The ups and downs and the key milestones of this remarkable process are described in great detail by the British writer Mark Bradbury, an NGO and relief worker who has lived and worked in Somaliland for many years. He was not only an observer of this process but a participant, as Somaliland has almost defined civil society as the flourishing of local NGO and international NGO partners (this includes women’s groups, which are thriving).
Somaliland Foreign Affairs Minister Sa’ad Ali Shire, from left, Vice-President Abdirahman Abdallahi Saylici and Ambassador to Britain Iqbal Jhazbhay are seen with other guests at the Hargeisa International Book Fair on July 21, 2018. Mustafa Saeed/AFP/Getty Images
In Bradbury’s book, Becoming Somaliland, we read about how the people of northern Somaliland engaged in the time-honoured custom of elders and stakeholders conducting near endless consultations under acacia trees, until they developed inter-clan and inter-lineage peace treaties and land adjudication which, once hammered out locally, could then could be replicated at a regional and national level.
A farmer arrives with his herd of camels to find a buyer at Sayladah market in Hargeisa, Somaliland, on Oct. 29, 2012. Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
One of the key innovations in the new democratic Somaliland is an upper parliamentary house of “tribal elders,” which has the clout both to prevent and adjudicate tribal or clan conflicts — the same kind of conflicts that drove the south into civil war. Somaliland politicians are not only focused on the local. In its bid for international recognition, which has been withheld by the nations of the world, the Republic of Somaliland has pragmatically offered to recognize the state of Israel as sign of their goodwill to all and sundry.
A member of the Somaliland Meat Development Association arranges bar soap made from camel bone marrow to dry before cutting and packaging them on Oct. 28, 2012, in Hargeisa. Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
In 2008, Bradbury wrote, “Somaliland … is a self-governing territory … (that) fulfills most international criteria of statehood (including) … a popularly elected constitutional government that exercises some control over its borders, manages certain public assets, levies taxes, interferes in the market, formulates development policies and provides security for its citizens.”
Somaliland football coach and player Marwa Mauled Abdi, 24, poses at the football ground of Ubah fitness centre, the first football field exclusively opened for women, in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, on March 1, 2018. The photo was taken to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, 2018. Mustafa Saeed/AFP/Getty Images
Ten years later, Somaliland is still doing well. One thing this new republic does not allow is for pirates to use its coast on the Gulf of Aden to weaken and destroy international trade. That should make anyone stand up and notice. Rather than recognizing the failed state of Somalia in the south, instead, it would be wise for Canada and NATO countries to recognize and make Somaliland their strategic ally. The Iranians are watching this country carefully and they are already abusing its new democracy by supporting the opposition parties that have fairly arisen in a flourishing entity, once just another in a long line of failed African states.
Local residents attend the Hargeisa International Book Fair July 21, 2018. Mustafa Saeed/AFP/Getty Images
If Canada does not recognize democratic Somaliland, we will be harming our own interest and contributing to conflict in that already conflict-ridden part of the world. We will also be seen as royal hypocrites who preach democracy for the developing world, but when it emerges there without our intervention, ignore it. It’s time for Ottawa to wake up.
— Geoffrey Clarfield is an anthropologist-at-large.
Somaliland Foreign Affairs Minister Sa’ad Ali Shire, from left, Vice-President Abdirahman Abdallahi Saylici and Ambassador to Britain Iqbal Jhazbhay are seen with other guests at the Hargeisa International Book Fair on July 21, 2018. Mustafa Saeed/AFP/Getty Images
In Bradbury’s book, Becoming Somaliland, we read about how the people of northern Somaliland engaged in the time-honoured custom of elders and stakeholders conducting near endless consultations under acacia trees, until they developed inter-clan and inter-lineage peace treaties and land adjudication which, once hammered out locally, could then could be replicated at a regional and national level.
A farmer arrives with his herd of camels to find a buyer at Sayladah market in Hargeisa, Somaliland, on Oct. 29, 2012. Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
One of the key innovations in the new democratic Somaliland is an upper parliamentary house of “tribal elders,” which has the clout both to prevent and adjudicate tribal or clan conflicts — the same kind of conflicts that drove the south into civil war. Somaliland politicians are not only focused on the local. In its bid for international recognition, which has been withheld by the nations of the world, the Republic of Somaliland has pragmatically offered to recognize the state of Israel as sign of their goodwill to all and sundry.
A member of the Somaliland Meat Development Association arranges bar soap made from camel bone marrow to dry before cutting and packaging them on Oct. 28, 2012, in Hargeisa. Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images
In 2008, Bradbury wrote, “Somaliland … is a self-governing territory … (that) fulfills most international criteria of statehood (including) … a popularly elected constitutional government that exercises some control over its borders, manages certain public assets, levies taxes, interferes in the market, formulates development policies and provides security for its citizens.”
Somaliland football coach and player Marwa Mauled Abdi, 24, poses at the football ground of Ubah fitness centre, the first football field exclusively opened for women, in Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, on March 1, 2018. The photo was taken to celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, 2018. Mustafa Saeed/AFP/Getty Images
Ten years later, Somaliland is still doing well. One thing this new republic does not allow is for pirates to use its coast on the Gulf of Aden to weaken and destroy international trade. That should make anyone stand up and notice. Rather than recognizing the failed state of Somalia in the south, instead, it would be wise for Canada and NATO countries to recognize and make Somaliland their strategic ally. The Iranians are watching this country carefully and they are already abusing its new democracy by supporting the opposition parties that have fairly arisen in a flourishing entity, once just another in a long line of failed African states.
Local residents attend the Hargeisa International Book Fair July 21, 2018. Mustafa Saeed/AFP/Getty Images
If Canada does not recognize democratic Somaliland, we will be harming our own interest and contributing to conflict in that already conflict-ridden part of the world. We will also be seen as royal hypocrites who preach democracy for the developing world, but when it emerges there without our intervention, ignore it. It’s time for Ottawa to wake up.
— Geoffrey Clarfield is an anthropologist-at-large.
