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The two semi-stable regions (Somaliland and Puntland), which are far-removed from the epicenter of Somalia’s civil-war bone of contention, are not the case-in-point at all for a longing of some neglected Somali clan or regional civilization precedents. In fact, the Somali clan-system negates such civilization for the following reason: A Somali clan, say any one of the four major clans for example, is a giant phantom-umbrella under which many subclan branches exist. While such subclans acknowledge with pride their descent from one origin of a clan, there has not been in any recallable Somali history of any unifying clan-system of its subclan branches; the main reason being that each subclan further splits into subs of a subclan and then into more subdivisions of subs of a sub-subclan (the least common denominator just above immediate family). This is where iron-clad allegiances mainly lie for common defense and welfare. It is what has kept Somalis on equal par, for better or worse, on development. In conflict, for instance, with inter-clan subclans, the whole clan is never involved in either side! Neither logistics nor a unifying pact for a whole Somali clan, which is nonexistence, mobilizes a clan for common prosperity or defense. The overarching Somali clan name for its branches and leaves, if you will, has been for sentimental identity only for ages now. This also explains why the Somali conflict has dragged on, for the disorganization of a clan into fragments beyond hope any of effective rounding up of all its bits. If the Somali major clans had the fortune of unity respectively, there would have been a playoff and a clear winner in conflict, after which submission of a loser and victor magnanimity would have ensued. Such would not have been any more costly in lives and livelihood than the last 18 years. Whatever the cost, it would have been a lot quicker in ending than the current Somali disaster unremitting in the south. Where subclans could not overcome their differences and naturally unite under a common clan, it would have been illogical for primitive Somali regions of different clans and all their bickering subclan baggage to have forged a regional civilization. This is clearly mistaking coexistence for enlightenment. True, it is not a chance per say that both Somaliland and Puntland are in peace and self-administering. Yes, they both utilize old Somali clan (more like subclan) traditions; traditions of coexisting and conflict resolution. However, neither region was a host to the seat of national government, the fault-line for the earthquake-conflict and its continuing aftershocks in the south. That is the difference! It has been the vying for power in Mogadishu that supplanted any use of Somali traditional tools for peace and order in the south, though the same system exists there as in the north. Characterizing the leading up to and subsequent mayhem to the collapse of the Somali government in the south as within Somali traditional inter or within clan norms is a mistake. If it were such, the existing customary mechanisms to quell it would have naturally kicked in. Since when old Somali clan-based polities ever concerned itself with a costly bidding on such grandiose scheme as to rule all clans from one single power base as Mogadishu was transformed? This exercise was so foreign to tradition that traditional elders (the natural arbiters) in the south were sidelined completely. Therefore, what has become known as a Somali civil war in the south has not been consistent with any established clan-based rules of Somalis. Warlords using their respective subclan power-bases for their own selfish ambitions after national power is itself a bastardization over the centuries old natural and out of necessity schemes invented for the survival of Somali clan societal structures. The simple fact of Somalis using and being used by Ethiopia, their only ancestral enemy, is all the proof of something out of usual Somali societal convention. There was always a method to the madness of conflict between the Somali family along subclans within or inter-clans. Civil-war is not part of Somali traditional lexicon, as it aptly describes something modern akin to a modern problem of conflict over national power. Thus, no wonder why traditional remedies have failed to cure it! By any measure, the collapse of the Somali-state was not the result of spontaneous uprisings of Somali clans to get in touch with their roots or natural essence of being. The military officers who touched off this collapse in 1978, in a military coup, to unseat one of their own at the helm were not messengers of restoring some relic clan polities. They were opportunists who coveted the throne for its resources. Luck would have it for every disgruntled Somali to have a weapon handed to him by an enemy which had an axe to grind against Somalia for a war over the Ogaden region. As many Somalis returned home with enemy supplied weapons, they waged a war of attrition against the government, using their clan bases. Then the government responded with brute force against involved clans. This drove many to the side of the opposition and led to the eventual collapse of the state. What the world have been witnessing of Somalia over the last 18 years is the indigenous being infected by global and regional events. What self-appointed experts might, with good intentions, explain as natural outcomes of historical Somali clan polities may, under a microscope, have a foreign pathology. The cold war between the then Soviet Union and the West has a lot to do with Somalia’s collapse. With a strongman armed to the teeth and his failed ambitions, however just that was, of greater Somalia, which led to a war between Somalia and Ethiopia, have sawn the seeds of the collapse of the Somali state. If other Third World countries survived the cold war politics, Somalia would not for an enemy next door bent on settling scores. I wonder if Somalia would have gone the road it has been on but for that local war made possible by the cold war. In any case, nothing could absolve Somalis of their primary responsibility for the collapse of their state! Simply put, there is no such social genetics, despite the chaos in the south, which explains the peace and order in the two northern regions (Puntland and Somaliland) of Somalia. Peace and order and conflict are all within the parameters of traditional Somali ways there. Theses two regions are on the far edges to the real conflict over Mogadishu. Any one who says Puntland or Somaliland is in oasis in the midst of Somali civil war is disingenuous. Further more, to blame the intractable conflict in the south on southerners being less evolved than the northerners in Somali traditional polities is sheer nonsense! There is no evidence whatsoever of any self-segregation by Puntland, clan-motivated or otherwise, from the rest of Somalia, as it has been part of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG). There is no clan aversion to a central government there. The former President, current Prime minster and many members of parliament of the TFG have been from Puntland, with unequaled participation in the on-going experiments to reformulate a Somali central government. Half of the population in Somaliland is not against the reconstitution of the Somali nation-state either. The other half is being led by elites who have vested interests and romantic notions about independence, without thinking through some unpleasant ramification if it was realized. It would be a graver scenario for especially Somaliland, for independent Somaliland will indirectly threaten the long-term existence of the Republic of Djibouti. Djibouti as a city-state, without sister Somalia’s defense, will be a future prey to its predator neighbors of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Under such circumstance, it would not be beyond the realm of speculation for Djibouti to improve its demographics by claiming the Sahil and Awdal regions on its border with Somaliland. The Djibouti government would not have to make the mistake of invading a would-be Somaliland state then, as there are plenty of Awdalites and Sahilians, in the event of undoing current territorial integrity of Somalia, who are ready and willing to go with Djibouti. Then there is Puntland which has already fought with Somaliland over the Sool region in the east of Somaliland. Independence or international recognition of any kind for both Puntland and Somaliland would be opening a whole new kind of can of worms! In conclusion, there is a utility for a bottom-up government in Somalia. This has to be with any future, effective government of Somalia. The days of dictating from Mogadishu are long gone! Any effective Somali government in Mogadishu has to cede to regions and localities greater powers than have been the case in the past. A true and viable federal system would achieve that. There is something comical, if not dangerous, for the United Nations, the United States of America and other great powers undertaking incentivizing policies for Somali regionalism. International institutions and powers endorsing and assisting clan led regions of a country would set a new precedent with unintended consequences for world peace. This would undoubted create new conflicts as resources and recognition provided would spur a violent competition within and between clans or groups in regions within countries the world over. This is exactly why, in the case of Somalia, Mogadishu was ruined for the cash cow to contend over it has become. What seems to be a one unified region now In Somalia would disintegrate into mini regions to each qualify as a region for benefits made available. Then what? Would the world then endorse at a town or village level? U.N. stands for United Nations, not United Regions! As a Somali, I take great offense to the unseemly and inaccurate adjective the “former” before the name Somalia. And, until such time international conventions bury Somalia as we know it, one should not use such adjective as one would not deliberately use the “late” before the name of a living person! Abdul-Aziz Mohammed We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com |
