By Markus Virgil Hoehne

Introduction

Visiting Somaliland once in a while shows the enormous progress made in the country, largely through people’s private investments and some help from the international community. New shops, restaurants and even industrial plants open every year, schools and universities mushroom. NGOs and UN organizations carry out programs from water and sanitation to health care, support of local municipalities and training for judges and lawyers. Closer observation shows, however, that most of these developments and programs are centered in the capital city of Hargeysa, in western Somaliland. The other towns of Somaliland seem increasingly marginalized or detached from what is going on in the capital – apart from a few ‘field visits’ of NGO’s assessing an emergency situation and of Somaliland politicians in the context of the preparations for the upcoming elections.

In order to gather data on education and peace-building in Somaliland, and the role the country’s Diaspora plays in this regard I went on a research trip to Burco and Las-Anod between 9 and 19 April 2009. This brief report highlights some observations about the ‘center-periphery’ problem in Somaliland, particularly with regard to education and development. It finally comes up with a few modest suggestions how to possibly avoid the dangers of a ‘one city centralization system’. The latter was implemented in some soviet republics, for instance Uzbekistan, during soviet rule (until 1991). Arguably, Somalia after 1960 also followed this path. In this context, most economic and political resources were bundled in the capital city alone. This led to stark differences in infrastructure development, as well as individual wealth and life chances between the centre and the periphery, and caused massive migration to the capital city, to the further detriment of peripheral places. The growth of such an economic and political ‘hydrocephalus’ diminishes the economic potential and political stability of a country. It may even breed conflict, as the post-colonial history of Somalia and Somaliland shows.

Burco University

The first station of my trip was Burco, where I spent two days. The town is rather huge (the second largest town in Somaliland). There are quite a few high-rise buildings and new hotels. The streets downtown are well maintained and a new bridge has been built in town. As far as I heard, a committee for the development of Burco that was founded in 2003 and includes locals as well as Diaspora Somalis related to Burco and surroundings was the driving force behind the development of the town.

The focus of my attention was on the university. There I met with the vice-chairman, Prof. Cabdisalaam, some students and some administrative staff. The university building at the outskirts of the city is clearly impressive and once one passed the entrance gate, one finds himself/herself standing in the middle of a proper campus, with administrative building, classrooms, lecture hall, library and cafeteria. Currently, about two hundred students learn here, taught by about 30 teachers, some of whom come from as far as Sudan and Uganda. Besides the more usual subjects such as Business Administration, IT and Islamic studies, the university offers a degree in veterinary medicine. This makes perfectly sense since Burco, the capital of Togdheer region, is home to Somaliland’s largest livestock market and the livestock husbandry is the economic backbone of many families as well as the country (besides remittances and taxation on Khat and other imports). Additionally, the university engages in an externally funded teachers’ training program that reaches out to the Haud region and the Nugaal valley. Primary and secondary school teachers visit the university in their school holidays. Some permanent trainers are sent from the university to the regions for ‘on the job’ training throughout the year.

Originally, Burco University had been established in 2004. It started in a rented building and moved to the present location one year later. The committee for the development of Burco had been strongly supporting the university. The yearly budget of the university is based on four pillars: first, funds from the government of Somaliland; second, money paid for the teachers’ training; third, student fees (circa 170 USD per person per semester); and finally, some help from an international NGO called Muslim Aid. Recently, Prof. Cabdisalam went to Nairobi, together with the heads of the universities of Hargeysa and Amuud, in order to establish some cooperation and possibly long-distance learning programs with the Jomo Kenyatta University there.

In sum, it seems that Burco University is fully operational and financially stable. The library is staffed with the essential books on all subjects taught. The most pressing need is equipment for establishing a scientific laboratory where the students of veterinary medicine can practice. In order to overcome this shortage, the fourth year students of veterinary medicine will have a chance to join their teacher at Khartoum University and use the laboratories there. Of course, the number of university students in Burco is still very modest, compared with about 3000 at the University of Hargeysa alone. The job perspective of many graduates from Burco University may also not be the best, at least not in Burco itself. At the moment, only one international NGO’s has its office there, and the capacity of other possible job-givers (local government and private businesses) is limited. Very possibly, many graduates will try their luck in the capital city of Hargeysa or abroad. ‘Abroad’ can mean several things in this context: while a few students whom I interview mentioned plans to continue studies in the neighboring countries such as Uganda, the issue of ‘illegal’ migration (in Somali: tariib) is a huge problem, according to the vice-chairman of the university. This means that many of the possible future leaders and middle class of Somaliland bet on a trip trough the Sahara or on a overcrowded boat to Yemen and, if they survive and succeed, a possible future as migrants and refuges abroad rather than on a career in their own country.

Nugaal University in Las-Anod

In Las-Anod I stayed for a week. I had visited the town in the past, some five years ago, and had seen it when it was without firm state administration, respectively when it was under Puntland’s military occupation (after January 2004). In contrast to that time, Las-Anod is since October 2007 fully administered by Somaliland. When entering the town now again, my first impression was how peaceful it is. Las-Anod is much smaller than Burco, and it can be quickly surveyed. The city center was moderately busy, and no signs of stress or instability were visible. My second impression was that not much had changed over the last years regarding the infrastructure of the place. In fact, only the Telesom building (in the center) and the Hotel Hamdi (at the eastern end of town) stood out as new ‘sky scrapers’.

A very interesting new development was the establishment of the Nugaal University. Originally it had been founded in 2004. The local committee for education and development of Lasscaanood and Sool region instigated and supported the process of university-building. The Diaspora added to the endeavor and some teachers came from abroad to start teaching at home. Since then, however, Nugaal University had gone through some difficult times. During Puntland’s rule (January 2004 to October 2007) peace in Las-Anod was not guaranteed. Revenge killings continued and by chance, a close relative of the first chancellor of the university got involved in those affairs, with the consequence that he had to leave the town for safety reasons. A conflict between the next chancellor and some of the teachers lead to the closure of the whole university in 2006. Much of the equipment that had been donated by the Diaspora and the local community to the university was looted in those days. The committee for education in town decided to start from the scratch. Cabdirisaq Lafoole, who came from the UK, was installed as new chairman of Nugaal University. The experienced teacher Cabdinasir Abushaybe became his vice. This team currently runs the university. A new building was rented and some of the looted equipment and books could be replaced through donations from the wider community.

At the moment, about 100 students are taught by around 10 teachers, some of whom come from abroad. The university offers grades in IT and Business Administration. The human and financial resources for opening additional are missing. Last year, the government of Somaliland started to fund the university. Besides that, student fees of around 100 USD per person per semester and some support from the local and the Diaspora community keep the institution running. Nonetheless, the budget is not enough to pay the salaries of all teachers, and some of them work on a voluntary basis for the university, while earning their living elsewhere. This is the reason why the university only works in the afternoons and evenings. Moreover, an appropriate building for the university is still missing. Last year the President of Somaliland gave a plot of land belonging to the government to Nugaal University. But the university lacks the finances to make use of this generous gift and to build a real campus. This, besides other issues, has also to do with the drying up of Diaspora support after the takeover of Somaliland. While most of the local population has arranged itself with the new administration, many members of the Diaspora related to Las-Anod refuse to accept the change of power. In their eyes (which only see things from a distance, e.g. from Europe and the USA), their ‘home’ has been taken by a ‘foreign power’. This perspective, however, is quite far from the realities on the ground. Life in Las-Anod continues, and according to all voices I heard in town, peace is now much more firmly established than in the days when Puntland forces were controlling the place. It is well known that Diasporas hold sometimes ‘extreme’ political views that burden their relatives at home and do not contribute to the solution of everyday life problems in the local context that is always characterized by compromise and (re-)negotiations.

To sum up: Nugaal University functions, but only with difficulties. Its situation is characterized by the ‘front line’ situation of Las-Anod between Somaliland and Puntland. This front line, however, exists primarily in the heads of some Diaspora members and politicians in Hargeysa (Somaliland) and Garoowe (Puntland). These are the actors that effectively hinder the development in the town in general and of the Nugaal University in particular. The Diaspora hardliners stopped their support because of the ‘occupation’. The government of Puntland that actually claims Las-Anod as part of its state territory hardly ever sent anything but soldiers, and completely dropped out after Somaliland’s takeover. Hargeysa finally gives a helping hand to the university since last year. However, a university, particularly where state funds are very limited, has to be embedded into a striving local economy in order to flourish. The latter is missing. No international NGOs and UN organizations are present in town. This has much to do with the perception of Las-Anod as an unstable place that is held in the capital city of Somaliland by both, government officials and representatives of the international (NGO) community. That Las-Anod is peaceful and needs assistance – also indirectly, through supporting the local economy – seems not yet to have trickled down to the center. Thus, the difficult peripheral existence of the town and its population continues, and most of the students of Nugaal University, who will graduate in late summer this year, will definitively have to look for ‘greener pastures’ either in Hargeysa (or Garoowe) or abroad.

The creation of peripheries

Certain places, e.g. borderlands, may be perceived as peripheral by nature. Nonetheless, as the examples of Burco and Las-Anod show, some factors actively add to the peripheriality of a place. Strolling through Hargeysa one can only wonder how many new shops, hotels and companies do business next to each other, and how many international organizations crowd in the relatively limited space of the city. As soon as one leaves the capital, however, not only the natural but also the infrastructural and organizational environment takes more and more the shape of a semi desert.

Most development that has been achieved in Hargeysa, Burco, Las-Anod and other places in Somaliland is based on investments of the local communities, together with some help from the Diaspora. Yet, in Hargeysa the investments of Somaliland’s citizens are supplemented by a host of international organizations and foreign visitors, using and paying for the local infrastructure, buying in the shops, employing local staff, renting houses, occupying hotels, and so forth. The other towns of Somaliland lack these customers and employers. Burco currently hosts only one international NGO, while Las-Anod (and possibly other towns of the country) do not see more than brief field visits conducted by representatives of the international community, if at all. This has much to do with a certain ‘paranoia’ created about the instability particularly of eastern Somaliland. Still, at least during my recent trip to Burco and Las-Anod I could not see and feel this instability. The only sign of the conflict in Las-Anod was the absence of some people, particularly the traditional authorities, all of whom had left either to Garoowe or to the countryside, in protest of Somaliland’s move into town. Despite this ‘exodus’, the predominant impression in Las-Anod was that the community there keeps the peace, together with the local government forces. The locals also try hard to upgrade the development in their town and region. The same obviously goes for Burco. The establishment of universities in both places is actually a very encouraging sign for the development of Somaliland as a whole, since universities are the homes of the future elite of any country, and they only flourish where peace has been established before.

The comparison of the situation of Burco University and Nugaal University highlights some differences in peripheriality. Burco can be termed a marginal center. Its economy is based on livestock husbandry and politically, it is firmly integrated in Somaliland. Las-Anod, on the other hand, is a pure periphery. This situation is created, in my opinion, by three factors: first, most traditional authorities from Las-Anod and surroundings have turned politicians and left their people alone with their daily problems; second, hardcore Diaspora politicians, who are far away from the realities on the ground, influence and manipulate local politics, e.g. through ‘economic sanctions’; third, those in the center of Somaliland prevent international organizations from going to Las-Anod by saying that it is not peaceful.

Conclusion

In both towns, Burco and Las-Anod, local developments, e.g. in the sector of higher education, are largely driven by (transnational) community initiatives. But these initiatives are extremely limited in scope and (financial) potential, compared with what is going in Hargeysa, the capital of Somaliland, where over the last few years the most economic and political sources have been centralized. This creates a center-periphery divide in Somaliland that again brings about certain dangers for the stability of the country in the long run. In the worst case the continued centralization of most political and economic resources in Hargeysa will lead to a massive brain and business drain from the peripheral regions, which again will damage the overall economy of the country and can lead to feelings of injustice among the population.

In order to avoid the (unconscious?) development of a one city centralization system, the government and the international organizations operating in Somaliland should work out a plan how to equally support development in the various parts of the country. Regarding higher education, it is clear that most students in Burco and Las-Anod cannot afford to come to the Hargeysa or Amuud for studying. Their living expenses far away from home would be too high. Thus, local universities need support. In a second step, it has to be guaranteed that the graduates of the local universities can be absorbed locally. This can be achieved if the peace that has so successfully been built in Somaliland and the investments of the local and Diaspora communities are supplemented by the fair allocation of the international resources attracted by Somaliland, particularly in form of aid and employment by international NGOs and organizations.

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