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Scoop.it!
Part I: The story of Somalia's decline from stability to chaos and the problems facing its people at home and abroad. Part II: The ongoing civil war has caused serious damage to Somalia's infrastructure and economy. Thousands of Somalis have either left as economic migrants or fled as refugees. Within Somali, more than a million people are internally displaced.
Tags: devolution, political, states, unit 4 political, migration, refugees, Somalia, Africa. 
David Stiger's curator insight,
November 10, 2018 5:50 PM
Somali's unique geographic position, an intersection of Africa and Asia, designated it as a prime target of European colonialism during the 19th century. By controlling the Horn of Africa, European powers (the Italians, English, and French) could control the flow of spices, natural resources, and trade between Africa and Asia. The colonial order is what initially set up Somalia to fail in the long-run. The European powers carved up the land, giving Somalia culturally and ethnically inaccurate and illogical borders - convenient artificial borders that divided the tribes. When Somalia was finally granted its independence in 1960, Europe left the fledgling nation with problematic borders. After political turmoil in the form of an assassination and a military coup in 1969, the general Siad Barre ruled through dictatorship for 20 years. Desiring to correct historical injustices, Barre invaded Ethiopia in 1977 to reclaim the rightful area of Somalia. Barre's army defeated, the country lost its sense of nationalism leading to a rise in tribal factions and warlords. The country spiraled into civil war and the national government collapsed in 1991. Since then, portions of the country have been stuck in a constant state of civil war and turmoil, while other parts of the country are doing well. What is so tragic is that this all goes back to the poorly drawn borders of European colonialism.
Neo-colonialism, primarily in the form of third party exploitation, now wreaks havoc on Somalia's economy. European, Indian, and Chinese fishing ships have been illegally fishing in Somalia's waters (another geographic asset) prompting young men to raid and attack the foreign vessels. The original goal of the "pirates" was to scare off and drive away the foreign fishing boats which had taken over the waters. The foreigners merely paid off the young Somalis who boarded their ships. In a country with limited economic opportunity, this inspired young men to raid with the hope of being paid off. The news media made it seem like these "pirates" were simply lazy and went out of their way to raid innocent foreign vessels. There was little blame attributed to the illegal foreign activities.
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Scoop.it!
"SOMALILAND, a slim slice of Somali-inhabited territory on the southern shore of the Gulf of Aden, ticks almost all the boxes of statehood. It has its own currency, a reasonably effective bureaucracy and a trained army and police force. But it has yet to receive official recognition from a single foreign government in the years since it declared independence in 1991. To the outside world, it is an autonomous region of Somalia, subject to the Somali Federal Government (SFG) in Mogadishu. Why is it not a state? Throughout the post-independence era, geopolitics in Africa has tended to respect 'colonial borders', i.e. the borders laid down by European colonial powers in the 19th century. Across the continent, there have been only two significant alterations to the colonial map since the 1960s: the division of Eritrea from Ethiopia, in 1993; and South Sudan from Sudan, in 2011." Via Mike Busarello's Digital Storybooks
Raymond Dolloff's curator insight,
December 14, 2015 11:55 PM
Like many new developing countries, it is hard to overcome the hardships to prove that you deserve to be recognized as a new nation. Being recognized as a true nation means that there is political and economic stability within a country. The area where Somaliland is located is very unstable. Its parent nation, Somalia is very unstable. For example, in Somalia, there are pirates who hijack mariners and take them and the vessel hostage. Stability within a country is a major aspect for the international community to look at to recognize new countries. |
