By Denise Chan
Daily Bruin Contributor
Students who watched the crashing planes and bloody ambush of
soldiers in “Black Hawk Down” ““ a movie depicting
the Battle of Mogadishu between Somalian and U.S. troops in 1993
““ learned the movie’s political and historical context
Wednesday.
Professor Ned Alpers, who specializes in African history and who
lived in Somalia during the ’80s, offered his views regarding
the accuracy and realism of the movie.
“On its own terms, I was really impressed by the attention
to accuracy and the portrayal of war instead of
editorializing,” Alpers said. “But what you’re
missing is the background story.”
According to Alpers, the movie failed to explain Somalia’s
political history and America’s intervention, thus providing
an unsatisfying and incomplete account of The Battle of
Mogadishu.
To fill the information gap, he gave students in Ackerman Union
a brief history spanning from Somalia’s colonization by
Europeans to the turmoil following its independence from Britain
and Italy in 1969, and The Battle of Mogadishu in 1993.
The United States became a target of Somali hatred when it
intervened in Somali politics, Alpers said.
“You never see, as the soldiers didn’t see, what the
Somalis were thinking,” he said, adding that people had to
gauge Somali thoughts on their own.
Seeing the United States as an additional enemy, Somalis were
happy to kill troops when their aircrafts crashed in Mogadishu in
1993, Alpers said.
In a question and answer session after the lecture, students
began debating the U.S. intervention in Somali politics and its
role as an international peacekeeper.
“For all the heavy-handedness, there’s always a
feeling of Americans wanting to do good all the time, even without
knowing what’s really going on,” Alpers said.
Students said they found the discussion beneficial.
“I just saw the movie and wanted to know more,” said
chemistry student Victoria Nelson. “I got a lot out of
it.”
First-year English student Tom Garcia said he enjoyed the
discussion.
“It clarified a lot of reasons about why our military was
(in Somalia) in the first place,” he said.