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Clan chauvinism in Somalia

Clan chauvinism in Somalia
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Muqdisho | QOL | 22  October 2017 –The common characteristics of a typical Somali person -held by other nationals- are being culturally violent and an ardent belief in clannism.

Somalia has been marred by widespread violence that engulfed the entire country-the buildings in Mogadishu whose statue crumbled away though their pedestals remain, pockmarked with holes from bullets is a witness how once the eye-catching cosmopolitan city borne the brunt of the anarchy caused by her disloyal sons.

Where there is a war misery and outrage is the result-the weed of a crime bears bitter fruits.

There are many arguments and discussions marshalled on the root cause of Somalia’s sufferings and lack of a strong functional government for more than a period of two decades. Some argue the mayhem is as a result of foreign meddling of Somalia’s affairs, others point at Somalis’ power-greediness while others explain that the longstanding problem being ingrained in scarcity of resources.

Though many Somalis and researchers cite meaningful justifications to the above causes, dysfunctionality of governance system in the country could have reached this deplorable state. The biggest vicious threat to our country is not foreign intervention, not terrorism neither piracy. Our most grave existential threat that fragmented and obliterated the country is “CLAN.”

“Clannism is a prejudice based on clan affiliation. The most noted discourse around these occurrences and phenomena centers around Somalia and Somalis in general. Although Somalia is by and large a racially homogeneous society, with a common language, appearance, religion, an overlapping culture and a shared religious denomination affiliation, it is nonetheless a patriarchal society. This patriarchy has resulted in a culture wherein the paternal lineage of the average person has become among the foremost anthropological feature of day-to-day life.”

“A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolic, whereby the clan shares a “stipulated” common ancestor that is a symbol of the clan’s unity.”

It is as clear as the crystal that that makes many cringe and cracked Somalia’s solidarity is clannism. Somalis adore and adhere to the calls of the clan more than they do on national and common issues. To many Somalis, Clan is a revered bloc that shields one from the influences and adversaries of “others.”

The entrenched attitudes of clannism is saturated in our culture as children at tender ages of two years are forced to cram their “noble” clan and once they are five they should memorize the lineage of the clan as verse of the holy Quran. The circuit continuous throughout any family’s life span.

I happened to meet idle youth who mostly flock into the tea cafes in the evenings and sought their opinion on what destroyed the country. Many of them who were born in the aftermath of the civil war believe the root cause to Somalia’s prolonged violence is adherence to the chains of clannism (42%), followed by poverty (20%)/

What caught my attention last year during the Eidul fitr celebration was a boy, about seven years of age pointing a toy gun-meant for the merrymaking of the celebration-at another boy of his age asking,
“stand, what is your clan?”

All the passerby were taken by a shock and to some that was the life they witnessed during these years of the violence. Really, we are living in a rotten society bedridden with clannism that escalated was modified during the decades of violence amid severe drought and famine, that made some clans mightier and stronger and others weaker and marginalized. Indeed our actions define our Somalia-toxically clannism, politically and culturally volatile, socially dysfunctional, large valueless society scattered all over the world and irreconcilable nation.

“So, how can Somalia emerge as a country that has a functioning government that delivers peace, unity, stability and services to its people? If I had an answer to this question, I might have won the Nobel Prize for Peace. What I know is that, left to their own devices, without foreign interference, the Somalis may just come up with a home-grown solution.” Rasna Warah, a Kenyan writer describing Somalia’s current situation in Daily Nation.

The forty youth whom I used to synthesis the information depicted that they use and refer to their clan always (21 out of 40).

The encounter of this unfortunate incident of the young boy reminds me of a childhood fable, the wise old man.

The wise old man

Once upon a time, in the distant past, there was a wealthy man with a son who developed bad habits out of the expectation of the father who had the dream that his son would inherit the riches and upheld the name of the family upon his death.

The wealthy man requested an old scholar to wean his son away from his bad habits. The scholar took the youth for a stroll through a garden. Stopping suddenly. He asked the boy to pull out a tiny plant-a weed growing there. The youth held the plant between his thumb and forefinger and pulled it out.

The old man then asked the boy to pulled out a slightly bigger plant. The youth pulled hard and the plant came out, with roots and all. “ Now pull out that one,” said the scholar pointing to a bush. The boy had to use all his strength to pull it out.

“ Now take this one out,” ordered the scholar indicating a guava tree. The youth grasped the trunk and tried to pull it out. It would not bulge. “It is impossible,” said the boy, panting with the effort.
“ So it is with bad habits,” said the sage.

“When they are young it is easy to pull them out but when they take hold they cannot be uprooted.”

What are the moral lessons one can learn from this story?

“Don’t wait for bad habits to grow in young minds, drop them while you have control over bad habits else they will get control you.”

“If we don’t instill our young children in nationalism at young age they will grow and become adults bedeviled with clannism as their forbearers.”

It is into the mire of this opacity of clannism that the federal states are based on-clan cleavages that operate without much reference to Mogadishu.

The devil (clannism) has spawned huge backwardness in our society, its fruits being reaped by every Somali and has given rise to seedbed of clan cleavages manifested into the current federal system.

Frantic cries for help everywhere
With hungry faces every door
Let alone education and healthcare
Gunshots every corner
Malingering destitute every border
Killing every helpful brother
The situation turning darker
Clan dividing us farther
Clan diffused in every structure
Hatred getting stronger
Encumbered with intolerable ladder
Impeded with the scourge of war
When will my future become brighter?
United we stand divided we fall

There are many factors that unite us contrary to the tenuous barbaric ones that divide us. Language unites us. Religion unites us. Culture is a symbol of unity. The flag is a national symbol that shades us all. We are one.

Unless we set aside our differences and develop our commonness, pawn our lives to save the country, exercise equality to redeem the gloomy situation and follow the foot path of first African democrats (Aden Abdliie Osman and Abdirizak Haji Hussein) we are bound to become extinct.

Clan loyalty is the prime cause to the conflict in Somalia – and any peace settlement that does not tackle this devil is doomed to failure.

 

Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Muqdisho

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Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu, Somalia

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