Somalia and a search for a new age

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From right: President Hassan Sheik Mohamud at the podium of announcing his appointed PM Hamza Bare.
June 15, 2022. Villa Somalia, Mogadishu. Photo by Villa Somalia

For the last three-plus decades, Somalia has been dominating both in the literature and news headlines with one theme: a failed state. This has been the case due to the lack of an effective central authority in the country since the fall of the dictatorial regime of Mohamed Siad Bare in 1991 followed by the devastating civil war and famines and the new paradigm shift of the Somali agony: the piracy, terrorism and unvetted and malicious foreign interferences. 


However, the Somalia I’m going to write about in this essay is not the one we know in the past 30 years of mayhem but a new one that is in the realm of the hands reach to create: a just and strong sovereign Somali republic that heals the past and inspires all Somalis to protect and live in it. By proposing so, one may think that it’s merely wishful thinking but I’m not in an illusion and it’s not my intent to entertain the fortune-teller’s crystal ball. Rather I will show concrete steps that may nation should take to get out of the nightmare and reach the delightful destiny. 


To understand how Somalia’s search for a new age is possible, first, we need to understand what we mean by the new age that we are envisioning and how it relates to the dark situation that needs to be cut off. By new age we mean an era in which the State of Somalia is strong, clan and clannism (qabil and qabyaalad) which has been the dominant political culture so far became things of the past, justice and civil rights are laws of the land and public norms are towards self-actualization and ending the chronic underdevelopment.  


To turn the page toward that era, studying Somalia’s conflict reveals that the country’s State failure lies at the nexus of clan-and-clannism on one hand and foreign interferences on the other hand. This became the case due to the following reasons:


1) Somalia's deep fall into the era of Statelessness started after two decades of dictatorial regime characterized by injustice and incompetence which had been removed by violent means. The pain caused by the dictatorial regime had set the bar high for the demands of the individual rights which are expressed on a collective basis, mainly in the clan structure. This blurred the type of State-Formula the nation should adopt to rebuild its State in the minds of many Somalis. 


2) The damage that happened to the spirit of the Somali nationalism and the obscurity on the path forward emboldened foreign strategic enemies and adversaries who wrongly see their national interest at forestalling a strong Somali Nation-State to plant deep hands in the Somali politics and eradicate any journey toward reviving the Somali national spirit and institutions. That foreign interference is at its worst in history as this article is to be published. It has reached to a point in which the existence of the country itself could be in doubt. 


However, though internally Somalia’s prolonged conflict and instability have been expressed in clanish terms, one of the social bases in which the people trace their ancestral lineage to their male parents, closely examining this social base shows it is nothing but a generic extension of a family. For instance, mostly the Somalis in Hargeisa, Mogadishu, Jijiga, Djibouti, or Gariza are somehow biologically related to one another. This proves the assertion there is no physical social base for seeds of conflict among Somalis, rather the role of the clan in the conundrum of the Somali conflict is a mere family dispute which has been exploited by unholy external forces.


Therefore, Somalia’s ability to fundamentally resolve it's conflict and start the new age of being stable, just, strong and prosperous is only fenced away by obscurity on the type of State-Formula to adopt and hostile foreign forces who are taking advantage of the Somalis’ weak points. Tearing this vicious layer down is between Somalia and the new page and doing so may not require more than letting the Somali people freely pursue their deeply held core values. 


Being one of the rare cases in Africa, the people of Somalia is a single nation who shares all social characteristics: race, ethnicity, language, culture and religion. History starts to record Somali people who share all the characteristics of a homogeneous nation. Nevertheless, Somalis’ core hereditary values are Islam, Somali ethnicity, an egalitarian culture of caring for one another and an unwavering quest for pride and freedom. These cultural hereditary values are deeply rooted in the Somali people and are the determining factors which even the frontiers of the former European imperials who divided Somalis people into five spheres of influence had failed to obliterate or abolish. 


Thus, naturally, to resolve their problems, Somalis simply need to stop the family noise that became the disastrous calamity and let their hereditary core values take the lead. By the time a just and patriotic statesman sets the national stage with that agenda, already the wheel has turned. 

President Hassan Sheik Mohamud’s new train of “Somalis at peace with each other and with the world," has the traits and prospects to be the one starting the first chapter of the new Somalia. As a former member of the civil society and the first president ever elected twice in the country’s history, president Hassan is a real product of the nation’s effort to self-heal and rebuild. So far, his presidential approach is positive and well-articulated. Some of his steps including his choice for his prime minister were historic. Thus, the prospect that President Hassan lefts behind a great legacy and the great, peaceful and prosperous Somalia comes to being in our lifetime is so high. Let’s all pray for it.






Mohamed Garad is an entrepreneur and independent researcher who studies the political history, economics and politics of the Horn of Africa region. 

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