Monday, August 25, 2014
A group of Somali activists are planning to launch a nationwide awareness campaign on Tuesday (August 26th) on the dangers of tribalism, which they say is harmful to the country's vision of restoring law and order after decades of civil war.
"There is a big hope now of restoring nationhood, however, tribalism can undermine the good efforts that are going on," said Aisha Abdullahi Isse, a former lawmaker in the Transitional Federal Government and current head of the Mogadishu-based Somali Anti-Tribalism Organisation (SATO).
Tribalism has undermined Somalia's progress for years and is widely viewed as the reason for the collapse of the Mohamed Siad Barre government in 1991.
Isse said that as Somalis debate how regional administrations should be formed and territories partitioned under the country's budding federal system, fears within tribes have increased, with many worried their people will be reduced to minority populations in what they consider ancestral areas, thereby diminishing their representation in local administrations.
"We have decided to fight against tribalism [now] so that it does not become an obstacle to the establishment of the new nation," Isse told Sabahi.
SATO's campaign is particularly timely because of the need to open the lines of communication among tribes and ensure federalism is used not to "loot one another" but to equitably share resources and ensure representation in government institutions, she said.
Isse said SATO's awareness campaign will disseminate messages through the media and encourage athletes and artists to lobby for national unity.
"We are organising rallies for the public to hold consultations on this issue," she said. "We are asking playwrights and singers to create plays and short stories to foster unity. As a way to promote complete integration, we also plan to [send] sports groups to various regions of the country, especially areas impacted by clan hostilities, to organise public games so that the youth from clans who have fought one another can play football together."
The goal is for people to forgive one another and to come together, and for that to be implemented in all the regions, she said.
So far SATO has raised funds from its own members and their personal networks of friends and relatives but plans to hold fundraising events soon, Isse said, appealing to anyone interested in combatting tribalism to help the organisation.
Youth instrumental in fighting tribalism
Since youth are the future leaders of the country, they need to be educated about the dangers of tribalism, said Mohamed Warsame Sandhool, chairman of South and Central Somali Youth Umbrella, a Mogadishu-based civil society organisation concerned with the development of youth.
"Nothing will work for us if the youth are not educated against tribalism," he told Sabahi. "We have to understand that tribalism will not get us anywhere, and we point out to the youth that it is tribalism that has taken the country to this level [of destruction]."
Ahmed Mohamed Mohamud, chairman of Garaad, a youth organisation in Dhusamareb, said it is important that the country's political leaders are selected based on their competence and knowledge rather than clan affiliation.