Report of the Round Table Discussion on “Somaliland – Africa’s Best-Kept Secret”

[Jacaylbaro]

On the historically seminal occasion of Ghana assuming the 2007 chair of the African

 

Union, celebrating 50th years of its independence and taking its seat at the UN Security

 

Council, a roundtable discussion was held on 5 March to probe into the topic:

 

'Somaliland – Africa’s Best-Kept Secret?', Unpacking recent Somalia & Somaliland

 

Dynamics.

 

This timely roundtable was arranged by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping

 

Training Centre in association with the University of South Africa’s Department of

 

Religious Studies, a West African and South African institution, which specializes in the

 

international relations of the Horn of Africa’s security architecture, cultural and social

 

dimensions.

 

Speakers included, the veteran Ghanaian politician Mr. K.B. Asante; South African

 

academic Dr. Iqbal Jhazbhay; Head of the Kofi Annan Conflict Prevention Department

 

Dr. Kwesi Aning; Somaliland Foreign Minister Mr. Abdillahi Duale and key Ghanaian

 

businessman Mr. Steve Mawuenyega and Honorary Consul of Somaliland.

 

In attendance were Major General JK Attipoe Commandant of the KAIPTC, key policymakers,

 

including senior Ghanaian foreign ministry officials, military officials,

 

Somaliland President Dahir Rayale Kahin, Ghana’s Nepad Peer Review members,

 

Somaliland’s Minister of Planning and the President of the Ghana National Union of

 

Polytechnic Students. Numerous local and African institutions, such as South African TV

 

and radio, graced the occasion and contributed towards an insightful and robust

 

discussion.

 

This roundtable discussion attempted to present innovative policy ideas and engaging

 

commentary on the issues of the day, as the African Union Commission and key African

 

states grapple with taking forward the AU’s 2005 report on Somaliland and its current

 

attempts to stabilize southern Somalia with the arrival of Ugandan and other AU troops in

 

Mogadisho amidst mortar shells.

 

Opening the roundtable session with incisive preliminary commentary, veteran Ghanaian

 

politician Mr. K.B. Asante, highlighted the need for a new approach to peace and

 

stability. Holding on to old methods, he argued, did not bode well for Africa’s future

 

prosperity. In this respect, he called for Africans to up-date themselves with ground

 

realities so that appropriate policy steps can be taken which avoid war and fulfills the

 

aspirations of the people for self-determination. Drawing on his extensive experiences,

 

including serving in Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s cabinet, Mr. Asante was of the view that the

 

CPMRD Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 2

 

union of former northern British Somaliland with the southern Italian Somaliland to form

 

the Somali Democratic Republic was a disaster, which we needed to acknowledge and

 

come to face, squarely. Avoiding reality creates further disasters, he added.

 

Horn of Africa specialist Iqbal Jhazbhay of the University of South Africa was called to

 

address the topic: 'Somaliland – Africa’s Best-Kept Secret?', Unpacking recent Somalia

 

& Somaliland Dynamics. He suggested a framework of inquiry based on his two recent

 

studies: “ETHIOPIA, SOMALILAND & SOMALIA AMID AN ISLAMIST RISING

 

STORM ON THE HORN: The African Union & the Case for Urgent Preventive

 

Diplomacy” (Centre for Policy Studies, Policy: issues and actors, volume 19, no 8

 

(December 2006) 1-43) and “Security, Governance and Development: The Braided

 

Strands of Future Prosperity in Africa” (Written in association with Patrick Mazimhaka,

 

Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission, in Terrence Mc Namee (ed),

 

African Security, Commodities and Development, Whitehall Report 4-06, London: Royal

 

United Services Institute (2006) 1-5). (See : http://www.rusi.org/commodities and

 

http://www.cps.org.za/cps pdf/pia19_8.pdf )

 

Jhazbhay argued that Somaliland had taken healthy, yet difficult steps towards

 

actualizing the triple framework of a) security, b) governance and c) development - three

 

central braided strands for Africa’s future prosperity. Somaliland’s security emerged with

 

effective demobilization, a modern-cum-traditional-elders’ compact of governance with

 

nascent institutions of state building along with a home-grown/diaspora-led economy.

 

Key challengers remain, as Somaliland works its way of balancing the executive and

 

legislative arms of government. Currently, the executive arm is in the hands of the ruling

 

Udub party while parliament is in the hands of the opposition Ucid and Kulimiye parties.

 

The existing tension of media freedom remains, as the government over-reacts, while the

 

media come to terms with covering the office of the president within a code of acceptable

 

ethics of reporting, balancing the demands of a robust democracy and traditional norms

 

of dignity . Clearly, Jhazbhay stressed that Somaliland’s economic development

 

prospects have been hampered by the lack of international recognition and has left

 

Somaliland with further problems, which this nascent democracy can well do without.

 

This innovative democracy is fragile and can well be threatened, less its home-developed

 

efforts be supported, nurtured and protected.

 

Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdillahi Duale was a respondent to Jhazbhay’s

 

presentation. While he commended Jhazbhay’s presentation and outlined Somaliland’s

 

survival amongst security threats such as the Union of Islamic Courts, he presented two

 

specific proposals, as a response to Jhazbhay’s point on the need to advance Somaliland’s

 

development trajectory via economic growth and international recognition:

 

* ‘to make known the African Union report on Somaliland, by every way possible and to

 

encourage senior AU member states to visit Somaliland and see for themselves our

 

home-grown democratic gains, challengers’ and,

 

* to encourage the AU’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) to send a follow-up

 

delegation and report back to AU’s PSC (for the full speech see:

 

CPMRD Newsletter Volume 1 Issue 2

 

http://africanpress.wordpress.com/2007/03/06/speech-by-the-foreign-minister-ofsomaliland/

 

)

 

Dr. Kwesi Aning of the Kofi Annan Centre, in conclusion, pulled together the key strands

 

of the presentations and alerted the audience to the key dynamics within the African

 

Union Commission, which need to be taken into account for the project of advancing

 

Somaliland’s democracy and recognition. He stressed the need for Somaliland to engage

 

the AU’s Peace and Security Council secretariat, as a means to advance the African

 

Union’s 2005 report on Somaliland and the Nepad goal of advancing stability and good

 

governance.

 

This roundtable forum was a profoundly thoughtful step to begin the discourse, where

 

scholars and policy-makers from West, South and East Africa, come together to chart

 

new avenues for post-conflict prevention and reconstruction and map out a creative way

 

to advance the African Union’s 2005 report on Somaliland. Indeed, such continental

 

forums on the Horn of Africa are rare and need to be fully encouraged. The roundtable

 

planted the seeds for a possible full-day roundtable policy seminar on Somaliland’s future

 

prospects in the context of a shifting southern Somalia and the AU report on Somaliland,

 

which called AU member states to ‘find a special mechanism and framework of dealing

 

with the status of the Republic of Somaliland’.

[A.J. Timacadeh]

Although i think that last sentence is important in the context of the issue i think it is another one of those lets investigate and do nothing initiatives that the africans specialise in. we dont stand much chance getting anywhere with these people.

 

i think our best chance toward recoqnition is stop wasting resources seeking it from these people and spend more time and resources in continuing to build our glorious nation. the longer we do that the less they can resist recoqnising our achievements.

[Jacaylbaro]

I think we can do both ,,,,,, we can use both hands at the same time and it is good to have such events specially in Africa.

[ANWAR]

god luck to you

[Jacaylbaro]

Thanks a lot ,,,,

[ANWAR]

Because WE ALL KNOW you will never be Recoqnition

BUT still god luck to you

[Jacaylbaro]

Thank you for wishing me a good luck ,,,,,,, but nobody knows the future but Allah

[ANWAR]

^^you are right brother

[me]

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[Jacaylbaro]

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