Somaliland: Tribalism is a Fatal Disease

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Cut down the tree of tribalism in Somaliland

Somalilandsun – The perpetuated tribalism that has so deeply dug into the society has sadly reached a point of no return.

It has become so serious that when someone is talked about and somebody joins the conversation wanting to know who the person in question is, the answer is both shocking and astounding. Instead of being told the public position or profession of the person in question, his or her clan becomes the identification assumed to be queried!

This is because the society presumes that the inquirer wants to know the clan or tribe of the person!

Better still, to put more clearly, when on an accident occurs anywhere, the victims or casualties are identified with their clans as tags.

Thus the question to who were they becomes, ‘two clan A males, 3 clan B females, 2 clans C, D or E children! Oh, what a decadence! This trend so embedded in the societies’ tribal mindsets has slowly but surely torn the fabrics and essence of the national community quite fatally.

Now that the election fever is gripping the country, we sadly fear that it may surely turn for the worse.

It is our sincere and passionate plea to the government, the traditional leaders, the clergy and the public at large to pull all their moral and upright resources and efforts to at least make a concerted campaign to weed out the vice, be it for only an initial month-long period.

This is a legacy incumbent upon all of us.

The National Guidance department and the media should be at the forefront in this sacred fight.

This disease is so severe, so fatal, so retrogressing, so un-godly, so brutal, so savage, so barbaric and moreover too sacrilegious.

Surely, all religious rituals, prayers and pilgrimages are definitely put to naught when any mind is set and operates in such tribal calibration.

No leader worth his salt in either public or private life, no esteemed individual, clergy member or anyone else worthy of his/her dime can profess being a patriot, or even a Muslim for that matter, given such mindset.

We have not indulged in other misdemeanors perpetrated in the name of tribalism, but decrying the matter whole sale in this column is enough to fathom how serious the situation of the issue is.

At this rate, if nothing is done sooner rather than later, then we shall have given SL and our posterity a very, very raw deal.

God forbid!

Let’s build a better society, a better nation and, better still, an everlasting Somaliland.

An original editorial of the Horn Tribune an English weekly published in Hargeisa by the State owned Dawan media group