By Faisal Derie
Somali Diaspora intellectuals not only have valuable experiences but carry special responsibilities and a lot to answer for, which is essential to the propagation of new ideas. In fact, they can play an enormously valuable role in constructing a new Somalia. Unfortunately, the Somali intellectual by and large has lost the stature and credibility society demands of his or her profession. Tribal conflicts have given rise to the view that tribalism is a natural feature of Somalia. This is not surprising because more than any other section of our society, we are a product of tribal institutions and ideals.
Not long ago Somalia looked to the future with hope and confidence. The burning desire for change, which swept the country and led into flowering of new ideas, has eventually forced the old war-lords and religious fanatics to make their exit. I have been reading deeply misguided commentaries written by Somali political commentators since the Federal Provisional Constitution, which was designed for Somalia’s deeply divided society, was approved by a Constituent Assembly. I have closely studied the contents of their commentaries. Therefore, change there must be, but to succeed we must know what has gone wrong.
As political competition became more intense, it is common fare for anti-federalist groups orchestrated by clan-centric leaders mainly from Diaspora communities to scramble to form organizations aimed at influencing current government leaders with hoary past politics to enact policies that favor them. These notorious clanists have established policy schools, partisan think-tanks and NGO organizations with tribalist vision to provide policy advice and recommendations to UN, EU, African Union Mission for Somalia (Amisom) and other concerned multi-lateral organizations to Somalia. In my view, this group has been deliberately generating a toxic political environment which pepper sprays anyone who dares to offer genuine criticisms on the federal government’s irresponsible policies and behavior.
For instance, Puntland and Jubbaland regional leaders have long been critics of anti-federalist tribal lords, but the one-man mentality leaders have been accusing these leaders as tribalist mechanisms against the current federal leaders. In fact, these tribal lords have been cleverly deceptive in advancing baseless accusations vis-à-vis Puntland and Jubbaland leaders characterizing them as foreign instruments. The regional administration leaders strongly support creating federated states that will form federal government as prescribed by the provisional federal constitution. In fairness, all regional leaders do have the right to support the federal constitution and be an independent guarantor of the constitution throughout the constitutional transition period. That is the core defining reality of a genuinely democratic society, and the robust exercise of these rights are crucial to the quality of political life in a particular country, especially Somalia where many of its peoples are excluded from policy debates process, or elections. This is a genuine way to explore good governance strategies. Unfortunately, the tactics of federal system critics exploit our freedom of conscience.
Does such an outlook imply that moral purity is exclusively on the Federal government side and all wrongdoing attributable to Federal Member States—Puntland, Jubbaland Gal-Mudug, and South-West State? Through the eyes of recently formed well-organized movements whose desire is to apply majoritarian system—winner takes all policies to this deeply and tribally divided Somalia, the answer is crystal clear.
On June 21st, a two day secretive conference was held in Istanbul, Turkey, which was organized by well-known selected Somali Diaspora exclusionary groups with the common traits of—anti-federalism, exclusionary politics and religious fanaticism. For the first time, this well organized group catches Somalia’s media attention as Somali Global Diaspora Conference after Heritage Institute published a policy briefing on this subject one day before the meeting came into birth. However, on the second day of the meeting, many media outlets shed light on this conference as second meeting held in Turkey during Hassan Mohamoud’s period organized by this exclusionary group in conjunction with the Somali and Turkish governments. The Istanbul event demonstrates the extent to which tribal consciousness is so steeped in political considerations that one cannot imagine any other mode of operation. It reduces every democratic aspect of our political life to the tribal factor, and virtually excluding all other groups in such conferences. In assessing the pervasive character of Somali leaders both in Somalia and in the Diaspora as well, a well-known Somali writer and political commentator of Rutgers University, Professor Said Samatar puts it well:
Twenty years ago the nations of the earth came in force to Somalia to rescue the Somalis bent as they were on committing national suicide, hoping to nationize them. Instead, the Somalis tribalized them, with the result that there emerged an Italian-Majeerteen clan-family, an English-Isaaq clan-family, a Rahanweyn Abyssinian clan-family, a Daarood-Ethiopian-Kenyan clan-family, a Turkish-Egyptian-Djibouti-Ugandan-Hawiye clan-family. Long live Somali clanism. Somalis of the world, stay clannishly-divided, you’ve everything to gain from your clan chains!”
Beyond Samatar’s assessment, it’s self-evident that the tribal menace in Somalia facilities policies of divide and rule—designed not only to isolate one tribe/ethnic group from another but also to set them against each other. Even though there have been some questions about the health of Turkish government’s involvement in Somalia, its government declares its loyalty to the nation-state. However, Turkey seems to have effectively excluded from consideration sought compensations in building a base support in the Somali regions equally.
Once Somalia as a social compact was weakened by the fragmentation of its political union it became vulnerable to outside predators that exploited the fragmentation and abetted it for their own advantage. The results of that situation are what we see now and it’s very difficult to pull the country out of it given that interests benefitting from divisions have become entrenched. And I am sure that many Somali people still stand in long lines to express their grievances against these countries taking the roots of tribalism to run deep.
To be fair to the groups we discussed in the lines above, then it is beneficial to demonstrate of what I am trying to convey here in order to examine their traits. Recently, a professor of African and Middle Eastern history at Wellesley College, Liedwien Kapteijns, better known as Ladan, authored Clan Cleansing in Somalia (2013), a book that evolved as a result of the author’s many years of researching the subject of Somalia’s civil war. Soon as the book hit the shelves, many of these groups wrote rebuttals motivated by tribal sentiments. We could understand their grievances against these research conclusion and observations. This has been one of the growing concerns of their tribal mindedness. There—I say, the unpleasant smell of their tribal biases has been helping its way into their thoughts, writings, speeches, and political extravaganza. In critiquing Professor Ladan’s book, even though he hasn’t read the book, but had made a “cursory look,” here is what Abdulkadir Aroma has to say about this book.
It seems that you are highly partisan in your writings about the clan competition in Somalia. Rumours circulating inside Somalia suggest that Ms Lidwien Kapteijns is roommate partner of a Somali man from Puntland regions and that all her writings are coached in bedroom as stereotype record. Since I am living in Mogadishu I can’t verify whether this rumour is true or fabricated. If these rumours turn out to be genuine story, then dear sister in-law, with all due respect, I request you to use, in the future, when writing, a room with full bright light and be fair among Somali clans, not ‘qaraabo waa qaar dambe = intimacy is affinity’. Kindly tell the truth even if it hurts your beloved ones.
Somalia is a country ravenously consumed by a senseless civil war and tragic history of tribalism, which plunged the country into the mess it is entangled in. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands more fled their country. Many of them made their journey to Western Europe and North America looking for security, better life and education for their children. Now, it is unfortunate that those who graduated from the most sophisticated campuses in Europe and North America are beating the drums of tribalism and exclusionary politics, simply because tribalism is the only way to gain access into politics and to cling onto power in Somalia. Now, even our current government leaders are drawn from across tribal lines and have a common interest in perpetuating regional hostility and conflict. Therefore, if western educated Diaspora leaders cannot reconcile themselves, there will never be a genuine party or group of change find its own way of showing how all Somalis regardless of their tribal origins, have a common interest in getting rid of the tribal millionaires in destroying tribal divisions.
As many Somali writers put it, over the last twenty years, without “The internationalization of the Hawiye-Daarood strife,” Somalia would have undergone a sea change. It is also a plain fact that members of these groups transformed into Global Somali Diaspora and thus are not an inclusive group that can represent Somali Diaspora apparatus. If inclusive, they would have made significant contributions for constructing positive public policies to socio-economic recovery, peace and tranquility in their country, rather their vision is all about antagonizing and marginalizing the rest. If we keep divided to the terrible scars of tribe A, B and C, we will produce a brutal dictator with undemocratic practice who treats his country as personal chiefdom, to take what he wants—who dolls out riches to a favored few. But what we can strife for is not more than establishing a decent society in the light of our limited range of knowledge and resources, and to prevent the occurrence of desperate situations of intolerable choices.
Therefore, to avoid these choices, Somali Global Diaspora organization should not be a simple technical institution. Rather it should be an institution that represents the interests of a clearly defined social group. It is this character of Somali leaders, as an instrument of ruling class power that makes it so unresponsive to the needs of society. Indeed, one of the objectives of the leaders is to coerce society so that the powerful can continue to enjoy its privileges. The alternative to the existing organizations is one that is based on the interests of those classes—workers, minorities, peasants, and teachers—who represent the vast majority of society. Representing such interests will obviously have to adopt forms of organization that are not hostile to, but part of society and represent the wishes of society.
If we are to derive much-needed illumination from our past experiences and mistakes of the last four decades, and to find a durable political solutions that could end the carnage in Somalia, we have to advocate for inclusivity, free speech and open political expression in every organization or institution. Otherwise, Somalia will remain a repressive regime where people are jailed, sometimes tortured, and too often assassinated. Whatever, the case, we have to replace the one-man show to democracy, turn exclusionary politics to inclusive one and despair to be replaced by hope—hope that people can live peace with each other and with their neighbors, that children can spend more time on decent education than on the streets, that feisty media criticism grows too sharp—going after the government mistakes and not been shut down in spite laws guaranteeing freedom of the press.
Global Diaspora group organization is often used as a concept signifying a technical or administrative meaning. For us, organization represents a political framework where political ideas and objectives acquire meaning. Your leadership should be based on collective measures and not on group or individual preferences. And throughout the process of collective work, leaders should learn to lead without losing touch with the grassroots. However, if you are clannishly divided, your work will end up fruitless or may be deemed unpopular if the unorganized masses see your movement as representing exclusively self-interest and pure power “yours,” but if it is involved by people from all walks of everyday life, it may provide a basic frame work for mass involvement. I look forward to when tribal identity in public pronouncements are no longer necessary. I am increasingly optimistic that future generations will not have to endure the internal tribal conflict that I experienced in total isolation for so many years.
By Faisal Derie
Email: [email protected]
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