Ibrahim Hassan Gagale
Sunday April 23, 2023
Your excellency, I heard your opposition to colonial borders in Africa
without presenting substitute solution that would not lead to endless
violent, continental clan wars that would return Africa to Stone Age. It
would be great if each African country has population of the same
ethnicity but it is impossible to have that in the Third World (Africa,
Arab World, Asia and South America). In Africa, subclans of the same
clan inhabit different African countries due to colonial demarcations
without considering clan lineage or ethnicity. That is why the
Declaration of African Conference in 1964 of Reaffirming Colonial
Borders was iissued to recognize and protect African colonial borders as
they are in order to prevent tribal secession wars seeking postcolonial
reunifications that would plunge the whole continent of Africa into
endless violence, anarchy and chaotic tribal wars bringing down African
states.
If African colonial borders are denied or rejected and
clans and tribes are given chance to have postcolonial reunifications
based on their ethnicity, the consequences in the continent would be
dire and devastating because endless, violent wars would erupt between
states defending their territorial integrity bound by colonial borders
and clans or tribes seeking reunifications with their own ethnicity as
colonial borders define the territorial integrity, people, independence
and recognition of each African country.
African colonial
borders, like Arab World, Asia and South American colonial borders were
unfortunately drawn all by European colonial powers and are based on
land, not on ethnicity or clan lineage. Existence, peace and stability
of Africa depend on respecting, recognizing and implementing colonial
borders which are unalterable or unchangeable. Tribal armed factions
driven by tribal emotions or tribalism, as it is happening now in Las
Anod city of Somaliland, tried before to change African colonial borders
by force to unite their clan or tribe after independence but all ended
in failure because no country accepts to divide its territory as
colonial borders are recognized and internationally legitimate.
Trying
to change African colonial borders is like opening can of worms that
would return Africa to Stone Age as subsequent results would lead to
endless clan wars seeking postcolonial reunifications with gun point as
no Africa state wants to lose part of its country and population. It is
easy to oppose African colonial borders but it is difficult to change it
or replace it. There is no single African country that made its own
borders.
FEW EXAMPLES OF CLAN DISTRIBUTION IN AFRICA
To
mention few, Afar Clan inhabits Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djabouti. Tuareg
Clan inhabits Senegal, Nigeria, Mali and Niger. Fulani Clan inhabitis
Mali, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. Lunda Clan inhabits Congo, Zambia and
Angola. Yoruba Clan inhabits Nigeria, Benin and Togo, Somali Clan
inhabit Djabouti, Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia and Kenya etc. It is
rare to see an African country whose population is based on single
ethnicity. No country or region in Africa has the right to claim the
land of a subclan inhabiting another African country for reasons of
tribal lineage or ethnicity.
As colonial borders of Africa are
unchangeable and all borders are based on land, so are Somaliland
Republic borders. As any other African country, Somaliland inherited
colonial borders from Somaliland British Protectorate, Somaliland
territory and people cannot be divided, its colonial borders cannot be
altered or changed and tribal borders cannot be drawn in Somaliland to
destroy its territorial integrity and national unity. Somaliland
achieved independence before Somalia gaining international recognition
on June 26, 1960.
Your excellency, I hope this short article
helps you understand how it is difficult to reject or deny African
colonial borders and how it is important to keep African current status
for the sake of peace and stability.
Ibrahim Hassan Gagale
Email: [email protected]