By Ismail Warsame
Opinion Columnist
At last, Somalis got it right. From time immemorial they existed in communities and clans enjoying autonomous entities and freedoms that even colonial power had no recourse to dominate them. Among them, no one clan had the power to subjugate others in the neighborhood. Unlike other nations, there was no feudalism, slavery or landlordism here. They were equal partners in their respective localities. They were engaged in peaceful negotiations on issues of common interests and deviced laws that govern their behavior and invented code of conduct (Xeer.) They never tolerated tyranny in their midst. They were born free and loved their ways of life. That was natural confederalism in its primitive form.
They lost that freedom briefly under military dictatorship. They rose up against that repressive regime, causing a lot of damage as a result of their uprising against an imposition by foreign influence and ideology. Thus, at great cost, they were able to restore their lost freedoms, returning to their natural system of self-government as free people occupying the most strategic real estate in the Horn of Africa, if not in the world. They have been protecting their ocean and sea for centuries against all powerful nations and historical empires of the world. Think about it.
Federalism, or rather confederalism, has been always their system in maintaining self-reliance and Allah-given liberty and freedom of expression symbolized by unmatched prowess of poetry. Now they have reached a point of no return in their movement towards advanced confederalism, federalism. Don’t try to stand in their way.
https://amazon.com/author/ismailwarsame
