Somaliland : A Visible State But Unrecognized

[Jacaylbaro]

The other day , a Tanzanian of Somali origin had approached me beekoning on me to talk, he said to me ‘’Do you know that the founder President of this country Mwalimu Nyerere was pretty close to the first prime minister of Somaliland , Mohamed Egal’’.

 

’What’’, I enjoined , ‘’Somalia or Somaliland’’, ‘’No, Somaliland’’, he then set out to give a small lecture on the two Somalias in the Horn Of Africa , which most people have taken as synonymous or have simply forgotten.

‘’Somali is a former colony of Italy while Somaliland was a colony of The British’’ began Ibrahim Ige, my Tanzanian Msomali Friend , Tanzania has quite a large number of people of Somali extract as we have a number of them of Arab origin, we consider them all equally as we do to all our 100 plus tribes united in the Kiswahili lingua franca.

 

the next thing he did was to bring to me his own archive of images of Somaliland he keeps that included an undated picture of the British Ministers of Colonies.

I was amused to see a tall gaunt figure of a British squire complete with a bush hat inspecting what appreared to me a guard of honor of Somaliland ifles as we had here soldiers of Tanganyika Rifles before independence from Britain.

 

I also looked at the picture of the last British governor of Somaliland installed in the Somaliland capital of Hargeisa , old postal stamps of Somaliland , marked ‘Somaliland protectorate’ showing the British king George and the Somaliland first leader Mohamed Egal signing independence instruments with Britain.

 

Eh! Bwana! so we have Somaliland in place here ,but who talks about this country? what is the latest in the profile of this country?

In the intervening period , I have been consulting an array of Material in the internet , what I have discovered about the country is both healthy and astonishing, healthy in the reason that Somaliland is a country and a state of its own and very viable – and astonishing in that it is yet to be recognized event by the African union itself.

 

As seen before, Somaliland was a former British colony and had existed briefly as a sovereign state following its independence from Britain in 1960, its disappearance as sovereign state followed its accession to a union with former Italy ruled Somalia in pursuit of a Greater Somalia entertained by Somalia best known Military leader Gen Siad Barre.

 

Fortunately for Somaliland , the collapse of the state in Somalia in the south did not encompass it on the north as effectively as a new breed of leaders have emerged who have to the surprise of many international observers evolved structures of a viable state complete with democratic norms.

according to an international observer group ; ‘’Somaliland has made notable progress in building peace, security and constitutional democracy within its de facto borders , hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people have returned home , tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people have returned home , clan militias have been integrated into a unified police and military forces. A multi party political system and successive competitive elections have established Somaliland as rarity in the horn of Africa’’.

 

Somaliland, faced with the collapse of Somalia has since 1991 reasserted itself as a sovereign state with the leadership of a new generation of leaders such as its current President Dahir Rayale Kahin.

 

Despite fears that recognition of the new state of Somaliland would lead to further fragmentation of the Horn Africa or other AU Member states, an AU fact finding mission in the Horn Of Africa in 2005 has concluded that the situation in Somaliland was ‘’Sufficiently unique and should not be linked to the notion of opening a pandor’s box’’.

 

Somaliland will be looked upon by its brethren in the southern fringes of the collapsed sister state of Somalia on what it means in burying the hatchet and pulling together as a nation , with one language , one culture and one cohesive people.

 

With Somaliland recognized as a state in its own right , prospect for a unified Somalia will be real in the long term to be mooted and evolved by the Somali people themselves.

 

 

By: Makwaia Wa Kuhenga

[rudy-Diiriye]

NO wonder u laugh at yourself 24/7..why boast thy self oh evil man!! no somali can be happy at being a the lil whore house of amxaarow looooool.