Why Qabil is a Liability

By Ayanle Daad

European colonizers have sealed the fate of hundreds of millions of people by creating eighty percent of all borders around the world.  They redrew the geography of many continents to benefit them and their decedents for generations to come. Muslim Somalia, with the largest coastline in Africa, was divided so they could forever be in a conflict with their neighbors.The richest oil fields of Iraq were carved out to create Kuwait . Leaving Kuwait to be small and defenseless but with ten percent of the worlds oil. The Ottoman Empire was divided into mini states so as to never regroup to pose a threat. Shiite Iran was armed to the teeth to counter a Sunni dominated region. And when Iran was taken by “religious extremist” Sunni controlled Iraq was given mass amounts of weaponry. And just in case things get out hand, and they figure out the master plan, Israel was given nuclear weapons as an insurance policy. Because people might fight back and choose to take their fate into their hands; a legal system was created as another method of control. The U.N. does not have a single country from Africa on its permanent Security Council, despite Africa having a population of 800 million people. One out of four people on this planet belongs to the Islamic faith (1.7 billion) but are not represented in the U.N. Security Council. The United Kingdom which has only 60 million has a permanent seat at U.N.S.C.; while India with 1.1 billion does not. Military armament and standing armies have been used to back up this legal system.

We Somalis have played into the hands of people who wish us ill. We choose leaders who are ignorant and have no understanding of politics. This makes our leaders illegitimate in the eyes of the international community. Our shared language, religion and the land that was bestowed to us have been misused in the worst ways possible. There are people out there who would do more with the land we occupy in one day than we have in the hundreds of years we have been there. We have the longest coastline in Africa and are unable to make use of it because of the divisions that persist in our politics. We play to that image that Africans are a barbaric people, when others see people getting their hands and throats chopped off.

All of our problems can be solved when we compete not with what we can take but what we are willing to give up. If every region is willing to give up some of its sovereignty we would not be in this predicament. Every tribe wants power at the cost of unity. They are more satisfied controlling a small town than being in a power sharing arrangement where they can rule over all of east Africa. Imagine today, if every State in the U.S. opted to leave and become a sovereign country. Alaska would be the largest state in the Union if it chose independence. But it would have a population of less than a million and could hardly dictate world events. Instead all these mini states chose to be in a union where they can have the largest military and economy than any other country in world history. The Somali people must choose to stop flirting with the idea of qabil and come together and be part of a union that is to be reckoned with or be that note in history of the only country to share the same religion, language that was in anarchy for almost two decades. Surely we are more than a collection of clans with competing interests. Surely we are more than a group of regions with in the hands of illiterate men. Surely our common aspirations to allow our children to live a better lives will overcome that old voice of division that speaks from the past and relies on illiterate men to live another day.