Graduate School of Social Sciences
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Browsing Graduate School of Social Sciences by Author "[HUSSEIN, Abdikadir Mohamed"
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Item FEDERALISM IN AFRICA AND SOMALIA(2022-02-21) [HUSSEIN, Abdikadir Mohamed; KARASAR, Hasan AliThis paper attempts to examine federalism in Somalia, which is masked as clan federalism and the attempts at making a democratic government in a federal system. As a country Somalia is situated in the horn of Africa located in a highly strategically contested area. It has been devastated by civil war for more than a quarter of a century; as a result a large number of Somalis have fled to neighboring countries or abroad living as diasporas, whilst the rest of the population have been ravaged by ongoing conflicts and famine. Federalism has had a rocky start in Somalia as it has raised debates and there have been more negatives than positives. The Somali society does not have a clear understanding or consensus on the concept of federalism in Somalia and the application of this political system in Somalia. The state building process has been fraught with difficulties due to the mistrust of the local people which is understandable given that the state has been absent for a considerable Time, As the Somali people have been under a centralized and heavily controlled government for a long time it is understandable that they now turn to a decentralized system. Most of the states were already self-governing in some form or another, thus it is perhaps actually easier to function as a federal government. Despite the positives for federalism it does not help that there are different opinions on the actual division and sharing of powers between the central government and the regional authorities. These differences of opinion have been exacerbated by the competing clan alliances which could potentially derail the Somali federal experiment. The fact that Somaliland which is one of the federal states stands by its claim of being an Independent country does not bode well for the success of the federal system. The recovery, reestablishment and rebuilding of Somalia as a nation is filled with obstacles and no one is sure if federalism will alleviate the obstacles or if it indeed one of them.