After Independence: Making and Protecting the Nation in Postcolonial and Postcommunist States

5. From Irredentism to Secession: The Decline of Pan-Somali Nationalism

5. From Irredentism to Secession The Decline of Pan-Somali Nationalism PETER J. SCHRAEDER The fact that Somalia remains synonymous with “ethnic chaos” and “state collapse” makes it a splendid case study for contemporary theorists of African nationalism1—not least of all due to the simple reality that Somalia was one of the brightest stars of the galaxy of studies on Africa nationalism at the beginning of the contemporary independence era. In a continent that, in the words of Emerson, was “rich in nationalisms but poor in nations,” Somalia stood out during the 1960s as one of three largely ethnically homogeneous African countries (the other two being Lesotho and Botswana).2 It is for this reason that Somalia was often heralded—one could even say admired—by academics and policymakers alike as having a dramatic head start compared to the vast majority of other, more multiethnic African countries on the “nation-building” goal pursued by the ‹rst generation of African nationalists. Somalia also served as a lightning rod for regional and international condemnation due to the irredentist dimension of Somali nationalism that sought to incorporate the Somali-inhabited portions of neighboring countries into a larger pan-Somali nation-state. For nationalism scholars of the 1960s, the irredentist quest was taken to be a permanent feature of Somali nationalism and therefore one of the greatest challenges for an African continent that considered as “inviolable” the inherited frontiers of the colonial era.3 The presumed enduring quality of both the domestic nation-building and the international irredentist elements of what can be termed the “panSomali nationalist project” was captured in the title Somalia: Nation in 107 Search of a State, one of the classic English-language introductions to Somali politics and international relations.4 The primary purpose of this chapter is to examine the rise and decline of the pan-Somali nationalist project during the second half of the twentieth century. An important argument of this chapter is that, contrary to the major assumptions of the nationalist literature of the early independence era, the pan-Somali nationalist project was neither inevitable nor a natural outgrowth of the ethnic homogeneity of Somalis living within the Horn of Africa.5 Ethnic homogeneity does not, in and of itself, automatically provide the basis for politically inspired and enduring nationalist movements.6 The emergence of the pan-Somali nationalist project was instead the direct result of the unique con›uence of several historically speci‹c developments , most notably the rise of a new generation of Somali political elites during the 1950s and the 1960s who were initially interested in ridding their region of foreign control. Once successful in this regard, however, self-interested and competing groups of elites largely broken down along clan lines employed the rhetoric of nation-building and Somali nationalism to guarantee their quest for and/or hold over power, ultimately squandering whatever degree of pan-Somali nationalism that once existed among the elites and to a much lesser degree the general population as a whole. This chapter examines a series of political-military events, ranging from the Ogaadeen War between Ethiopia and Somalia in 1977–78 to the Somali civil war of the 1980s and the 1990s, that clearly demonstrate the shallowness of an elite-driven, pan-Somali nationalism that ultimately resonated little with the general population. Somalia’s defeat in the Ogaadeen War intensi‹ed divisive, clan-based tensions that at a bare minimum historically have been below the surface of this seemingly homogeneous society. The Somali civil war, which culminated in the complete collapse of the Somali state and a series of United Nations–sponsored military interventions from 1992 to 1995, further strengthened clan-based centrifugal forces that, in the words of Adam and Ford, “ripped” the fabric of Somali nationalism.7 Indeed, northern Somalia’s secession and declaration of independence as the Somaliland Republic in 1991 signaled the death knell of both the nation-building and the irredentist components of the pan-Somali nationalist project. This analysis of the decline of the pan-Somali nationalist project also allows for a modest contribution to the relevance of three major sets of A F T E R I N D E P E N D E N C E 108 competing theoretical approaches—primordialism, constructivism, and instrumentalism—that have sought to explain the rise and enduring nature of nationalism both in Africa and other regions of the world.8...