It may have been a little too soon or, indeed, surprising to many
outside the community of the newly proclaimed Maakhir State of Somalia, as the people of
the territory now officially call themselves. Read proclamation and related information:
http://www.laasqoray.net/view_article.php?articleid=1024.
But the idea is not strange to or new among the Maakhirites. Ever since the collapse of
the Somali government in January 1991, the initiative was being increasingly contemplated
by the community, alongside political considerations to maintain good neighborly relations
with its neighboring communities to the East, West and South as well as maintaining
internal harmony within the Maakhir community itself.
Maintaining such a balance has not been easy, given that, on the one hand, there have
always been those within the community—a minority—who have preferred to explore
the possibility of cementing political relations with northern clans including the Issacs,
the Gadabursi and Dhulbahante, with a view to maintaining peace and stability in the
northern regions, in the interim period, during the absence of national government. I must
hastily add that some may have even been considering cementing those relations between the
northern communities towards reconfiguration into a new political compact under the banner
of what has come to be known as “Somaliland”. Needless to mention that these
have been a negligible minority.
On the other hand, there were those who valued kinship (tolnimo) over non-kinship-based
regional interests (Ood) and were therefore inclined to unconditionally amalgamate with
their kinsmen in a “Puntland” Federal State. Indeed, a greater rationale for
joining a “Puntland” or a “Harti” compact, tilting the balance to the
East, has been has been the collective wish of the community to neutralize the separatist
intentions of “Somaliland”, in the interim period, and while there was no
national government in Somalia. However, the majority of the Maakhirites remained in the
middle, with a preference to a region or a State of their own, independent of both
sides—“Somaliland” and “Puntland”.
As a result of this precarious political situation the community remained in a limbo
between its nationalist motto and aspirations for independence and its interim goals to
achieve peace and stability in the region and with surrounding communities. The downside
of these noble and lofty considerations has been that it may have dearly cost the
community in terms of rehabilitation, reconstruction and development in the interim
period. In fact, both the hopes of those preferring amalgamation with “Puntland”
as well as those bent on cementing relations within “Somaliland” have been
failed. While constantly hampering and frustrating the aspirations of the majority of the
Maakhirites for independence and self reliance, these entities have also contributed to
the community’s underdevelopment and lack of progress during the interim period,
since the collapse of government in 1991.
The United Nations may have contributed with its lion’s share in undermining the
community’s interest and aspiration for independence and self-reliance, in this
regard. The UN’s Administrative Zoning Program which divided Somalia into for
Administrative Zones for providing relief and rehabilitation assistance in 1992, as
recommended at the time by the former Secretary-General’s Envoy to Somalia, Mr.
Muhammad Zahnoun, has been the major culprit in this regard. Zahnoun’s zoning program
which remains operative until this day, as adopted by the Security Council at that time,
had lumped the community with the North West region—in other words,
“Somaliland”.
However, despite the bogus claim of Maakhir regions by “Somaliland” as part of
its territory, the regions remained neglected by the international community since its
share of resources for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction assistance was being
channeled via Hargeisa, the leadership of which remained deliberately swayed against
letting the assistance through to the Maakhir community. On the other hand, assistance
through “Puntland” was thwarted on the grounds that the Maakhir community’s
share of international assistance was appropriated through the North West or
“Somaliland”. So the community’s partial association and relationship with
both entities has amounted to no more than lib service. Indeed, those precarious
conditions which kept the community hanging in the middle have rendered it a victim of the
prevailing geographical, political and administrative circumstances surrounding its recent
existence
Ironically, despite these ill-fated circumstances of the recent past, the community has
throughout the centuries remained independent and self-reliant. With a shoreline extending
between Bossasso to the East and bordering on Maydh to the West, facing the Gulf of Aden,
fisheries has remained an occupation as well as an opportunity for investment in the area
throughout the centuries. Laskoreh, a port city in the area was the choice of the Somali
government of the early sixties to build a large scale fish factory. Since the collapse of
government, another smaller factory has been built by means of private investment
attracting share holders from business from other parts of Somalia.
Overlooking the shoreline is an invariably lush, green and fertile northern slope of the
Golis Range Mountain, known to the locals as Cal Madow, which has for millennia provided
for the produce of frankincense among many other potentially high value crops. With a
plateau stretching from the bottom of the southern slope of the mountain to the northern
banks of the Nugal valley to the south, which is good for grazing and all-season livestock
raring, the area has for the centuries past remained self-supporting and independent. In
addition to a great potential for infrastructure and tourism development, the area has
been a candidate for mineral, gas and petroleum exploration. It is a known fact that the
American Petroleum Company, Elf, had conducted offshore oil exploration in the mid
eighties. In the last couple of years the government of Puntland signed deals with an
Australian conglomerate for mineral exploration, which sparked the famous Mija Yahan
skirmishes between the community and some government troops, resulting in the death of
about 10 persons. (Click here to see the map of the area:
http://www.laasqoray.net/view_article.php?articleid=1011
Endowed with this potential for natural resource development and a traditional heritage of
independence, the community has a comparative advantage over many parts of Somalia to make
its bid for its autonomy as a federal entity of Somalia. That independence is historically
documented, whereby the current Sultan Said Abdusalaam Mohamoud Ali Shire of the area is
the 26th generation of a long line of Sultans (or Grads). Most widely known to recent
history is Sultan Mohamoud Ali-Shire, the Sultan of Somaliland, and the grand father of
the current Sultan. Click here for a glimpse of the history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Somali_sultanates.
As indicated above, the initiative started with a 33 member parliament, the President and
7 member cabinet—a very modest undertaking. A few of the members of the government
whose names I recognize had served in the upper and lower houses of
“Somaliland”, including the President and the Minister of Justice and Religion.
For now, there is a requirement of an overwhelming Maakhirite support within the area and
from abroad as well as financial support through remittances from the Maakhirite community
in the Diaspora, for the initiative to get off the ground. As the saying goes, there is no
stopping for an idea whose time has come. The fact remains though: the proof of the
pudding is in the eating. Hence, the establishment of the Maakhir State is very much
contingent in how much support and funding it receives from the people it is meant to
serve—especially during its embryonic stage. Click here for additional information by
other Somali websites:
http://www.somaliaonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi
?ubb=get_topic;
f=9;t=01197
Finally, the Maakhir State will as a matter of course engage in talks with its neighbors
to be able to define its borders. The fact that both the cities of Erigavo and Bossasso
and their suburbs have sizable Maakhirite communities does not make the negations any
easier. In the meantime, it seems that, therefore, the new political leadership and the
traditional one have their tasks cut out for them, in this respect.
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