Great post about the events and story of the unrecognized state of Somaliland; actually it's the most concise explanation of it I can find. The BBC had a great piece of it yesterday on the radio, but I cannot find it online.
Somaliland is a 15 year old self-described independent nation that is officially the northwestern third of Somalia. The amazing thing is that while Somalia is struggling to assemble a parliament, which as Timothy Goddard explains, is currently meeting in Kenya, not Somalia, and have been slowed by fist-fights during the meetings, Somaliland is set to hold elections.
The state is one of the few in Africa to successfully transfer from the traditional customs to a working democracy, but it has not yet been recognized by any nation in the world.
There are several factors behind this, primarily among them is a fear from African countries that it will cause further splintering of African countries along ethnic lines, which if you are involved in running a country is a bad thing.
But with the current wave democratization sweeping the Arabic world, I argue that the US has a duty to identify Somaliland as a nation. It has proven itself as a working democracy in a highly unstable region.
Currently the economy which relies heavily on money sent from abroad is in shambles with 8 out of 10 people facing unemployment, and the lack of an internationally legit government, which cannot ask for foreign aid to help with development. Interestingly, this goes against my understanding of Amartya Sen's idea of development and democracy going hand-in-hand.
Aside: according to their website, 'Somali is the official language. Arabic and English are the other official languages.' I speak the second other official language.
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