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Somaliland:Tribalism and its Problems in Our Society

November 1, 2012   ·   3692113 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2Fsomalilandtribalism-and-its-problems-in-our-society-36921Somaliland%3ATribalism+and+its+Problems+in+Our+Society2012-11-01+08%3A53%3A55SomalilandPresshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D36921

PART ONE

In my previous articles, I talked about tribalism in general and also what is mentioned in our religion, regarding tribalism, however on this article, I would like to go deep on its problems or should I say side effects.

Sometimes I talk to myself and i talk loud so i can hear what i am saying and I answer back to my myself, people are two kinds, those who speak to themselves silently and likes of me who talk loudly so they hear, understand, analyse  and answer back to themselves, the last discussion I had with myself was that I was asking myself was, if our people were promoting nationalism, same way as they are promoting tribalism, we would have been in a better position and achieved more as a nation, in terms of basically everything. Don´t you think so, hope you do?

I would say that we somalis, somalilanders have a very strong love and loyalty to our own tribes than our country, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that love and loyalty to the tribes as long as there are no negative aspect, but why can we not have that love and strong loyalty to our beloved country is in fact beyond my comprehension.

We need to promote nationalism, rather than tribalism for our country´s economically, socially, politically and developments wise. We need to know and realise that our country is bigger than our tribes and also needs to be aware that as a tribe we cannot do much, but as nation we can do more. And to do promote nationalism, we have to face or come with a clean heart.

Things that got me worried are as follows. I realised recently that some of our people will not contribute to the country by any means, whether it?s a collecting contribution for a good cause or to look for recognition. etc. because he or they don´t get on or maybe they don´t like the government or the president. May be the president is from this tribe where there was always a friction between the two tribes. Ridiculous, isn´t it.

I said that as citizen of Somaliand, as a human being and as a Somaliland diaspora, we cannot sit and watch the terrible accidents that is occurring in that road daily, we would like to contribute to this humanitarian project of berbera/Hargeisa second road. The distance between berbera is 88 miles or 147 km, so I said let us construct or build 1 mile or 2 miles every few months. I said every somalilanders who lives inside and outside will pay $20 a month for a year, of course all of us can, after we have collected that much money, then we will ask the government to add the rest and also we will ask other countries to assist us.

I was amazed and astonished to know that 8 of the 15 people questioned were negative and to some extent some of them said, why we would help this government and that president. Believe in me, I was gob smacked rather than shocked. It is shocking?

This is one of the least problems tribalism can create, cause or caused to our society. How anyone with a brain can have this negative thought on his mind, regardless of their education and background IS BEYOND BELIEVE

The impact of this terrible tribalism can make people to think the opposite, can create conflict between tribes as it normally does, as well as it can damage our national interest. People prefer to put tribes interest before the nation interest, the impact can also cause separation and disunity in to the society, which in return can pose a threat to our national unity as well as it can create a political instability in our country. God almighty forbids.

If you look back the history in the African continent and see what has happened to the countries like Ruanda and Brundi, you will come to know that it all started with the tribalism, therefore, we should refrain anything that can cause us disunited and hatred amongst us.

We should really work hard remembering the difficulties that we went through for the past 50 years. Our expectations after 1991 were to follow up with developments for our country but tribalism appears to be a major problem. The government need to put drastic measures to abolish tribalism. Our sheikhs and wadaads should engage more and teach and educate the people about tribalism and its effect and problems in the society, it´s all there in the Quran, they need to talk about it openly in the streets and in the masjids, especially on Friday?s khutbahs . this will probably minimize our chances of holding false and imaginary beliefs on other tribes and the people can trust each other.

Our togetherness in this can get rid of the tribalism problems

My question will be. Can we really end tribalism in Somaliland?  I think we can but we need time and patience…….

I will end my article with the famous prover of Abdilahi sultan tImacade, might Allah almighty forgive him.

Dugsi ma leh qabyaaladi waxay dumiso mooyee!!!!´

 

.My next article, I will inshala talk about more on what ways and tactics we use to end tribalism
Regards,

Ahmedyasin Mohamed Jama

aymjama@hotmail.co.uk

United Kingdom

 

 

 

 

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By SomalilandPress

Tags: Politics, Somaliland, tribalism