The Horn Of Africa States: Somalia, The Collapse And The Recovery In Progress – OpEd
Somalia is a unique African country in many respects but also shares many things with others. First, It was born out of the will of its people through the unification of independent Ex-British Somaliland and independent Ex-Italian administered UN Trust territory of Somalia unlike all other African countries, which have maintained the borders inherited from Europe’s colonialist countries.
It is a largely homogeneous nation whose population are mostly of the same ethnic background, speak the same language and enjoy the same faith and culture. It is also the only country in Africa, which has not ratified the principle of respecting the borders inherited from the European colonial countries as was adopted by the Organization of African Unity, currently the African Union, in 1964. Despite the aforesaid, it is still a member of the African Union.
The rejection of the borders inherited is based on the fact that these borders left Somali territories and people in the neighboring countries of Ethiopia (the Somali State of Ethiopia), Kenya (the NFD) and at that time (1964) France still ruled French Somaliland (currently Djibouti).
Somalia is also unique for it has the longest coast in Africa representing about 12.8% of Africa’s total coastline and enjoys a large maritime space of some 832,000 sq. km., bigger indeed, than its land territory of 638,000 sq. km. It has a population of thirty-two million although some fake reports repeat a population of some twenty million or less for the country.
The country is geostrategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea and is open to the Indian Ocean. It is reported to own an immense mineral base including uranium (a third of known world reserves), some 110 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves and other minerals, a large agricultural arable land and an immense livestock population. It, indeed, feeds many countries of the Arabian Gulf with their meat requirements.
And unknown to many other countries, Somalia is older than all European and many other countries. Its history goes back to the prime of time – some five to six thousand years ago. It even used to send ambassadors to China in the 12th to 13th centuries, and it was a geographic destination for travelers before Europeans became explorers. Muhammad al-Idrisi (1100-1166), Yaqut ibn-‘Abdullah Al-Hamawi (1179 – 1229 AD) Ali Ibn Musa Ibn-Said al-Maghribi (1213 – 1286), Ibn Battuta’s (1304-1369) and many others, all visited Somalia.
It is no wonder, therefore, that many countries, big and small, rich and poor, distant and close, are interested in Somalia and its destiny. Much like China of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when that country faced a large array of pressures including insurrections, invasions from foreign countries and internal social upheavals, Somalia has faced both external and internal pressures since its birth in 1960.But the country is expected to recover and rise again.
From birth in 1960 to the present, the country has been at some kind of war, which started with an Ethiopian invasion when it was barely four years old in 1964. Somalia warred against Ethiopia ever since, sometimes through governments but mostly simply through Somali public rejection of Ethiopian maneuverings. The wars included the 1977/1978 war, the Ethiopian invasion of 2006 and others. Kenya has similarly undermined Somalia colluding with Ethiopia and other countries who do not hold the best interest of Somalia at heart, based either on fear of Somalia’s territorial claims on other countries or its geostrategic location or its untapped resources.
Climate has not been kind to the country either and Somalia had to face intermittent but regular famines and droughts, and at times, when there was no governance of mention, the situations the populations faced, were dire and difficult, requiring international humanitarian interventions.
The governance of Somalia has undergone tumultuous changes from its birth from democratic processes to dictatorial regimes, to warlordisms, to terror groups, to Kenyan and Ethiopian invasions covered through abjectly failed African missions, but it has survived through the resilience of its people, who are as hard as the terrain and the leopard-colored lands in which they live in the Horn of Africa.
Somalia is a complex story of hope, resistance and resilience and an ongoing recovery process. The good news, despite some stiff opposition by some quarters, is that Türkiye, has supported the nation and has given hope that its vast oil and gas reserves could finally be tapped. All these stories, some told and others still untold, have shaped Somalia.
The country is a federal republic and some regions of the country do not even consider themselves as part of Somalia anymore, and those who form part of the federation do not see eye to eye with the federal government on the way forward for the country. It is the corrupt political class of today that are the main culprits, when the good silent majority, gave them passage to come on the top of the Somali pack.
But all is not lost and the hope of a reformed and restructured Somalia appears to be just over the horizon. Most Somalis today understand the need for a decent society able to perform and operate like any other society or any other country and there is hard work underway in this regard.
The country and people, if they have to emerge from the chaos and take advantage of the hydrocarbon bonanza on the way, would need peace and stability. This could only be achieved through an intentioned institutionalization of governance, building a transparent governance system where corruption is shunned and local regions are empowered to build up trust. A stable government attracts investments from abroad and even locally. This would help in the reconstruction of the country’s infrastructure and improve the daily lives of the people.
Somalia would also need to improve its educational system, which will empower the bulging youthful population of the country. Median age of the population is reported to be about twenty years. Accessibility to education is game changer anywhere and it should not be different for Somalia, but education without job availability and employment would be meaningless and there is, where the need for investments, not only from local resources but also from abroad, would be necessary.
The country is expected to earn from its resources (oil and gas and other minerals, livestock and marine life and agriculture). A wise deployment of these resources would be good for job creation, create hope and, indeed, for the country and people.
Somalia has a large diaspora and it should engage them. They have already helped the country through remittances but an organized government-inspired process would be better and bigger. A continuing connection between the local population and the diaspora would always be good for both groups.
Somalia is not only shaped by its ethnicity but also by its culture. Its rich language and poetry and other traditions are what have kept the Somali way of life and is what makes them stand out wherever they go. Preservation of the Somali culture will help maintain the Somali identity and unity. A viable proposition for Somalis of today is currently on the table. It is the combination of the country’s geography, history, culture, language and social infrastructure, which comes to the rescue whenever, there is trouble in the lands of the Somali – the double-edged clan structure.
The country is currently at a crossroads point, where despite the security challenges, the economy is slowly improving, as one major regional power (Türkiye) is genuinely invested in the country (the oil and gas exploration project), another eminent change of governance is on the way and the silent majority is stirring to wake up and contribute to the country’s emergence from the ongoing chaos and those of the past.
