A Weird Psychological Hold On Somaliland‎‎‎

By Rhoda A. Rageh

A psychological hold on anything is an unhealthy emotional state of mind. Somaliland has made a decision to disassociate itself from a union that was regressive, repressive and disastrous. For the Southern faithfuls, it seems to me, Somaliland is like a mother who refused to take her baby on a journey and whatever they write is a child’s howl even long after the mother left the scene. These writers who call themselves Somalilanders insist that Somaliland does not exist. If they deny the existence of Somaliland, how can they be its citizens? Their psychological hold on Somaliland is for a very good reason because they were the ones who hijacked Siyad Barre’s government for their own gain. Therefore, in their amnesia, they think things will return to the way they were.

They are the ones who are neither here, nor there, nor somewhere in between but buying time to see what happens. They have no faith in the land they were born, brought up, educated, worked as civil servants, married from and neither are they faithful to the land they have destroyed after they hijacked its mission and licked every bit of sweet it offered. Somaliland for them has become a property. They seem to carry the weight of the entire Somaliland population on their shoulders without permission. They forget that 97 percent of Somalilanders said ‘no’ to the dead union. They ignore that 88 percent of the suffering South want Somaliland to remain independent from Somalia. They attack professors and wise men like Dr. Ali Mazroui and Iqbal Jhazbhay even organizations like ICG become enemies for their professional opinion. They expect people not to see, hear, think or dream. They don’t follow what my friend and fellow Somalilander Bashir Goth calls, ‘A New Wind of Change in Africa’ or the world for that matter.

If these writers whom I call ‘Faithfuls’ truly love Somalia, I have yet to see a single pen expressing grief over what is happening in Mogadishu. They ran from the South after they found out that it was not safe for them. So they are waiting for someone else to salvage the country for them while they live in different parts of the West. Of course, they are not comfortable to embrace Somaliland because they were the masterminds of Siyad Barre’s most notorious decision to eliminate. Therefore, no wonder, they cannot trust to be part of this peaceful land. Layli biyaha kalkiisa ku jiruu ka dida. Their projected fear is holding them from entering Mogadishu as peace makers between the people in the ‘Somalia they proclaim to love’ or as liberators of those poor innocent women and children from war mongers, and fear is holding them from participating in the peace and progress that reigns in Somaliland where diversity is embraced and past ills have long been forgiven.

The innocent ones perceive no land other than Somaliland but the ones with the guilty conscience live in purgatory to see if hell is better than heaven. Life in all its forms needs conviction, commitment, and perseverance and these writers lack all. Because if they believe in anything beyond themselves, they would have gone back to Mogadishu to save the land they love, or be with Somaliland to return to the land they were born. Their chameleon character which will catch up with them is the only way they know.

Somaliland is here to stay. It is the land that gave them life, liberty, education and the foundation of who they are. Their constant betrayal is similar to the growl of a child who becoming a hyena devours his mother. Let them be what they may. Only time will tell where they will end, in the meantime, Somaliland is forever inshaAllah and when they loose all hope, home is where failures return to find solace and Somaliland will embrace them as naughty children.

Long Live Somaliland

The author can be contacted at:   Rhoda Rageh rahmaa@yahoo.com

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