A while ago, I shared with the forum some my history and perspective in this matter:
Since then, I have asked myself; where have I gone wrong? Was that individual not really me? Were those not my thoughts penned in words? If my experience in Africa had indeed extinguished tribalism from my pscyhe, why the relapse? Something is remiss here. You see there are few things in this forum that really get to me, but I would be dishonest if I did not credit one particular criticism that seems to have the habit of disengaging from the monitor only to bite me somewhere it stings. Whenever someone says you are a young, educated Somali man, why do you persist in aiding the division, fragmentation, and regression of your people by subsisting in this tribal outlook; it stings. It really does. Even though that may not exactly be their choice of words, it is indeed how it replays in my head. So why do I?I would be remiss if I did not also look at my own background and see how I have been transformed as well, although along with them and not influenced by them as the forces that affected my transformation were more practical and logical. See from a young age, I, like most other Somali youth, accepted the norm of political tribalism. The idea one belongs to a specific stock of the Somali people, live and die by them as was the case with our grandfathers before us, is and was a central existence in the "coming-of-age" of any young Somali man. It was also in a very sympathetic environment such an idea lodged itself in me because as a highly bright and curious young man, I always questioned the nature of our flight out of Somalia and the sad situation the old country continued to find itself in. After all, I was at once American and a product of my environment, but still had parents who sent money back home to aid relatives and house-phones that rang at all extremities of the hour containing the hopeful voices of helpless clansmen back home who sought aid from us, their more fortunate relatives abroad. My acceptance of and championing of political tribalism then became realized. After all, was it not a natural occurrence in such a situation?
To summarize a long story short, it became impossible for me to bridge the gap between the political tribalism I was expected to toe to with respect to Somalia and the daily environment and progressive education before me. What in Somalia's tribalized politics conformed to both the secular and religious educations I had undergone? Nothing. I would sit in a classroom full of White Americans, Black Americans, Asians, Latinos and all forms of colors and creeds. I would come to accept and champion the vibrancy and strength of diversity yet when it came to Somalia, it became hard for me to continue to accept this push to want more for political power for people of my clan at the expense of others, in fact seldom not at the expense of others. Why should a clansman of mine be privileged politically at the expense of other more qualified people on account of people of his clan owning more guns then the other clans? Why should I want the top political posts for my clan as a symbol of power when as a person who cares for the development of his nation, I should be choosing on merit? With these confounding differences and confusions, I decided to make my first visit back home to the mother land in East Africa. I went there with these two parralels and worldviews in front of me. The world view shaped by all the education I had undergone, secular as well as religious, that spoke of plurality and put emphasis on merit and the worldview shaped and written into my blood as a member of the Somali race, which stressed allegiance to clan and nothing but clan at the expense of nation, logic, and even at times sanity. In Africa, the worldview espoused by my Somali bloodline was crushed. Nothing else explains it. Going there and seeing the situation with the eyes of a Western-raised, and Western-educated young man who had no physical remembrance of Africa, I had failed to understand why so many our people continue to be indoctrinated into arguably the most primitive of social customs that has become the bane and the destruction of our nation. Perhaps I have written too long but as I flew back from Africa, I held a single worldview that has only come to maturation recently when it became possible for me to condemn even my own clansmen politically. I feel both liberated and alive because of this stance that espouses logic, reason, sanity, plurality, merit, and capability; concepts totally alien to the pervasive tribal culture shaped by centuries of Somali bush life.
I know why and there is no ignoring it, but the reality is where is my self-control? Where are the efficient uses of my faculties in doing away with a bad habit? Like many other young Somalis around the world; the idea that I am somehow this way because my ability to find connection with the country of my heritage dictated it is no longer applicable. I cannot feign excuses anymore. At many points, I honestly feel ashamed sometimes after engaging in some of the sort of diatribe I have become infamous for in this forum. My friends will tell you I am a political person but not a tribalist. Half a dozen of them post here and they never really judge me (or at least I hope not). That's because I tend to believe they know me better. But who could be faulted for thinking there is an element of hatred in some of my writing, an exclusionary voice that represents all the ills and tribulations of the Somali story? Who could be faulted for accusing me of exhibiting some of the very darkest blotches on the Somali people? Who could be faulted for thinking I have internalized all that is bad about the socio-cultural dynamics of my people of heritage?
In this juncture of time, Somalia faces a new and exciting moment and the Somali people have everything to be hopeful about. As the winds of change sweep the streets of Mogadishu and the collective aspirations of our people, I, and indeed you, must also change. We must become in step with all that is positive, all that is uniting, all that would lead to progress and a better day for a nation and people who have had everything to lament about. I must change. You must change. We must work ever harder to cleanse ourselves of tribalism and negativity; we must internalize the reality we are our people's keepers. Our people are not our sub-clan, our clan, our region; our people consist of every Somalia man, woman, and child of goodwill who deserve the best their own people could provide for them. I make a promise to myself now and to this outlet that has seen much expression of my political rhetoric that I will not engage in tribal talk; that I will not participate in divisionary discussions, and I will internalize that when I speak I do so holding the collective aspirations of all our people in my heart. It is the only way towards our salvation.
Wassalam.
