Is Somalinimo deniable?

by Ali Regah
Wednesday January 18, 2023

In recent years, the word "Somalinimo" which is translated as "being Somali," is becoming a common word when a political issue between Somaliland, and Somalia is being discussed. Few Somali scholars label Somaliland as people who don't want to be Somali "Somali diid".. Let's see who is Somali and how someone can acquire being Somali and can someone deny his identity?

Referring to Wikipedia, Somali are an ethnic group who are native to the horn of Africa. In the 20^th century, Somalis traveled from the Horn of Africa to many other places, mainly as refugees. Those areas include Europe and America. They have taken citizenship of countries where they live, and some became prominent politicians in those countries, including America, UK, Canada and other counties.

In Somali culture, you acquire your ethnicity mainly from your father. You cannot acquire another ethnic group as you might get citizenship of a country outside your home country, in this case, Somali dominated area, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Somaliland, Djibouti and Kenya. Many politicians in Somalia, including presidents, have nationalities outside of Somalia and are still Somalis.

We mix the definition of citizenship and ethnicity when ordinary Somalis debate. According to literature, citizenship comes with being born or lived within a recognized country's borders for a certain period. For instance, if you are born in Ethiopia, you are Ethiopian; if you are born in the USA and fulfill other requirements for citizenship, you do the same. Prominent Somali congresswoman Ilhan Omer gets US citizenship rights as she fulfills the US requirement for citizenship, but her ethnicity remains the same. President Trump once said, "Ihan Omer Go back to your country, Somalia." This comment shows that your ethnicity dominates over your citizenship. African Americans have been living in the US for centuries now but remain African American and are still called the same name.

Speaking the Somali language will not qualify someone as being Somali. If Somalinimo is acquired at birth and Somalis inherit their clanship from their father, The same applies to Somalinimo – a person from a Somali father will be defined as Somali regardless of the ethnicity of his mother, but the vice versa is never true. For instance, in 2017, many ethnic Somalis who lived with Oromos in Awaday, Harare, Ethiopia, for more than 30 years were massacred by their fellow Oromos just because of their ethnicity. Those people have lived with their fellow Ethiopians for centuries; some have never seen land owned by Somalis since childhood. They were killed only because of their lineage being of Somali origin. On the other hand, many Somali-speaking Oromo people exist in Somali areas but are never recognized as Somali ethnic.

Therefore, Somalinimo is gotten by birth but never given by politicians, and someone can never deny his ethnicity regardless of his political views and the borders he lives in. people have the right to deny; however, he/she cannot technically acquire other ethnicity but will never change the fact that he is ethnically Somali. I consider the Somalinimo discussion as a scratch card. When you see below the cover, the discussion is about the Greater Somalia and Unified Somalis in the horn of Africa.

Suppose the latter is true, and we are discussing achieving a unified Somali country. We need to acknowledge the effort of people in the Somali region of Ethiopia and Somaliland who have been fighting for greater Somali for centuries, and Somaliland joined the other part of Somalia in the 1960s to achieve the ambition of Greater Somali.

The issue between Somaliland and Somalia concerning the succession from the rest of Somalia is never related to Somalinimo or the denial of being Somali. The same is true for the Somalis in Ethiopia, claiming their right to be Ethiopian citizens while we preserve our ethnicity and broadly amplify the Somalinimo within the Ethiopian context.

In 2018, our president reinstated the Somali Region flag with a blue triangle and white star to show our ethnicity as Somalis, but that never defines the Somalis in Ethiopia as citizens of Somalia/Somaliland—accepting our Ethiopian citizens as Somali never indicates denouncing our ethnicity. Somalis in Kenya have long accepted and started living with other Kenyas peacefully. They have integrated themselves into Kenyan politics and society. They are leading business people in Kenya, as once reported by Daily Nation.

Labelling Somaliland with Somali diid never brings the country back to Somalia but will further complicate the discussion. The fact is that Greater Somali cannot be achieved in the short term and within existing international laws defining border lines between countries in Africa. But a dominant Somali voice and power can be achieved if we start supporting and acknowledging other Somalis outside Somalia. Therefore, is it worth trying the other option of achieving a dream?