The Somaliyeeste and the weaponisation of Somali nationalism by duplicitous political camps.

[The Oponian Guild]

I believe this phenomenon has become widespread in Somali political discourse and could have disastrous effects on Somali ethnic solidarity and the continued remembrance of our common origin.

this article goes into depth about what a somaliyeeste is and explains this worrying and alarming trend.

Somaliyeeste: When “Unity” Becomes a Weapon

In Somali politics, unity is often invoked as a sacred ideal, the one principle everyone claims to protect.

open.substack.com

 

[Masdhir]

The somaliyeeste's conduct of monopolizing the canon of appropriate behaviors within Somali political life is exasperated by the lack of a Somali consensus on how our various public, private, civil, geographic, and otherwise social institutions should interact. In that vacuum, the somaliyeeste seeks to subordinate all those elements to the state through espousing a unipolar understanding of Somali society. You often hear people say something like "we have the same culture, language, religion, and ethnicity, so why can't we unite"? The truth is that not only is such a statement untrue, but even if it were, it still wouldn't allow for meaningful solidarity between disparate people. A solidity which can only arise with a reckoning of the various fault lines and overlapping loyalties that surround every Somali. This can only happen with pluralist avenues for political action both within and between those identities. The somaliyeeste's proposal for a single-minded approach to political expression, not just through the "Somali identity" but to one that affirms the wishes of its regime, always backfires and leads to more disunity.