Somalia: Exploring A Way Out

Governance in general: The eight chapters in this publication, are devoted to the governance challenges in Somalia and the status of various initiatives aimed at improving the political, social and economic environment in the country. This volume pays almost disproportionate attention to the issue of conflict resolution and peace development. In a country that has been under violent conflict for at least 20 consecutive years now, there is no doubt that the crux of the governance agenda is the attainment of peace. But other governance elements matter too including inter alia, public service delivery, constitutionalism, accountability and civil society development. In Somalia, these secondary issues over the search for peace will be assessed on the basis of their contribution towards sustainable peace and security. It is as good as saying that none of these is as good in and of itself, without the prominent attention to their roles in achieving peace.

Civil Society: Mohammed Ibrahim focuses on the question of civil society in a stateless society, as he tries to find a conceptual ground on which to lay the idea that there can be a civil society without an established state. It is not an easy conceptualization as civil society is often seen as the governance formations outside the state and the market, presupposing the initial existence of the two. Indeed, the argument that civil society is important as a check on the exercise of state power runs through the paper. The author considers the question as to whether the emergence and growth of a strong civil society could have negative impacts on state development. This is a valid question, seeing as it is in the case of Somalia that both the state and the civil society are nearly nonexistent. This dilemma faces even post-conflict countries. It is not very much a question of how much effort should be apportioned between interventions in civil society building and state system development in the state-building project. Rather, the dilemma is about which of the two will be the primary driver of development in crisis and post-crisis situations.

In discussions on state-building in South Sudan, Mahmood Mamdani (2011) contends that there can be no state run by NGOs. It is the responsibility of governments to discharge the duties and responsibilities of a state to its citizens. Despite the humanitarian crises that often magnifies the roles of NGOs in public service delivery; they cannot be the main drivers of state-building in Somalia, especially because the humanitarian NGOs that we discuss here are in most instances, international NGOs, run by non-Somalis. But even indigenous CSOs are greatly constrained, first and foremost by the security challenges in the environment. There is little they can do to contribute to state-building. A major contribution of this chapter is the point made clearly in the paper that thinking about civil society need not be along the lines of civil society formations in western countries.

There are interesting civil society formations, emerging in the Arab countries, but also in countries like Somalia with a substantial portion of the elite living outside their countries – in Diaspora. It takes us back to the point we made earlier that Somalia will have to be examined and understood as a unique case in which the application of conventional knowledge and principles cannot be without an inquiry into their relevance for local circumstances. To be sure, Somalia actually had a vibrant civil society movement, mainly dominated by youth organizations, in the colonial days, fighting for independence. But these were replaced by traditional formations after independence. Why could this have happened? It is such questions that will direct our minds to the crux of the Somalia situation.

Diaspora: Osman Farah’s chapter carries forward the analysis launched by Mohammed Ibrahim on the various forms of civil society and focuses on the Diaspora population and their contribution. The role of the diaspora in financing economic activities in Somalia through remittances back home from abroad is well highlighted. But there are aspects of the diaspora activities that connect in fascinating ways with the governance processes and even the civil society activities that we have already discussed above. Going through this paper, the reader will most likely find that for Somalia, diaspora life is closely linked to citizenship back at home. The paper gives detailed accounts of the activities of Diaspora communities in different parts of the world and how these have influenced events back home. In the case of Somalia, one does not want to take it simply that Diaspora can be useful in resolving the crisis at hand if their participation is enhanced. The critical question will be: what is the actual implication of the fact that Somalia has a large number of its elite population living outside the country? Has this delayed or enhanced the resolution of the governance challenges back home?

In his accounts of the lives of Somalis in different parts of the world, Osman illustrates (a) the persistence of the clan factor in Somali interactions, even outside their homeland, and (b) the critical importance of the host countries and their historical or contemporary interests in Somalia, in defining the experiences and contributions of the Somali Diaspora living in those countries. There are considerable differences in the experiences of Somali Diaspora in Saudi Arabia and Denmark, for example, for obvious reasons. A major limitation of this paper is the fact that it has no coverage at all of the Somali population living within the East African region, especially in Kenya. This group is large in number and perhaps highly influential in business and politics back home, for reasons of proximity among others. There should have been an attempt to include this group in the analysis of Diaspora roles and contributions.

Ibrahim Noor and Mahboub extend the discussions to the involvement of the youth. The paper shows the structural limitations facing youth engagement in Somali affairs, both at home and abroad, owing to the long-established conservative structures of clanism and patrimonial leadership systems. But as we have pointed out, the youth were the vanguard of the struggle for independence in Somalia.

Islam: Numerous studies of the Somali society have confirmed the near religious homogeneity in Somalia – almost the entire population is Muslim. From the surface, religious schism is therefore not a potential driver of conflict. But there are divisions among the Muslim population, along smaller sub-groups of the faith. These have had their impact on the conflict situation. This paper digs deep into the history of the intra-faith relationships and how they impacted on peace and stability. Our interest is however on the state of play at the moment in as far as this issue is concerned, which the paper addresses quite well. The raging conflicts in the southern part of the country are connected to activities of radical Muslim groups, including the Al-shabaab. It would appear that the attempt to use Islam, in some kind of a theological-legalistic approach to seeking cohesion, to transcend clan differences has failed.

A major limitation of the paper is in its treatment of the Union of Islamic Courts, which is no doubt a prominent player in the political and security systems, but also the epitome of political militarization of Islam. Those who support the view that traditional governance structures would suit Somalia have to contend with the intricate relationship between clanism and religious leadership in the traditional governance systems. When conflated in practice and analysis as is often the case, the link between traditional governance and religious leadership gets too blurred. This is further complicated by the distinction between ‘moderate’ and ‘radical’ religious leadership.

Public-Private Partnerships: The paper on PPPs for development launches a new level of debate. Theories of development are predicated on certain systems of public administration and features of the state. The notion of PPPs is well appreciated in liberal democracies. If one was to look at the state-building project in Somalia as one whose logical outcomes will be the emergence of a liberal democratic state, then PPPs will unavoidably be prominent features of the development in the new state. This is not to imply that the debate is premature. In any case, interesting forms of PPPs are taking place in the current situation. The bottom-line however, is that a debate on the trajectories of development policy and planning will necessarily be predated by conversations on the nature of the state. The paper by Nur is forward-looking in this sense and gives additional incentive for the completion of the state recovery project in Somalia.

In summary, this book brings to public discourses the thinking of Somalis about Somalia. The publication is thus a little different from most of the literature on the Somali question in the sense that it is not the work of academics and researchers from outside the country. As we know, state collapse in Somalia has been academic fodder for numerous researchers from outside Somalia. Indeed, until recently, even some of the most basic information on the country could only be accessed from knowledge resources abroad. It is gratifying to see the active involvement of Somali nationals in debates concerning the future of their county. It is interventions such as this by the NCF that may advance the course of state recovery in Somali much faster. It is this approach that may end up unlocking the deadlock arising from the fears, friction and fatigue over the Somalia statehood, in the words of Khalif Ahmed (2006).