Lost in Translation

Somaliland is a great country in some aspects and terrible in others. Somaliland’s elections are completely unfair and not democratic at all. They name it “democratic elections”, but in fact they don’t know the real meaning of democracy. Every ballot is rigged and some people vote more than once, additionally you don’t have to be a member of this country in order to vote. One of the main reasons the ballots are rigged is because of tribalism. In this society, the citizens don’t care about who is best for the country, they care about if their family member is in power.  Somaliland’s future isn’t going anywhere unless this changes.

Usually when civilians vote, they vote for the best candidate that they believe can change their country for the better. This is not the case here. Tribalism is the main and most important ideology in Somali culture, people here don’t care about the talent or devotion of the candidate, they only care about which clan that person from. That’s the reason that made me hate voting for any of the candidates.

Families will also force you to vote for the candidate from your clan. I voted once since I came to Somaliland, and I regret it. The only reason that made me get up from my bed and go voting is my brother and mother.  They made me go with all of my sisters and stand in a long line and wait. It was terrible, awful, horrible, etc. We were all extremely exhausted when we came back and we didn’t even know the man we voted for, actually we never heard of him. My brother told us to go and vote for the man, he told us his name, so we went in and voted for that guy. When we all came back my sister asked my mother who is the guy that we voted for? My mom says, “He is a loyal, great guy from our clan.” That’s when I realized we just voted for nothing, it was completely biased. We only voted just because he is from my stupid clan that I don’t even know that well.

That day I promised myself that I wouldn’t vote ever again in Somaliland until this stupid ideology of tribalism is over. There is no point of voting, for me it is a completely stupid and time wasting thing. Sometimes I wonder how this country will be recognized when all they focus on is clans, not even improving their country but only clans. I feel sorry for all of us, God help us out, fingers crossed.