By Dayib Sh. Ahmed In the aftermath of a devastating war that has claimed countless lives, destroyed homes, scattered families, and shattered dreams, the people of Somalia have risen once more not in despair, but in determination; not in resignation, but with a spirit of resistance against humiliation and continued suffering. For decades, Somalia has...
Dr. Ali Bahar The collapse of the Union (the Somali republic) in the 1990s has not only paved the way for the disintegration of the Somali society but also facilitated the emergence of merciless militia groups such as SNM in northern Somalia and opened doors for the nemeses of Somali republic. The SNM troops with...
By Ahmed A. Yusuf For decades, the dominant international policy toward Somalia was built around a simple proposition: Somalia needed a functioning central government capable of governing the entire country. That proposition now appears to be under serious reconsideration. Across the Horn of Africa, a different geopolitical reality may be emerging—one in which international powers...
By Abdulhakim A Sheik Somali society rebuilt itself after the state fell on trust, privacy and quiet mediation. A generation raised on the smartphones is now testing whether any of that still holds. Picture a house in Mogadishu, or Minneapolis, or Nairobi. A husband and wife are arguing — not violently, but badly, the way...
By Abdulkadir Osman Farah, PhD Once, two Somali diaspora friends met in a major Somali city. The first returned to the homeland decades earlier. Witnessing people’s suffering and helping them recover from a devastating civil war. The second returned periodically also offering his people qualified support. One day, during a casual conversation over coffee, the...
By Abdullahi A. Nor Somalia’s latest electoral controversy is beginning to expose something far more dangerous than a disagreement over dates, ballots or electoral procedures. It is raising a fundamental question about the future of federalism itself: is Somalia building a democratic federal system—or is Mogadishu gradually converting the Federal Member States into political extensions...
Dr Zakariya Weyrax Warsame Is the Old Somali Sheikh with the Illuminating Faynuus Hidden Under His Garment—Claiming the Power of the Awliya, Invoking Sheikh Jaylani, and Deceiving Us for Money and Influence—Back, Only This Time Speaking Arabic and Selling Houses in Jannah? There are questions a people eventually has to ask itself—questions that are uncomfortable,...
By Abdiqani Haji Abdi The contrast between Ecuador and Somalia raises a question that is uncomfortable but increasingly unavoidable: What happens when political power is treated as a public trust and what happens when government becomes an avenue for political patronage, weak accountability and private enrichment? The question has acquired new urgency following the extraordinary...
Dr. Abdurahman Baadiyow There is a profound question that should touch both our hearts and our minds: How is it possible for a society so deeply attached to its religion to remain, for more than thirty years, trapped in collapse, conflict, division, poverty, misgovernance, and statelessness? Somalia presents a tragic example of the enormous gap...
By Dayib Sh. Ahmed It was inevitable that Hassan Sheikh Mohamud would eventually come to this point. Shortly after his constitutional changes began taking full shape, I wrote a column titled “A Warlord in Disguise: A Critical Analysis of the Second Term of Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.” More than two years later, I look back at...