The Unitary Nature of Somali Society

To many fans of the beautiful game, they are the greatest team ever to have taken the field of play, and I am inclined to agree with this particular assertion. The thing that impresses people the most, about the Brazilian national football team, which won the World Cup tournament in 1970, is the sheer joy with which they played their game. Their achievements live on in the memories of millions of football fans around the world. The many triumphs of the Brazilian national team, over the years, and their unquestionable status as the world's leading football nation, are truly remarkable when one thinks about the history of this particular South American country. Like many other 'New World' countries, Brazil has a turbulent past. A past rooted in the dark period of the trans-atlantic slave trade. The stark social divisions; the abject poverty of much of the Brazilian population; the chronic institutionalsed racism of Brazilian society; and the rampant criminality, which is ever present in the overcrowded slums of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo is all forgotten when the famous yellow and blue, of the national team, is taking on the world. Indeed, football has become an important national export as well as an emblem of Brazilian society in modern times.

Success on the field not only makes people feel good, but it unites the many different ethnicities, religions, and languages that constitute Brazilian society. So, it is important, from the Somali perspective, to ask—how can such a divided society as that of Brazil attain such unity of purpose that this nation can beat the world, so spectacularly, and so convincingly as in the case of the 1970 World Cup? There must be something advantageous in being a unitary nation, but the Brazilian example demonstrates that a nation can succeed, in any field, even if the population is divided along the lines of rich and poor, or black and white. There is something deeply distressing about realising that people—all over the world—can overcome great challenges whilst we, of the Somali nation, seem to revel in creating certain avoidable difficulties for ourselves. I wonder whether any of the Brazilian players, who played in the 1970 World Cup winning team, were selected on the basis of their clan lineage or on their abilities as football players?

It seems absurd to me that we, of the Somali nation, insist on dividing everything along clan lines. In 1956, during the Italian administered UN trusteeship—of what would eventually become the Somali Republic—an interior government had been formed for the purpose running Somalia once the decade long UN trusteeship came to an end in 1960. The various ministrial posts, of the interior government, had mainly been given to members of the Somali Youth League, and a number of junior ministerial posts had been given to Somalis who were collectively known as the 'Pro-Italian' group. It seems to me that the ugly side of the phenomenon of Somali clanism began to show itself at this time. There is the legendary example of one Somali minister who, during this period, was serving in the interior government cabinet. This man, so the story goes, made a point of placing a can of Coca-Cola on his office desk. This particularly infamous minister hailed from the Somali city of Beletweyn, and his favoured method of handing out jobs was to interview prospective candidates in his office, and to ask them to tell him the Somali word for the object on his desk. If the candidate said Coombo, and not Daasad he would get the job. This is an amusing example of Somali clan chauvinism, but we must never make the mistake of thinking that this type of clan bias is a harmless social pass-time. Blood can be easily and needlessly shed, as we all well know, if people are motivated by such silly and divisive ideas. Such discriminatory behaviour must not be tolerated in Somali public life.

Despite the glorious achievements of the Brazilian national team, Brazilian society has many deep seated problems. For example, in the city of Rio de Janeiro alone, 50000 people are murdered each year. There is a brutal civil war being waged in many of the ramshackle shantytowns of Brazil. Despite its status as an important emerging economy, and potential savior of free-market economics, Brazil is plagued by both high-level corruption and low-level drug dealing. Despite these obvious problems, Brazilian politicians are cannily aware of their country's best interests. They work hard in order to make their country competitive in this world. This is something that the politicians of Brazil have in common with their football players. There is much that the assorted politicians of Somalia can learn from their Brazilian counterparts. I am hopeful that, in time, most of the politicians of Somalia shall learn to put the best interests of their nation above their own petty biases. I am hopeful that the psychological need that inspires the phenomenon of Somali clanism shall be eradicated from Somali public life, and that the unitary nature of Somali society shall be projected onto the world stage.