Meet Cascadia’s opponents: Barawa

Meet Cascadia’s opponents: Barawa

by Steve Clare

Cascadia will play Barawa in their second game. Scheduled for June 2nd, the clash will take place at Carshalton Athletic’s War Memorial Sports Ground in Surrey. Barawa beat Tamil Eelam 4-0 in their opening game.

Who are Barawa?

At first glance, it is hard to discern  if the Barawa side represents a geographical area like Cascadia or an ethnic group like the United Koreans of Japan team. Barawa, also known as Brava, is a port town in the southwestern Lower Shebelle region of Somalia. Barawa itself is the name of a city and there is also a Barawa District which surrounds it.

The city has a population of 32,800 and is the 24th biggest in Somalia and the broader Barawa District has a total population of 57,652 residents. 

The town’s traditional inhabitants are the Tunni clan of the Somali people as well as the Bravanese. In addition to Standard Somali, the Tunni speak Af-Tunni (another Afro-Asiatic language) and the Bravanese speak Chimwiini (a dialect of Swahili).

The Barawa Football Association (BFA) was developed in 2015 and joined CONIFA in 2016. They aspire to unite all Barawanese people to come together and work alongside other establishments and charities to eradicate poverty, promote sport and education to help improve the living conditions of the people.

The Barawa FA site says their mission statement is:

“Through football, we aim to unite, empower and spread the culture of the Somali Baravanese people from the south region.”

However on the BFA Site, it also states:

“The BFA is organised and managed by Somali diaspora living in the United Kingdom. With the ultimate goal of creating the opportunity to develop awareness, improve and better the living standards and conditions in the south region of Somalia.”

So it appears that the aim of the BFA is to promote both the plight of the Baravanese people and the region of Somalia they mostly occupy.

Sadly that region needs all the help it can get.

In 2009, the local variant of ISIS, called Al-Shabaab, seized control of Barawa. The United States considers al-Shabaab a terrorist organization, and has accused it of having links to al-Qaeda and giving refuge to terrorism suspects. Al-Shabaab itself considers the Somali government its main foe rather than the west.

That occupation lasted five years. Following the launch of Operation Indian Ocean, the Somali Armed Forces assisted by African Union troops re-seized control of Barawa from Al-Shabaab in October 2014.

It’s hard to disseminate news from propaganda about the occupation. Al Jazeera’s embedded journalist was Catherine Soi. Her paper reported.

“Soi said that government officials and leaders of the AU force had held a meeting with locals on Monday, in a bid to gain their confidence.

“It has been years since the people of Barawe had seen any kind of government presence so there is still a lot of fear,” said Soi.

Al-Shabaab reportedly charged taxes to ships that sailed or docked at Barawe’s port, raising revenues to expand its military campaign. The AU said al-Shabaab was using the town, which the al-Qaeda-linked fighters had held for six years, as a base to launch attacks on Mogadishu, the capital.”

As of publication, there is no idea what Barawa’s national anthem will be. They have not replied to emails or twitter direct messages and ConIFA admitted that they haven’t been told either.

Their side itself has played seven fixtures as a team. They have a win and a loss against first ConIFA opponents Tamil Eelam, and a similar split record against the Chagos Islands. On both occasions, the loss came first and they exacted their revenge in the later game, proof perhaps that they are quick learners.

Their last two performances prior to the tournament were losses to Surrey and Yorkshire.

They have three players from Dortmund Youth, a side based in Kenya. as well as former Fulham trainee Solomon Sambou and Shaun Lucien both of whom play for St Albans City in the National League South, England’s sixth tier.

But their main threat is QPR’s Kinglsey Eshun, currently on loan at St Albans. Eshun, 19, is a forward who joined QPR from non-League AFC Wembley in 2016. He was previously on Brentford’s books. The Barawa squad also includes Gianni Critchlow, who was at QPR before being released last year.

One wild card might be midfielder Aryantaj Tajbakhsh who was on the books at Crawley Town before moving north to Wealdstone on loan. He is of Turkish/Iranian descent and his connection to Barawa is unclear.

However he was a full member of Crawley Town’s side this season making 17 appearances for them this year, though is listed as a free agent in the roster supplied to ConIFA. However he is still listed as a player on Crawley Town’s website.

He has played at a high level in 2018. Tajbakhsh played as a substitute in the side’s FA Cup tie at Wigan, the side who went on to eliminate Manchester City replacing Dannie Bulman in the 74th minute.

If no connection to Brarawa emerges and he he were to play while ineligible, it wouldn’t be the first time in his career. While at Enfield Town, Tajbakhsh played in matches while suspended, leading to a three-point deduction for Enfield which led them to miss out on the Isthmian League playoffs in 2014–15.

Cascadia coach James Nichols said of Barawa:

“They have a large proportion of their squad based in England. We are aware of a large number of them due to their semi-professional backgrounds and they will hope Kingsley Eshun will add some quality from Queens Park Rangers.”

The Barawa FA are technically the hosts of the tournament