SOMALILAND: Building democracy from the ground up

[Lixle]

Yvette provides a moving account of her work with SONYO, Somaliland's youth federation:

 

 

Working with the first national youth federation (or umbrella as they call it here in Somaliland) with a structure that represents various regions of Somaliland, a structure that requires collective decision making and follows the majority rule policy is new to the youth leaders and to Somaliland. There is no other structure that gathers representatives of various regions coming from different organizations and allows a bottom up flow of decision-making process. This in itself proves to be a great challenge to the umbrella and its leaders.

 

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My office was full of youth leaders tonight, we started the meeting at 7pm, I was surrounded with mainly young men and a few women. They debated, discussed, threw accusations at each other, raised the clan issue, raised issues such as manipulation and domination among others. I was in the company of SONYO leaders from Galbeed region attended by almost 20 leaders. Mostly with strong personalities, loud voices some have perfected the art of throwing sarcastic remarks. It is not easy when you are caught in the middle and you act as the facilitator.

 

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"Democracy is new, this is democracy at work" those words served as my mantra all throughout the meeting. In a short discussion with my boss prior to the meeting, I told him, democracy is not only taught in lecture halls, this is democracy in action, one has to experience it. True enough, after 4 gruelling hours they agreed, we summarized the decision points and left the room with everyone satisfied.

 

“We killed 2 last National Council meeting, and another 2 last National Executive meeting and now the Galbeed Regional committee meeting, so how many lives did we kill tonight?” asked Mohamed. I just smiled and retorted “No you didn’t kill me tonight.”

 

What they do not know however, is that every time the group resolves a conflict and end up peacefully I become energized. My tired body is comforted with the thought that however hard it is, we are making progress, change do not happen overnight.

I hope that other African leaders - not to mention the American occupation authorities in Iraq - are taking notes. Somaliland has already accomplished an enormous amount by building a functioning state from nothing, but it is youth leaders trained in democratic decision-making who will ensure the country's future. Read more about it on Yvette's blog, which also features Ming Sing, Hargeisa's only Chinese restaurant, and some street scenes including one of the capital's new Internet cafes.