Somali people were originally clan based society for a since their existence this system is informal social organization that most human being are life most commonly nomadic-pastoralist societies; because of its social identity that tells who person belongs to clan is sub part of ethnicity, which is the idea give birth to nationality during human civilization developments, every society has levels of development, form hunting and to political states or regional.
Clan impact has long history in Somali culture, since the Somali people were and still are in clan based society, so before and during colonization the clan leaders were the true political elites in Somaliland politics furthermore among trips they have a defined rules and regulation in all aspects of live, wither peace, conflict, relationship among other trips: Somali people were having suitable from of management because every problem has a defined solution ; at that time clan system wasn’t a problem because people were understand their system in good health , and clan leader “Sultan “ was a part of society in all situations ,as a result society were relay on their Sultan.
After 1960 June 26, when Somalia also most of African states get their independent western political systems were adopt, which became complete opposite to the culture of Africans , particularly Somali people, since they adopt that their leader is part of them , and that changes to democratic system which the political leader is not a part of the society in all situation but only ,politicians are part of society when the lections came , which contrivers to the culture of Sultans, that is when the impact of clan system in Somaliland National politics became a problem ,since this two systems are not matched plus they made repulsion.
Tribe structure is way of traditional live, and every way of life has both advantage and shortcomings, so clantism has a negative impact for globe because is causes the discrimination among societies particularly in African society its source of conflict and Somali society trips are what make Somalia conflict for the last 25 years at the begging but now it’s complicated issue to discuss, even though Somaliland has peace for the last 19 years after peace resolution among the clans, but still clan can be potential source of conflict for coming future.
So we can see that there is strong relation among clan and politics, but the question is, Is Somaliland a democratic country? The answer is for me No, it’s clan based form of government for the reason that of the following, first democracy is not only free and fair elections rather than one of the fundamental pillars of this system is secularism which means to divide religion from politics that is not applicable for this country, second the frequent elections that happen in Somaliland were not timely, thirdly Somaliland political parties are not ideological based rather then they are clan based, all three parties are owned by a certain tribes. Along with Somaliland constitution which is mixture of Islamic religion, Somali Culture and some part of democracy is given a clear evidence that Somaliland is not pure democratic country.
In reality the effective working system is not democracy but it’s the clan based system, since the people are more reliable clan leaders than government officials, The Sultan which is the clan leader is a part and partial of the tripe in terms of development choosing who will take part the government in some cases even the job seeking process is getting though the ties of Sultans. Where government officials or politicians are not a part of the society in every case, nevertheless they are one of them impartial only when they need vote.
Without clan system the political system of Somaliland would be no more effective, so in name Somaliland is democratic country on the other hand in a reality its clan constructed system. The clan coordination and government system can’t be differentiate in many dimensions for Somaliland case , the president can’t choose his ministries without the consultant of Sultans, Hence even the highest person of the government can’t work if he/she didn’t understand the clans in Somaliland case.
Cutting-edge decision is that there is huge impact that clan has in Somaliland politics; these impact can be helpful if change system of government happen and take off the democratic political assembly plus build a new method based on political Islam will be fit to Somaliland politics if the leader takes, since this system is compatible traditional system, in addition to the society respect Islamic law: this is system was once ruled the world and gives more development, in political, social, economical along with Islamic political system produced the best human on the earth when it come humanity, ethics and knowledge, it does not have any argument in any kind of human development.
Thanks
Nasra Dahir Mohamed