Capital received a number of responses to last week’s ‘The Welcoming Land’ by H.Goni. As promised, we have featured one of the commentaries e-mailed to us; this time from Abdulahi Omar, who is presumably in Scandinavia. Mr. Omar has a more comprehensive view of horn relations at the grassroots level. His choice of title is a humorous approach to a possible future of the region as a confederated entity.

The Problem is the answer

By Abdulahi Omar

I am writing this as, like tens of others, wait for my monthly UNHCR handout at the Refugee Community Center. The summers here are colder than any African winter and my thin Somali blood is freezing solid. The computer I am using is one of many donated by SAS –the Scandinavian carrier, as will be my plane ticket home if I don’t make asylum status.

I look around me and notice the faces of other African immigrants. Here in white man’s land; there is no distinction between Somali, Ethiopian or Eritrean. The diverse cultures of our respective countries and also the interminable skirmishing among us; our differing languages religions and all other identifying traits vanish in this harsh ‘plastic smile white world’.

The answer to the problem of the horn of Africa is clear. The reason why horn countries are so unstable is the fact that they should never have been separate in the first place. Only a grand horn of Africa Confederation can stop the permanent state of war ravaging our lands.

As I sit waiting for my welfare check, I hear how Europeans are becoming one super state. French men and Hungarians are carrying the same passport and deal in one currency! Sometimes I wonder if white people may really be better than us.

In my opinion, the region is in desperate need of a Simon Bolivar-a unifier who could knock some sense into our bickering power centers. The horn is the poorest region of a poor continent and will remain so unless we- and not just my Somali brothers, pool our resources and stop the wailing of orphaned children and widowed wives.

Which country produces such a visionary leader of all the horn states is immaterial, as long as the goal is a united Confederation of equal partner states. This may sound naïve but it is not so naïve for the Europeans who have done it already.

When there is a will there will always be a way. Emerging out of the scorched earth of WWII, the dream of a unified continent would have been laughable to many Europeans. However they persevered and today, are proud witnesses to the power of consensual politics.

My dear African brothers must have faith that, yes, the solution to our continent’s myriad problems is to unite and flourish from the strength derived. Together we shall stand-divided we shall surely fall.

At this point I would like to wish all the success to the renewed efforts by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to revive the moribund East African Community. Who knows to what great strides the EAC would have taken this region had it not been sabotaged by Idi Amin’s recklessness. And in all fairness, the Southern and Western states in Africa have much more cohesive regional structures than the Horn and should be encouraged.

What the horn people’s and government’s decide to do today will determine the future destiny of a combined population of 90 million people. Let us take the time to pause and think about the kind of legacy we will bequeath for coming generations.

IGAD has a historic chance in opening a new chapter for the region by the way it handles the situation of Somalia. My country is a test bed for the future of the region. In fact this is a time when even the AU’s mettle will put to the test. Conflict resolution should never be an end in itself but rather a secondary purpose to the main goal of conflict prevention.