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Dr Abdishakur Jowhar's article in Wardheernews on the subject of the "SSC wars" is an unabashed misrepresentation of the struggle of the SSC people to liberate themselves from Somaliland's heinous occupation and subjugation. His seven pages sermon boils down to an elaborate dressing up of his specious, preconceived position on the SSC wars.
As to be expected from an archetypal secessionist, he rules predictably that Somaliland, the real aggressor, the invader and occupier, is the victim of the SSC wars, while the true victims, be it the SSC people or their representative organisations, are the aggressors for having the temerity to defy the legitimacy and will of his "Somaliland" - an entity seen by the international community as renegades who are otherwise legally part of Somalia despite their preposterous claim to sovereignty. Serving us this kind of blatant perversion of the reality is clearly an insult to our intelligence and knowledge. Tribal HomelandsThe conceptual framework underpinning Abdishakur's presentation revolves around the contention that the SSC, whether as people or organisation in their name, are" driven by a “prehistoric and primitive” urge to forge for themselves a “tribal homeland” which belongs to them alone to the "exclusion of all others". This "tribal homeland" sought by the SSC, he argues, represents "a complete and total negation of statehood”. In this regard, the State and "tribal homelands", he contends, are incompatible and hence one or the other has to give way. Between the two, of course, he singles out the SSC "tribal homeland" for elimination.
Taking Abdishakur's argument to its logical conclusion, Siyad Barre was not only right to eliminate the SNM but also justified to destroy Hargeisa and overall "Isaaq Tribal land" because of the support they were providing to SNM? Or that the rulers of the enclave were right to occupy the Awdalites in the first place or to eliminate them next time when they rise against their new colonisers? Abdishakur'es demonisation of "tribal homelands" has gone overboard. The fact remains that they have always been the basis of Somali society throughout our history, during the colonial times and since independence and they have been largely what sustained them in the harsh environment they live in. Admittedly, conflicts arise now and then over scare resources. But these are managed thanks to their time-honoured system of conflict resolution and reconciliation. If anything, their usefulness has increased in the absence of a functioning Somali government. Keeping the peace within the clan and with their neighbours has now devolved to them by default. Countless people would have not survived without the help they receive from their fellow clan members. The demons, thus, are not "tribal homelands" per se but unprincipled politicians or unscrupulous leaders who use their clan and stoke clan conflict as instruments for achieving their ends as is now happening in Kalshaale. The SSC people/clans or their leaders do not happily belong to this mould. All the same, one has to ask why Abdishakur's has to apply his ruling exclusively to the SSC and not also his own Somaliland which is after all nothing more than a "tribal homeland", or to others masquerading as regional administrations? Is the SSC anti State?Abdishakur's critique of the SSC resistance to Somaliland's occupation and hegemony is that they are anti State, anti-communal and clannish. This is ludicrous. One has to ask which state is he talking about? If he has the Somali State in mind, in which the SSC is part and parcel, he needs no reminding that their record of pan-Somalism is second to none. No other Somali clan has historically sacrificed so much for the Somali cause, nationalism and Greater Somalia as the SSC people did.
Far from being doggedly and myopically wedded to their "tribal homelands" in the negative way Abdishakur portrayed, the SSC people recognise that the Somali State to which they belong is the sovereign authority over all Somalia's territory. As unionists and patriots, they have never challenged nor rose up against the Somali State unlike other clans in the rest of Somalia-north and south. I can not think of any thing better that encapsulates their perception of their country or their expectation from their government than President Kennedy famous call to his country on his inauguration:" Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country". And so, the SSC have remained true to this motto, despite the fact that they had been the most marginalised, neglected regions in Somalia in terms of development through successive Somali governments since independence. Contrast this with the secessionist enclave whose persistent grievances since independence has been that they had lost to the union their pre-independence dominance in the north, a sentiment which nourished their secession and ultimately led to their insurrection and the eventual collapse of the Somali State. So, if the SSC have not been anti Somali State, what other State is Abdishakur talking about? Of course, the State that Abdishakur has in mind is his secessionist enclave which he sees as a separate independent country that has sovereignty over the whole territory of the defunct British Somaliland now the NW region of Somalia. The SSC's rejection to be part of a phantom "State" no one recognises is, in the eye of Abdishakur and his secessionist circles, a crime committed against their "Somaliland". This kind of delusion borders on schizophrenia and it would have been laughable if people of that mindset were not waging a barbaric war on the peace-loving SSC people that could plunge Somalia into a wider uncontrollable clan war. Is the SSC clannish?When it comes to inter-communal solidarity across the clan divide, no other clan again has shared its traditional territory as much as the SSC people did. Almost half of their former territory is now settled by clans hailing from the secessionist enclave. This was not acquired by military conquest but simply through the willingness and tolerance of the SSC clans. The SSC have always welcomed with open hands secessionist clans driven by in line with the centuries-old nomadic tradition of sharing water and grazing in times of drought. And yet, Abdishakur is accusing them of closing their "tribal homeland" to others. The SSC clans in a nutshell welcome to share water and grazing. That is in their interest as well as others, for the survival of the nomads depends on give and take. What they object to is to be dispossessed through creeping settlements starting with digging water reservoirs in grazing lands but in the end becoming permanent urban settlements appropriated by the expansionist clan. This practice has been going for some years and places like Qorulugud, Haye and other places have been acquired through this process. What has changed recently is that the clan from Burco East and their "government" are working in tandem in land grab as has recently happened in Kalshaale. This predatory expansionist ethnic-cleansing is reminiscent of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, starting with Jews pitching their tents on Palestinian land, then calling the Israeli army to protect them and then in the end transforming the t camp into a major permanent Israeli settlement or town. No other Somali clan is suffering such one-sided dispossession as the SSC do. Surely, they do not deserve to be called names when they decide to draw the line at these relentless creeping land grab.
Who is fighting who in the SSC WarsAbdishakur repeats ad nauseam the incredible baseless claim that the SSC, meaning the organisation, has "started" or "waged" war on Somaliland. As if aggressed and aggrieved, he thus thunders: "war has been declared on Somaliland by the SSC. This much is clear. There is no ambiguity here. The Somali tribe of Dhulbahante has not declared war on Somaliland. Thee is no ambiguity here either" It is untrue to say that the SSC, as an organisation, has declared war on Somaliland or is fighting it on SSC or Somaliland soil. Originally established in Nairobi and named "Hogaanka Midnimada iyo Badbaada SSC", with the mandate to liberate the occupied SSC regions, the organisation has subsequently re-branded itself and changed its name to "SSC" and also its mission and modus operandi. As its leader has recently reiterated, they have metamorphosed into a regional administration which advocates resolution of conflicts through dialogue and peaceful means. Their military role in the recent Kalshaale clashes or anywhere else in the SSC has been negligible if not non-existent. The only partial truth in Abdishakur's quoted statement is when he says that "Somali tribe of Dhulbahante has not declared war on Somaliland". True, the Dhulbahante have not at anytime "declared war" on "Isaaq tribal lands" - to call spade a spade and use Abdishakur's nomenclature. Rather, it is Somaliland which invaded the unionist SSC regions as theirs, although they are part of Somalia. In the face of the war declared on them, and in the absence of a functioning Somali government that could defend the unity and territorial integrity of the country, the Dhulbahante have only exercised their inalienable right, in line with national and international law, to respond to this aggression and defend their God-given right to be part of Somalia. Their legitimate struggle against an expansionist predatory clan is taking place purely inside their own SSC regions and does not extend to "IsaaqIand" Talking of a declaration of war on Isaaqland (Somaliland) as Abdishakur does is, with all due respect, nothing less than hogwash. The increasing barbarity of the occupation has in the end led to an uprising by the SSC people akin to the Palestinian Intifada or the current upheavals in the Arab world against the tyranny of their rulers. Mobilising hundreds, if not thousands, of civilian volunteers, overwhelmingly nomad warriors, the people of Buhodle have crushed Somaliland's successive assaults on the town despite their superior military hardware. This defeat has forced the rulers of Hargeisa to come up with "peace proposals", promising to undue the provocative actions triggering the Kalshaale clashes. All the indications suggest that the Buhodle people see Somaliland's juggling act and its phoney "peace" overtures as a ploy to give the rulers of Hargeisa time to put into action their earlier successful "Strategy" for the capture of Lascanod city which rested on dividing the people, buying off their leaders, undermining their unity and their will to fight. Will it work this time? Unfortunately for the invaders, their brutal occupation, and the indiscriminate suffering and indignities they inflicted on the proud SSC people, mostly the women, children and the old in Lascanod, but also the recent atrocities they committed in Kalshaale, have all combined to produce a new uncompromising mindset among all sections of the SSC population that wants nothing less than the total cleansing of the SSC soil from invaders and occupiers. Needless to say, it is the SSC people as clans who are waging the on-going SSC liberation war and no one else. However, Somaliland is loath to admit this, since acknowledging the reality would make its presence in the SSC regions indefensible in the eyes of the international community. Hence, the SSC organisation, though not involved in the war, comes as a convenient scapegoat, a pet noire for Somaliland which never misses an opportunity to demonise them as "SSC terrorists". Clearly, they share this self-serving make-belief with the colonialists who used to blame the quest for independence on a minority of "agitators" and "terrorists". Even Nelson Mandela and his ANC were included. Somaliland's actions in the SSC and its language are increasingly carbon copies of those of their British colonial mentors. Abdishakur's Final Solution for the SSC StruggleUntil the end of his article, Abdishakur have been trying to win hearts and minds among his SSC readers. Perhaps despairing of any converts, he comes up with his big stick threatening an all out war on the SSC to finish them once and for all. Such crude threats, becoming of bullies and no brains such as Faysal Ali Waraabe, does not cut much ice with the SSC people or with anyone else in his or her right mind. A quick recourse to colonial history- past or present- would be a good eye opener for Abdirshakur. Big powers were forced to give up their colonies because they had no other choice. Superpowers were defeated by liberation movements from Algeria, to Vietnam. The USA, unable to defeat the insurgents in Iraq or the Taliban in Afghanistan, is desperately looking for the exit. Closer at home, Siyad Barre was brought down by clan-based rebel insurgents. In sum, wherever people are determined to be free, they win their freedom from their oppressors. What makes Abdishakur think that his ragtag militia from a bankrupt enclave can sustain their occupation for ever over a determined sons of the Darwiish who are prepared to fight as long as they fought the British? The outcome of the SSC war is a foregone conclusion. The question is whether the latter-day colonialist see the writing on the wall. The sooner they realise this, the lesser the damage they do to themselves. Their loss will be in vain. But for the SSC, their fallen will be martyrs who liberated their country and also preserved Somali unity. Nothing could be more honourable although Abdishakur holds a different view. By Osman Hassan Related Articles- A Reply to Mr. Abdishakur Jowhar By Faisal A.- Dr. Jowhar’s Camelot By Ali A. - Tribal Homelands- lessons from the SSC Wars By Dr. Abdishakur Jowhar _______________________________________________________________________ We welcome the submission of all articles for possible publication on WardheerNews.com
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