RIP: Mohammed Siyad Barre

A Pan-Africanist view - Dr. Tajudeen

Wednesday, June 21 st, 2006 – WHEN a people have suffered for a long time under a dictatorship the tendency is to declare that nothing could be worse than they were experiencing. It is like the optimism in that song by Yazz: the only way is up.

But experience does teach a different lesson. No matter how bad the situation is it could always be worse. But the opposite is also true. No matter how good it is it can always be better. Who would have thought that the glee that saw the exit of Somalia’s long-time dictator, Mohammed Siyad Barre, in 1991 was going to quickly turn into a nightmare for his compatriots who have not known peace or even enjoyed the protection of a legitimate government since then. Siyad Barre is now reburied in Somalia after his body was returned from Nigeria where his life ended peacefully after being given a ‘safe haven’ by the Nigerian government.

But the country he led for more than two decades is wasted and wasting between different pretenders to Barre’s crown who are all warlords well-equipped to destroy states but with no skills for building a nation. Somalia also tragically epitomizes a number of contradictions for those of us who proclaim ‘African solutions to African problems’ and Pan-Africanism eschewing external meddling by imperialist powers in African affairs.

One, is our loyalty to a state or to peoples? The state of Somalia has collapsed and probably may never be one state again but somehow the international system has kept it existing because it remains the unit of discussion whether at the AU or UN and internationally. Somali peoples like all victims of colonialism are divided among many countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti in addition to Somalia itself. Though the Somali state has collapsed the Somali peoples continue to exist. Two, if our loyalty is to peoples and the survival of Somalis is more than the survival of a legal state then we need to look at the problem in a more fundamental way. It is not about fixing the Somali state but actually looking at it beyond the colonial borders and finding a regional solution to it. It points to federal and confederal arrangements of the East and horn of African states. But this logical political conclusion challenges the basis of all our states. That is why even the laudable work of the IGAD states backed by the AU and supported by genuine friends of Africa internationally is falling short of achieving peace and stability in Somalia and the region. They are looking at it as a Somali problem instead of being a Pan-African problem.

If we respond to it boldly it will not be limited to the Somalis. It will address the historical problems of belonging and not belonging, of many nationalities across this continent: Banyarwanda, Ewes, Ja luos, Basamia, Hausa, Yoruba, Tswana, Basuto, Oromos, Tigre but it will also change the map of Africa. It is the lack of political will to face the inevitable that is making our leaders engage in half-measures that often give disproportionate influence to warlords at our negotiating tables. IGADD states did a great job in facilitating and negotiating for peace in Somalia leading to the formation of the Transitional Government 2 years ago.

However the reality now is that that government has been overtaken by major political developments. To insist on it and deal as though it is the government risks making not just the TFG but also the IGADD and the AU irrelevant in resolving the Somali issue. However, the reality now is that that government has been overtaken by major political developments.

There are a number of reasons for this.

First, though the TFG is the result of tortuous and complex negotiations that seemed all-inclusive, the warlords had more power and influence in shaping it. Their crimes many of them ‘crimes against humanity’ were rewarded with impunity. Two, precisely because they were rewarded instead of them changing their old ways thy continued business as usual in Mogadishu and that is why the TFG has transformed into a refugee government based in Kenya to an internally displaced government first hosted by the warlord, Mohammed Dheere, in Jowhar but now relocated to Baidoa, where the interim president, Abdillahi Yusuf is hosted by yet another warlord. Three, While the TFG enjoys the diplomatic and political recognition of the AU and internationally it does not seem to enjoy the popular legitimacy and unable to impose its legal authority at home.

Can the world force Somalis to accept a government that is ineffective and doomed to remain ineffectual? This is the context in which sub-regional states and global geo-political power mongers are exploiting. While officially publicly offering support for the TFG their actions have helped to undermine and erode its fragile legitimacy. Chief among these are the US and Ethiopia.

The militias in Mogadishu have used both countries’ unprincipled alliances in Somali politics and their obsession with ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ to gain support.

Meanwhile, Somalis fed up with the militias and wanting a ‘law and order’ environment and a guarantee of personal and group security for their lives and property turn to their culture and religion. The Union of Islamic Courts led by an ordinary teacher Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed is the umbrella under which ordinary Somalis have united to get rid of militias and warlords backed by various foreign interests.

The ease with which they have moved from Mogadishu to other areas of the country should caution us from joining the sponsors of defeated and fleeing warlords who call them yet another Muslim fundamentalist’ group. They are giving indications of being a popular movement as yet unclear of its purpose as a government and probably ill-equipped to govern a modern state but able to bring security and peace based on notions of Islamic rule of law and social justice.

They have rendered the TFG a dead horse. For how long are we going to be insisting that Somalis ride this dead horse?

What is now happening in Mogadishu, Beledweyne and other cities are quite similar to what has happened in Somaliland where similar Islamist forces (up to now not recognized by any other state) but have managed to maintain peace and security based on a mixture of cultural order and Islamic values.

Neighbors and other foreigners should not be allowed to hide their sub-imperialist and imperialist interests behind supporting the TFG.

Source: The New Vision