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by Sheye Abdule
Monday, August 11, 2008
As the history informs us, Somalis fought with the European colonisers for the right to rule themselves. There had been many different types of sacrifices during the struggle. Eventually, when the Somalis thought to have achieved the independence and the self role they had been grieving for; the achievements had given birth to new challenges and that challenges included forming a national government.
One of the purposes behind the concept of a nation state is that, it mandates democratically elected government officials to represent and work for the interest of its citizens nationally and internationally. However, as much as the idea of a nation state might be plausible, nevertheless, we think it has not achieved its potentiality in Somalia since its birth in 1960.
In fact, the Somalis are still struggling to understand the idea of national interest in this globalise world. As it is clear from the Somali indigenous tribal system, the views of the Somalis on other Somalis are generally influenced according to which tribes he/she belongs. According to the system, the Somali individuals are integral part of a tribe. Hence, government ministers and other Somali officials are not seen as statesmen/women by the Somali people and some case by themselves. In our view point, this is not compatible with the idea of national interest and statehood.
We think that partially because of tribal interest rather than national interests have had contributed the mayhem and anarchy of Somali land. It is our understanding that the Somalis will not achieve their potentialities globally unless they conservatively reform their society through education. This not to say that there is something wrong with the Somali indigenous tribal system. It only means that the indigenous Somali system is different from the Western model of a nation state as bananas are different form oranges. Perhaps, Somalis could choose to live in their tribal state; however it is our view that it is the time to disturb the tribal mindset for the Somali common good.
The article is not suggesting that the societal structure of the Somali should be reformed in order to conform to the structure of the dominant western structure. However, we think that we should change with the time in order to prepare the future generations for the challenges and opportunities globalisation and nation state have brought to the world. We think that it is a paramount that we solve tribalism in Somali schools.
Traditionally, our parents teach us our tribes and our expectations to the tribe. As it is natural, we humans are bias. Hence parents emphasis the nobilities and achievements of our respective tribes. As the result we grow with arrogances and the perception that the other tribes are inferior to us. When we hold a position for the country we either subconsciously or in some cases consciously behave like tribal men/women rather statesmen/women and disregard the national interest for tribal interest.
We suggest a method to neutralise any parental bias and incorporate Somali tribes and other indigenous issues into Somali national curriculum where we teach agreed syllabuses to our young ones by putting on the table the cons and pros associated with tribal society. It is then up to the next generation to change or to stay with the tradition of tribal state. At least we could say that we have done our generational duties. The intention of the article is to remind ourselves and our readers that tribal mentality in this globalise world would not bring benefits to any of our respective tribes. We need to contribute in producing a generation that transcend a tribal interest for the national interest.
Sheye Abdule
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