Tag: Somaliland

On a Recognition

The recent post about Somaliland and the other nations that haven’t received international recognition as sovereign countries provoked some discussion and swapping of emails among friends. Someone asked why the United States would choose Somalia over Somaliland, especially since the whole Somalia pirate thing they have going on over there.

Much of the American choice to not recognize Somaliland has to do with the religious as well as political situation in the Middle East. Being around the seat of so much oil means the US must tread carefully in order to not anger or embarrass our petroleum-laden allies in that area. Somalia controls the Horn of Africa, a jutting piece of land that sticks out into the Gulf of Aden and dangerously close to the vital Persian Gulf. We can’t afford to anger them by recognizing what they see as a breakaway portion of their nation.

And then there’s America’s historically difficult history with Islam.

Despite the fact that the United States Constitution stipulates that there can be no religious “test” for office-holding, prejudice and distrust of any religion in the US that was not some variant of Protestant Christianity has been rife, historically. And one of the great mysteries of the American slave trade is that we don’t know what percentage of slaves brought to America against their will were Muslims. Some have said that as many as 1 in 3 were. More than likely, the real number is lower but only slightly.

Add in the fact that many American Muslims were darker-skinned compared to their fellow countrymen whose ancestry was Europe; this only fueled the racism that has been in the nation since before 1776. And this doesn’t even take into account the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 that significantly increased hatred of Muslims in the nation. So, it’s a gross understatement to say that the relationship between mostly Protestant America and Muslim nations of the Middle East is complicated.

All of that factors into the political reasons why we don’t recognize Somaliland as an independent country.

By the way, did you realize that it was the Kingdom of Morocco–a Muslim nation–that was the first to recognize the sovereignty of a new nation that called itself the United States way back in 1777?

On an Un-Nation

Yes, you read that title correctly. This story is about a place, Somaliland, that has an unknown future. It’s also about places like Somaliland who face similar uneasy and uncertain fates.

You see, the Republic of Somaliland is a nation in northeastern Africa, lying on the coast of the Gulf of Aden near Ethiopia. Its capital city is Hargeisa. It boasts a population of almost 6,000,000. It has a president and a legislature and a court system. For that part of Africa, the economy of Somaliland is actually quite robust.

What you probably thought was that I was speaking of Somalia. Nope. Not Somalia. Somaliland. It’s different. What most people think when they hear of Somalia is that it is the home of the Somali pirates who prowl the waters off the coast of northeastern Africa. But that nation is not Somaliland. No, Somaliland is incredibly peaceful by comparison (although they have recently began an effort to force Somalia into recognizing them by military action).

What’s more, the country has a rapidly increasing literacy rate, a lowering infant mortality rate, and a lower crime rate than many of their neighbors.

So, why is this significant?

Well, to 99% of the world, Somaliland simply doesn’t exist.

The United Nations does not recognize the sovereignty of the country. They say that Somaliland is squatting–has effectively stolen–land from Somalia to carve out their country. And, that’s true. They broke away from Somalia in the 1990s and set up their own government. Yet, they remain unrecognized. However, other nations sometimes break away and have no issues becoming recognized nations by the international community. South Sudan did that not too long ago. Yet, the US recognizes their right to exist as a sovereign nation.

The United States doesn’t acknowledge Somaliland, by the way.

It’s extremely difficult to travel if you are from there because other nations won’t recognize your passport because there is no such place in their minds. They have no access to international financial assistance because they aren’t “officially” a nation even thought the place is a better functioning nation than others in that area. They have a decent military, certainly, and, as of now, there is a wary cease-fire between them and Somalia.

Again, I said all of the above to add this: Somaliland is not alone. Have you ever heard of Transnistria? It’s in a similar political no-man’s land as Somaliland. It lies to the northeast of Moldova on the border with Ukraine. It broke away from Moldova after a bloody “civil war,” but it has yet to be acknowledged by anyone, really. Western Sahara, Kosovo, and, now, even Taiwan all share the same situation. There are several places around the globe in the same boat. No one wants to acknowledge their rights to exist.

As you can imagine there are many different reasons why the international community won’t recognize these functioning nations. Most of them have to do with not angering powerful neighbors or the place from which these places split.

So, where does that leave Somaliland?

They, like their other non-recognized colleagues, exist today in a sort of bizarre international Twilight Zone. And what will happen to them?

We–and they–don’t know.