Somaliland: The Lurking Challenge to the Myth of Nationhood

[Abtigiis]

Because nations are not merely about the tangibles - people, trees, seas and rocks, but also about the intangibles such as flags, myths, heroes, legends, martyrs, monuments, triumphs, failures, memorials, Somaliland must have all of these to stake its claim of statehood and to nourish its sense of nationhood without interruption. The Northern region of Somalia is doing a stellar job of moulding this sense of identity. Indeed, throughout the world, nations which do not have heroes must invent heroes and heroism to create the necessary myth for nationhood. In President Silaanyo, Somaliland has a real hero, a worthy leader who stands out above all calumnies through sheer inner worth, not through stilts. He fought wars, he won. He liberated lands and communities in distress. They do not have to invent heroes. That much, we cannot begrudge them!

 

But Somaliland is gradually finding itself stalked by the exclusivity of the myths that it relied on to nurture the distinctive identity and history it craved for a long time. If the heroes of the nation have to be the heroes for the entire nation, they need to be representative of all of the regions of Somaliland. But this is an impossible task. SSC and Awdal clans fought the SNM like any other Siyadists. The children of SSC are told a different history of the Daraawish and the Sayid than the SNM-ites teach in schools, and most of Awdal remain loyal to the blue flag of Somalia. To state this is not to hate Somaliland or to wish them bad luck. It is to state the simple, overbearing truth. Some of us would like to waive these truths because of bigoted loyalties, but that won’t change the fact that they remain the truth. In fact, some of us have long legitimized the hateful word 'haters' as a fitting label for those who doubt our outooks. Its deplyment is whimsical,flexible. You cock it and that is it. I expect this from some in SOL, and certianly from Oodweyne!

 

The Somaliland intangible narratives of nationhood are in need of serious repackaging and renovation to cater to the needs of the constituent regions. That even Xaabsade is questioning the curriculum of SL schools and demanding for a more inclusive history to be thought is telling. And teaching an inclusive history means telling both versions about what happened in 1960 and the union with the South. It may even extend to what happened in 1980s. Or even what is happening in Buuhoodle and LasAnod!

 

If instead the one-clan nationhood myth continues, Somaliland will remain a weird birth, a being of brawn, and not of brains, designed to last through patent bullying. It will remain carving little triumphs of sorts, invented victories culled from comparisons with a cadaver South, culled from fine dissimilarities and crafty rationalisations. It will remain relying on superfluously trumpeting media to make measly progresses read and sound mammoth. It will remain celebrating miasmic electioneering and elections as an actual victories. It will continue straining for succor from uninterested suitors, scrapping for some small comfort. Like the ageing spinster who could not bear the tension and anxiety as her suitors occupy their stools at her family’s home and rushes to the next parapet to get the news as it breaks, Somaliland will keep on leaping in joy every time a South Sudan thing happens in the continent! Every time a white rabble-rouser speaks in the British Parliament.

 

Quite clearly, Somaliland cannot coexist with citizens who hail Siyad Barre or Sayid Mohamed as heroes. Yet, the people in the southern part of Somaliland, the now Khatumo states, may see both men as heroes. They may see Silaanyo as the Savimbi of the Somali peninsula. Quite clearly, Somaliland has done well in carving the necessary myth for a nation but it may need to reshuffle some of its founding myths, its heroes and its history. The problem is such renovation portends the demise of Somaliland’s alleged distinctiveness and by extension its nationhood.

[burahadeer]

ONLF stalled : you could have liberated onlf with the pen:D

[Abtigiis]

Why is the ONLF an issue here, dear Burahadeer? When can we move away from this fixation with the narrator's alleged identity and move to a more abystemious issues-based debate?

 

Or is this yet another case of a poor fel*low who could not handle the demise of his verities, seek*ing pur*gation through a rheum directed at the messanger of the bad news? How Galeano-ean!

 

"ONLF", "hater", "fa.qa.sh" are convinient shorthands and labels pasted on the foreheads of those who question the sanity of desperate tribalists plying despertate, ireedeemable causes. Such insults can not be wisecracks, maxims or disinfected and compacted thoughts that suggest a reflective people, meditative discourse. Their fatigue, sheer platitudinous ring and clumsiness as a means of expression is telling of the emaciated ideas these shorthands are desigend to convey!

[AYOUB]

Abtigiis;849237 wrote:

Why is the ONLF an issue here, dear Burahadeer? When can we move away from this fixation with the narrator's alleged identity and move to a more abystemious issues-based debate?

 

Or is this yet another case of a poor fellow who could not handle the demise of his verities, seeking pur*gation through a rheum directed at the messanger of the bad news? How Galeano-ean!

Ninkaad kabo ka tolan lahayd kabihiisa la eega. You're an Azania-supporting Nairobi-based Ethiopian speaking on behalf on the behalf the MOD that destroyed the Somali Republic while in ONLF gear. Dahaboy adba caqla leedahay..

 

If you checked your facts, you'd have known President Rayaale (another hero of of ours by the way ) removed SNM from Somaliland's curricula years ago. No one has to learn SNM history in SL schools if they don't want to. I won't go in to Darwish nor Kacaan history because I wont be able to make you see beyond the MOD powder milk version that you nurtured you. Like Adna Aden says, of the two hospitals in Laasanood, one was built under British rule and the other under Somaliland rule. The problem with the likes of you is you can't see beyond caano-boodhe when searching for heroes.

[Abtigiis]

,,,Anything more sensisble than this caanaboodhe hogwash, dear Ayoub?

[Che -Guevara]

LOL

[AYOUB]

A&t, isn't that what you're all about. You talk this clan that clan under the guise of nationhood.

[Tallaabo]

Abtigiis is right. The Ministry of Education should produce a history syllabus for the nation’s school children which teaches Somali history as it happened. Let Somaliland’s students learn that the Mad Mullah and his barbaric gang were nothing more than an outlawed twentieth century Al Shabaab, and that Afwayne was the father of political tribalism and a mass murderer who was blindly supported by his entire extended D clan to commit a genocide against some of their fellow Somalis. The truth must be told indeed.

[Jacaylbaro]

Somaliland has so many challenges ,,,, the biggest ones were overcome successfully, the remaining will be the same IA.

 

Nothing was more difficult than destroying one of the most powerful military in Africa, nothing was more difficult than disarming the militias and creating a stable & democratic country without much external assistance.

 

Building a whole nation from scratch is not an easy task specially when you are surrounded by anarchists, countries with an ongoing civil war, piracy, terrorism and all.

[Jacaylbaro]

Somaliland has so many challenges ,,,, the biggest ones were overcome successfully, the remaining will be the same IA.

 

Nothing was more difficult than destroying one of the most powerful military in Africa, nothing was more difficult than disarming the militias and creating a stable & democratic country without much external assistance.

 

Building a whole nation from scratch is not an easy task specially when you are surrounded by anarchists, countries with an ongoing civil war, piracy, terrorism and all.

[Abtigiis]

To the sick mind, inclusivity is clanisim, fairness is abuse. Anyway, Ayoub, you have not only failed to present a plausible counter narrative to my commentary- except the blatant lie that the SNM history is not thought in schools, you are relying on labelling and insults to make your weak points. Unless you want to play the ostrich and sand stuff, it is sadly the truth that our politics is a politics of clans, and our nationhoods are a nationhood of clans. A positive discussion of somali politics cannot happen without divulging this clan dimension. It is why both ONLF and references to Caanabodhe are not about milk and nutrition or a potshot against a given ideology. They are references to clan, the same evil you are disparaging!

 

Jacaylbaro, now that is what I can take as a fitting response to this post. What you are saying is that we, somalilanders, will surmount the challenging intangibles, having succeeded in taming bigger threats. May you succeed again, but no one should pretend there are no challenges.

[AYOUB]

A positive discussion of somali politics cannot happen without divulging this clan dimension. It is why both ONLF and references to Caanabodhe are not about milk and nutrition or a potshot against a given ideology.

Maybe so, but I'm not trying to make a "positive discussion" but point out the messy state of the boots worn by the man who wants to mend my shoes especially the "negative outsiders" like yourselves.

[Abtigiis]

You are reading a different page. No one is trying to mend anything here, for commenting on an issue does not mean trying to fix it! And one is entiltled to a commentary, even a wrong one! An intelligent person would have examined his baises, dogmas and beliefs, but you display a level of certainity that borders fanticism in your SL mania. It is not normal.

[AYOUB]

^ You said SL heroes need to be representative. You also said it's impossible. Poor shoemaker is what you are. If Rayaale Kahin is my hero, then that's representative enough me but not for an Azanian-ONLF that was nourished on MOD powder milk, so be it.

[Somalia]

AYOUB;849267 wrote:

^ You said SL heroes need to be representative. You also said it's impossible. Poor shoemaker is what you are. If Rayaale Kahin is my hero, then that's representative enough me but not for an Azanian-ONLF that was nourished on MOD powder milk, so be it.

That's very harsh, not even I'm that harsh, how did you manage to get that harsh cause it's harsh man, stop being harsh.