H. E.
Donald Payne
Chairman Subcommittee on African and
Global Health
HISTORIC BACKGROUND OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND
History 101
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Dear Sir:
I am writing for your information and I beseech you to glance
through it, a mem orandum on the origin of Somaliland and its
present dilemma. Diplomats refer to Somaliland in a derogatory sense
as a self-declared Republic. I see no shame in that epithet but on
the contrary I take pride in it, remembering that the Great Republic
which you have the honor to represent started its glorious history
as a self-declared Republic.
From that day the word Republic has assumed an honorable distinction
a glory which has never before been associated with it in an
international congregation of kings, Dukes, Pretenders, Czars and
Kaisers. The writing memorandum gives you in nutshell the history
and the hope of our country and our people. It also gives you a
brief assessment of the problem of Somalia itself and a glimpse of
the pivotal role which the Republic of Somaliland and its people can
play in solvi ng the intractable problems of Somalia.
Our country, Somaliland, is not an entity which was born after the
disintegr ation of the Siad Barre dictatorship. In pre-historic
times it was known as the land of Punt. Many, including recently
Ethiopia, lay claim to that legendary name. However, two undeniably
basic facts prove beyond doubt that the land of PUNT was what is now
know as Somaliland. First the land of Punt was famed for its
production of Frankincense and that is why The Pharaohs believed
that the Land of Punt was the home of the spirits of their
God-Kings. There is no other place in the Horn of Africa where that
tree grows except in the southern most region of Somaliland.
Secondly, all the ruined cities of the people of Punt are located
here in Somaliland and an English army officer who participated in
the campaign against the Somaliland nationalist has written a small
book which he called the ruined cities of Somaliland. These two
facts conclusively prove that in ancient pre-historic times a
country existed in Somaliland which had its own identity and its own
geographical contours.
In recent History Somaliland was part of the Uthman Empire under the
Khadif of Egypt. It was then know as Arda Somal The Land of
the Somalis or Somaliland. In 1848, the British have taken over from
the Turko-Egyption rule and established over this land the British
Somaliland Protectorate. A country which on the 26th of June 1960
had taken its independence from Britain as the Republic of
Somaliland.
These brief chapters are designed to prove beyond doubt, that the
Republic of Somaliland was never an integral part of the former
Italian colony, and subsequently The United Nations trust territory
of Somalia. People who are not aware of these facts are invariably
left with the mistaken impression that Somaliland is a renegade
region of Somalia. On the 1st of July 1960 this country Somaliland
has voluntarily and against the wishes of the main body of the
Political leadership in Somalia, had united with Somalia in pursuit
of the ideal of creating a Greater Somaliland, consisting of the
five segments into which the scramble for Africa had divided a
homogenous nation. That ideal has atrophied under the Dictatorship
of Siad Barre and because of the unrelenting opposition of all the
International Community. There was a time when Great Britain under
Tory Government have briefly accepted the idea and decided to
relinquish the Somali inhabited districts of Kenya to Somalia. But
at the request of Emperor Haile Selassie, President Kennedy, have
prevailed upon his friend Mr. Harold Macmillan, the then Prime
Minster of Britain, to ditch the Somali cause. From that time all
the International community stood together solidly against the
unification of the Somali People.
Our fathers and grandfathers who have lived through the magnificent
years of the fifties will never forget that great wind of change
which blew across the continent and that great continental levee
en masse which for the first time in history produced a black,
purposeful solidarity throughout the whole continent, and for a
brief period gave to the people of all the African Countries a
common initiative, a common purpose and a spirit of a nationhood.
The independence which should have fostered that magnificent spirit
and should have built nations on the Euphoria of the period and on
the ashes of tribalism, have failed miserably. No attempt was made
to pioneer a new form of governance. Instead a band of black men
have merely taken over from the retiring former colonial Civil
Servants.
The system of colonial rule whether legal or administrative was
allowed to func tion as severely and obnoxiously as it did in
the past with the only different that the enforcers of the rule were
now black men. In few short years the petty dictators who have taken
over from the colonial governments have dissipated the euphoria and
dismantled the levee en masse which should have carried the
continent to new heights of human endeavor. The men that should have
helped to tame the dictators like the flamboyant men of Camelot in
America who have fallen so very short of their eloquent rhetoric,
the mediocre Harold Wilson who coined the diminished Britain and
burrowing deeply into his Mediocrity lead the people of Britain into
despair and self pity. In France, de Gaulle was gone and the search
for a successor is still going on. All these men in the pursuit of
influence and allies for the cold war have abetted, encouraged and
wooed the Petty Dictators who were ruining Africa. Nation building
all over the continent has come to an abrupt end with independence.
The people of Africa were forced in silent rage to go back to the
only social and political organization they knew tribalism. The
unification of the Somali people which was attempted in 1960 was
part of that nation building and like the rest it died an untimely
death.
Somaliland is now the only country in the Horn of Africa where an
effective program of nation building is being vigorously pursued. We
have now conquered the anarchy bequeathed to us by the
disintegration of the Dictator ship. Peaceful co-existence between
all over clans have been painfully nurtured and is now fully
established. We carefully chosen new government and we elected a new
parliament would lead this nations and this country to a renewed
social and economic leap. We hope that within the next future we can
redesign the pastoral nomadic existence of the nation on the basis
of a scientific ecological engineering. We Somalilanders intend
to survey the whole country for underground and surface waters and
then zone our pastoral land into seasonal zones.
There are men in Mogadishu and in other cities of former Somalia who
having failed their people and ruined their country and in the
process shed rivers of innocent blood, are now enviously trying to
compromise and hamper our progress and our achievements. These men
have no say in our affairs, just like they have had no say in our
decisions in 1960. In their utter poverty of political ideas and
innovations, they are clinging to one slogan which they repeat like
a Parrot unaware of its emptiness and insignificance. That slogan is
: SOMALI UNITY IS SACRED . They have never stopped to ask
themselves whether that sacred unity includes the Republic of
Djibouti, the 5th Region of Ethiopia, and the NFD of Kenya. There is
nothing sacred about something that does to exist and we reject them
and their childish slogan and their evil blood-stained leadership.
We apply ourselves to address directly the whole international
community and specially our brother in Africa to take notice of our
existence, to recognize our sovereignty and to help us help the rest
of Somalia to rid themselves of the painful burden of the war lords
and to rebuild their country and their lives, as we did, from the
grass roots of the nation.
The political map of the Horn of Africa with the rise of Eritrea and
Somaliland has also change the New World Order favors the
downfall of African Dictators. That are being swept by the current
wind of change in Africa. The break-up of cumbersome states in
Europe is also welcome. The recognition of the emerging states is
the order of the day. Though recognition is essentially a political
decision the identical situation of the emergent states of both
continents neither be denied nor overlooked.
We have to realest that we are not different from the former
Yugoslavia, and former Soviet Union, who break-up into different
independent countries. If Ukrain, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia and
Bosnia can be a Sovereign countries, why not in Somaliland?!!!
We have to have the will, the political will and collective will. We
have a right to get self-determination and get recognition from the
world.
We should therefore be considered for immediate recognition and
development in order to help us cope with tremendous problems we
face.
ANIIS A. ESSA
ADVOCATE FOR SOMALILAND RECOGNITION
WASHINGTON DC
aniis@yahoo.com
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