"Somaliland is nearer to its holy grail (recognition) than even before"
- For nearly three decades, the holy grail of politics in
Somaliland has been its quest for international recognition. Somaliland
is not its own country — not officially, any way — but it wants to be.
It operates with complete independence from Somalia proper, under whose
sovereignty the territory technically falls, and it boasts all the
trappings of a modern state: a flag, a national anthem, a currency, an
army, a Constitution.
But despite Somaliland’s stellar track
record of stability and economic growth, the territory’s pleas for
recognition have fallen on deaf ears. The international community,
prioritising its own geostrategic considerations, has consistently
preferred to reinforce a succession of unstable governments in Mogadishu, leaving Somaliland to fend for itself, for the most part.
Political
theorists hypothesise that Somaliland’s success comes not despite this
international isolation, but because of it; that the absence of aid
money and one-size-fits-all development plans has allowed it to develop a
home-grown democracy that actually works for the community.
Nonetheless, Somaliland remains desperate to end this isolation — and it
just might be on the brink of doing so.
Finally, global
geopolitics is working in its favour. The bitter divisions in the Middle
East have spilled over into the Horn of Africa, forcing governments to
choose sides. Somalia’s federal government, propped up by African Union
(AU) peacekeepers in Mogadishu, is aligning itself with Qatar and
Turkey. This has forced Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to go
searching for other Somali partners — and Somaliland can barely contain
its enthusiasm.
Already,
even as the UAE has withdrawn from a military training arrangement in
Mogadishu, it has reached a deal to build a military base in
Somaliland’s Berbera port; while Emirati behemoth DP World will operate
the commercial facilities there. According to one report, the UAE is now accepting Somaliland passports.
It’s
not just Somaliland, either: the president of neighbouring Puntland, a
semi-autonomous region with much closer ties to Mogadishu, recently
jetted off to Abu Dhabi for a meeting with senior Emirati officials,
suggesting that it too has taken the side of the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
In
Hargeisa, Somaliland’s booming capital city, the government is daring
to dream: could the territory be on the brink of receiving their first
official recognition as a sovereign entity? The worse relations get
between Abu Dhabi and Mogadishu — and they are deteriorating further by
the week — the more likely that seems. And where the UAE goes, other
countries may follow, given the Emirates’ considerable influence in the
region.
The international recognition that Somaliland craves is closer than ever before. If only the poets would shut up. Poets like Naeema Qorane, who was sentenced last week to three years
in a Hargeisa prison. Her crime: “anti-national activity of a citizen
and bringing the nation or state in contempt”.
In her verse, Qorane waxes lyrical about Somali unity; the fabled soomaalinimo,
the essential Somaliness that binds all Somalis regardless of whose
borders they live in. It is a concept embraced wholeheartedly by the
federal government in Mogadishu, even finding expression on its flag:
against a light blue background, the five points of the white star
represent Somalia’s five historic regions, including territory in Kenya,
Ethiopia and Djibouti. One day, Mogadishu would like to have all that
back.
Poets occupy an exalted position in Somali society, which
until 1974 was an almost exclusively oral society. “Poets carry our
heritage and our history. That’s how we send messages. Poetry is the
centre of the identity of the Somali people,” said Guleid Ahmed Jama,
the director of the Red Sea Centre, a Hargeisa-based cultural organisation.
In
the battle of ideas, poets are always on the frontline. “Poetry is an
important vehicle for different political positions: some may emphasise
the value of soomaalinimo whilst others might praise the
achievements and independence of the breakaway Republic of Somaliland.
These poetic expressions and confrontations are taken up by younger
generations and play out in many different locations — both offline and
across dynamic and transnational Somali social media,” said Pete Chonka,
a lecturer at King’s College London and a long-time student of Somali
poetry.
So when Qorane, and others like her, preach soomaalinimo,
Somaliland’s government interprets it as an attack on its own
nation-building project — even when Qorane never mentions Somaliland
explicitly. And this is deemed enough of a threat to to jail her, even
if doing so means violating basic civil liberties.
“I think the
Somaliland government is not respecting the Constitution,” said Jama.
But it’s even worse than that, he adds: to convict Qorane, the courts
relied on the old Somali penal code, a legal remnant of a unified
Somalia. Apparently Somaliland is not so averse to abusing the notion of
Somali unity when it suits them.
There is grave danger here for
Somaliland. The territory is so close to achieving its ultimate goal of
international recognition: is now really the time to trample on free
speech, on human rights, on the rule of law — all the values which have
for so long underpinned this rare success story in the Horn of Africa?
President
Muse Bihi may be aware of the danger, at least. Following a huge public
outcry that followed Qorane’s conviction, unconfirmed Twitter reports
suggest that he has now pardoned the poet. Even if true, this will not
be the last test of Somaliland’s principles
Somaliland is nearer
to its holy grail than even before. But it doesn’t take a poet to know
that sometimes holy grails turn out to be poisoned chalices.
Simon Allison (Mail & Guardian)
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