LETTER TO: Sheikh Mustafa HAJI ISMAIL HARUN

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Peace and Stability of Africa Depend on Respecting and Recognizing Colonial Borders

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
April 22, 2023

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