The first thing I observed the moment we entered Hargeisa – the capital of Somaliland, was the number of people, officers and civilians who carried guns. I knew immediately that there must be a good reason for that. Moving out of the city and into the interior, i saw a more liberal display of guns. Our own security detail consisted of several policemen (SPU) who took their guns very seriously. I marveled at how they behaved, easily having their way with us. I decided to observe keenly what power lay in the carrying of a gun. As we traveled further, i saw guns held by both men in uniform and without uniform – but still men – men with desires, needs, emotions and every other human idiosyncrasy – they just had more faith in the guns that they carried than in the humans around them. I saw the power of military uniforms, I have seen the way a military jacket converts a gun-toting thug into a respected soldier. I saw the way guns made some men have the final say even without speaking a word. I saw how guns shortened conversations, minimized negotiations and catalyzed the pace of justice. With guns at the ready, I saw justice literally served ‘fast and hot.’ I saw how those with guns had the power to change the goal post and demand new terms. I saw the power of guns to force agreements and forge respect between men. I saw how those with guns had the capacity to violate the peace and enjoyed an equal capacity to bring back the peace. These were the people responsible for the occasional outbreak of peace! I noted that in places where most people carried guns, there was respect for human life – or maybe perhaps it was respect for other guns. I think it was respect anyway.
If a thief was to steal something – I was told, it would mean a bullet and a bullet would call for another revenge bullet and soon whole clans would descend into civil war. Even thieves know this, so they do not steal. Bundles of money including US dollars are displayed in the open by traders and gold ring dealers who sell in the open air markets even leaving their expensive wares unattended, yet safe. While it may be a cultural thing among certain communities to carry weapons, like the maasai with their swords and rungus, it is indeed remarkable when the weapon carried around is a gun. It changes the game completely.
Like onions
In Africa, tribalism is a normal thing, but among the Somali people, the tribe or clan is the lens by which everybody looks at everything. Here the tribe “is like an onion, the more you peel, the more you find another layer and with tears in your eyes.” On local leader told us. Political representation and distribution of resources always take a tribal and clanist form and everyone seems to have accepted the fact that the ‘dominant’ clans have more right to rule. Attempts to force in an alternative to this set up have resulted in serious consequences. In many parts of Somalia, it is near impossible for a local to find work or rise to a position of authority among people of a different tribe or clan.
Even expertise and qualification is secondary to this rule. Indeed, “Before anyone asks to know your name, they ask to know your tribe or clan to see if they should trust you with any information.” Many times my colleagues and I were asked why we were working in Somalia when there were Somalis who were qualified. To this question, we simply responded that qualified Somalis have decided to keep staying abroad, hence Kenyans and other ‘foreigners’ have to be invited. However deep down, we knew it was hard for any Somali, however qualified to work in regions beyond their own clans.
For many years, Somaliland has struggled to emphasize its territorial integrity to its Ethiopian and Puntland neighbors. A passive-aggressive tension exists between their border with Puntland. In the 3 weeks that I was there, we spent 2 weeks working in Laascanood and Erigavo, regions that are contested and claimed by Puntland and while Somalilanders are resolute in their decision to pursue self-determination, Puntlanders still consider themselves relatively part of Somalia and are hostile to the idea of separation. Looking from my roadside hotel window in my first few days at Laascanood, i saw several Lorries ferrying hundreds of soldiers heading to towards the contested border with Puntland. We shared a cafeteria with some of the soldiers later; I saw tired men and sad faces behind the oversized military uniforms that the soldiers wore. Their somber facial expressions carried heavy hearts. Perhaps they knew they were going to die there. War is costly and Somaliland has paid dearly trying to affirm its position as an independent state protecting its borders with Ethiopia and defending its contested border with Puntland.
Seeds of corruption
With clanism and guns, petty conflicts have huge consequences. A little argument can open a Pandora’s Box pitting several tribes or clans against each other in mortal war. Many foreigners are advised to avoid any argument with a local. The alternative therefore is for one to pay their way through situations, a general habit that has already laid the building blocks for institutionalized corruption within the young government of Somaliland. In more interior towns, war-lords sit in government offices in full capacity and demand a share of every penny that comes in.
But one would have imagined that a young state, still in its formative stages should have a clean moral slate and begin on a different note having learnt the dangers of corruption from its elder siblings of the region. Like many countries, Somaliland is a product of rebellion. A single Somali tribe with its clans and war-lords dominate Somaliland. They have since succeeded in setting up their government institutions complete with a standing army and an electoral system. Despite the fact that the UN has not recognized them yet, they have created an organic economy mainly supported externally by their diasporic nationals and a few friendly states such as Kuwait and Oman. These former war-lords have built a thriving democracy at least for the last 25 years showing the world that there can be stability in Somalia. One thing that I observed with great curiosity is the way they seem to be managing without major international aid and bilateral assistance and the strings that come with them. It is however fore-seeable that the petty corruption already happening is laying the foundations of a major graft culture which will find a fertile breeding environment catalyzed by clanism..
Far from the city, every powerful war-lord, regardless of his formal title – Mayor, Governor, Minister etc controls his region closely and monitors everything that happens – including the presence of a single foreigner from whom he would demand a visit and a small ‘something’ so that he may give the visitor a ‘green light’ to proceed with his or her mission in the area – it matters not whether the mission is the building of a school that his own children would attend or the construction of a hospital that his own wife would deliver in. He simply wants the bribe, period. Here corruption is overt, fast and really nothing to be ashamed of. It drove me crazy to see our community fixer make progress by arranging a ‘courtesy call’ at the Mayor’s office or a Governor’s office paying every ‘big man’ in every city, town or village we visited. With a better functioning administrative system however, the government may be able to check this before it becomes a catastrophe like it is in Kenya and other corrupt African countries.
Broken wings fly 
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