The demise of clan order in Somalia
By Mohamed Garad
For more than 3 decades of mayhem, something major is happening in Somalia: a fundamental realignment of finding her true self.
A historical error is ending. We stand at the twilight of a profound metaphysical transition: the dissolution of the clan-fiefdom illusion, an ontological fallacy masquerading as political order. Whether adored or abhorred, this dissolution has begun its irreversible course. Somaliland, Puntland, Galmudug, Jubaland, Southwest, Nort Western, whatever you call, are coming to their end. These were never been a polities. They're a mistake. An ontological error born of historical distortion. If clan division that exists at the national level dissolved that statehood, it also exists at the family level and dissolving itself. Clan is the negation of politics. It can never be a polity. What begins in falsehood cannot culminate in truth. As the Arab saying goes: "what starts crooked remains crooked." Now we face a defining question: Will this collapse mark the extinction of the Somali nation, or the birth of a just Republic founded on the dignity of the individual? To assert what may happen, political science, like other social sciences, seeks help in history. The saying goes "history is the memory of the states" as Kissinger asserts. So, what's the history of the modern state in the global south, particularly Africa? Nothing but new arrangements of the former colonizers triggered by the shift of the global power in 1945 in which a new no colony owner great power, Russia, emerged out of the 2nd world war. We're at the dawn of new historical reconfiguration of global power distribution: A tripartite symmetry of power: U.S.A., China, and Russia. This tectonic realignment will not leave the Global South unchanged. Indeed, it is within such historical ruptures that the possibility of true emancipation becomes manifest. Africa will definitely change. But this time, not an artificial one. This time, the liberation of Africa will not be imposed from above, nor mediated through comprador elites. It shall emerge immanently from within. The wrath and will of African citizens, long deferred, now approach their hour of reckoning. The resolution of Africa will occur on African terms. Africa will define herself on her own terms. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are case in point. But also see Kenya in next door. Generation Z are reclaiming their country. African quasi-states on paper will come to its knees. The elites have no choice but to flee. Let them reside in the Strees of London, Paris and New York, but not let them offshore the state assets before their departure. In this new grand movement, the Somali is no longer merely a historical subject but becomes a moral and rational agent. The Somali individual, long crushed under the burden of clan tyranny and political criminality, shall reclaim authorship of his being. The oday dhaqameed-traditional elders, the corrupt politician, the authoritarian cleric—none shall mediate his or her sovereignty. The Somali individual shall become the irreducible political unit: autonomous, rational, and dignified. Thus, the horizon glows with the silhouette of a new political order: a Somali Republic authored by its own citizens, built upon the moral primacy of justice, liberty, equity, and human flourishing. This Republic will recognize only two ontological categories: the state and its citizens. Nothing else. What is arriving is not merely political reform. It is an anthropological revolution. The Somali, long treated as a function of clan, shall be reconstituted as a citizen, an end in himself or herself, sovereign and free. This is the only horizon worthy of a people whose suffering demands historical redemption. This is not merely political change. It is the redefinition of Somali existence itself.
