may, he expresses remorsefully that it is difficult to fulfil the hope of living in the Maldives after having lived in another country for so long, due to the British having “used us” to complete their own agenda.

Although he held the British responsible for having had to live his life in exile, the British did not “completely abandon” their family. They gave a monthly allowance of 100 pounds until all of Afeef’s children grew up and started work. They would even increase the amount when the family asked. The allowance, combined with their mother’s earnings from selling home-made Samosas, covered their household and living expenses at Seychelles. The British government arranged his mother’s medical treatment at England in 1965, and his father Afeef and the British continued to exchange information occasionally throughout the years.

“When Seychelles became independent, England offered father a choice between any two passports; English or Seychelles, but father wanted to stay as a Maldivian. Father remained so until his death. The new president of Seychelles told father, Mr Afeef, you can stay in Seychelles for as long as you want. … Father renewed his [Maldivian] passport when he revisited here” said Ibrahim, who is a dual citizen of both the Maldives and Seychelles.

Ibrahim said that though his father led the Suvadive alliance, he did not regret any of it. Albeit it was something he was forced to do under a British scheme. He also said that documents that will support this allegation will be found in the UK governmental archives. He believes that nothing can be done if you get “sandwiched” in the middle of a superpower and its agenda.

“Nonetheless father tried to do right by his people,” Ibrahim concluded by saying that his father did not like to talk about the past during his later days.

A reminiscence of Suvadive, 50 years later