Time to Lay the Facts on the Table ( By Adan H Iman )

Some communities in the defunct Somali State have formed so called states or are aspiring for the formation of others.  Advocates of those something states claim they are part of the Federal Somali State. Some diaspora- based Awdalites have joined this herd mentality.  But those Awdal state advocates are in state of denial about the hopeless conditions in Mogadishu and have a distorted view of the past Somali state.

There is no question that advocates of Awdal state, who live in the west, are nostalgic about the past.  But why are people nostalgic any way about the past? Robert Kaplan, a historian and travel writer tried to address this issue. He wrote that life is full of challenges and difficulties but with the passage of time we tend to forget the hardship we encountered growing up leaving only images of joy that are free from that bad moments we avoid to remember.

First it seems there is state of denial regarding the situation in the South. As I wrote elsewhere, during the two last decades there was no country called Somalia but men who did not care about their country and who were, and are still, determined solely to make large fortunes by any means. First there came the warlords who dismantled factories and sold these assets for their salvage values in neighboring countries. Then pirates who roamed in the high seas and demanded millions of dollars from hard working seamen going about their business in the Indian Ocean. Then there were the so called transitional leaders who traveled from one foreign capital to another begging for financial help. According to the latest UN report, military commanders in Mogadishu are selling weapons in the market place. This is to be expected when the President and his assistants believe they are personally entitled to foreign aid. Taking this to its logical conclusion, mid-level managers must also feel they are entitled to take personal possessions of whatever public resources they control. I cannot see any reason why anybody would advocate putting their children under this mafia.

Second what is to be nostalgic about the defunct Somali state?  Borama, in those days, was a schools town surrounded by farmland. When students graduate from Secondary schools, they would leave the town permanently and move to Mogadishu. Those who were absorbed into the civil service would earn an entry level salary of 450 shillings or $65. Those who would go to universities would earn less than $200 after graduation. All the financial resources were concentrated in the one capital state of Mogadishu.

Today, Borama is a booming city with paved roads, hotels with modern amenities, hospitals that deliver health care and universities that attract students from all parts of the old Somali state. More capital is being created by some of the people than ever before. Construction of homes is happening at a fast pace because people of Awdal origin are moving from Ethiopia and Djibouti and diaspora retirees are also returning home (these people are entitled to relocate to Borama because it is their land and city).

This phenomenal growth is possible because of the constitutional democracy in Somaliland, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression, freedom of assembly, protection of civil liberties, electoral democracy and free market system. These freedoms do not exist in neighboring states where people coming into Borama are moving from. The progress we have seen in Awdal, and for that matter in the rest of Somaliland, is illustrative of the correlation between freedom and human development.

Those in the diaspora who advocate an Awdal state under Mogadishu, which is nearly 1600 Km away, most in highly dangerous territory that one cannot even safely drive through, disregard the fundamental reality of geography: that the distance between Hargeisa and Borama is 75 miles only; that over the last 23 years as the two cities grew larger and larger this small distance has been shrinking even further; and that this small distance is inhabited together by both the Gadabursi and Isaaq peoples. It is safe to argue that geography, both physical and human, have destined those two groups of people to live together and share the same polity. Nobody in his right mind can fathom how those two peoples, who live together and in close proximity with each other, can be separated. I would like to hear from the advocates for Awdal State what their end game is? What is their empirical calculation the children of Awdal will get from Mogadishu – a place that in everybodys’ impression is absolutely hopeless? What will happen in the event of attempted separation? I only see gloom and doom.  

We must all take comfort from the fact neither the residents of the region nor their political and traditional leaders would pay any heed to this dangerous idea because of the obvious reason that it spells gloom and doom,  plunge them into crisis and violence and reverse all the progress they have made.

Adan H Iman is an analyst for the City of Los Angeles

E-mail: adaniman40@gmail.com