VIII - The Problems of Independence

Summary

The balance of particularistic interests in the new state

HOWEVER PRECIPITATE and incomplete it may have appeared at the time, the union of the former British Somaliland and Somalia had at once a profound effect on Somali politics. Since the focus of all political interests was now ultimately a single national legislature, the marriage of the two territories entailed significant, and in some cases quite drastic changes in the political status of the various clans and lineages within the state. To appreciate the full import of this immediate consequence of union it is necessary to realize that, despite the patriotic fervour which acclaimed the formation of the Republic, the most all-pervasive element in politics remained the loyalty of the individual to his kin and clan. There was not, of course, a political party to represent the interests of each clan; the trend which had once existed in this direction had long since passed and the presence of such powerful national consortiums as the S.Y.L. made it impossible for narrowly based clan parties to achieve any effective position in national politics. Nor was clan particularism by any means the only political tie of significance. With the increasing spread of western education, the growth of modern towns, and the gradual but quite unmistakable formation of new social classes, clan loyalties now fell into place as one component in a complex of diverse political attachments. Yet within this cluster of allegiances, for the majority of the population those bonds based on clanship - now extended much more widely than in traditional Somali politics - remained the most pervasive, the most commanding, and above all the most insidious. No other single line of communication and common interest connected so directly and incontravertibly the pastoral nomad in the interior with his kinsmen in the civil service, in the National Assembly, or in the cabinet itself. No other bond of mutual interest had so many far-reaching ramifications in all aspects of private and public life.

Nationalists, party politicians, and traditional religious leaders alike, had for long inveighed against those aspects of kinship which perpetuated wasteful sectional rivalries, which weakened and sometimes vitiated necessary collaboration, and which led to the preferment of individuals and of policies irrespective of their intrinsic merits.