Isaaq Clans in Context: Challenging Simplistic Narratives

Yes, culturally, Isaaq is ultimately one large clan. However, one of the biggest misconceptions about Somaliland is considering the Isaaq as a single monolithic clan politically speaking. This has led to even more misconceptions:

  1. Belittling Somaliland’s internal conflicts and complexity, and as a result, its achievements in reaching national reconciliation.
  2. Distancing other clans such as the Gadabursi, who played a critical role in Somaliland’s nation-building process.
  3. Reducing the rich and longstanding Somaliland identity to "a clan seceding from the rest of the Somalis."

Somaliland was never viewed as Isaaq versus non-Isaaq before Siad Barre. This is a novel conflict created and amplified later by those who use the Isaaq in a political context.

Here are moments in history that highlight how the Isaaq narrative fails to explain Somaliland’s politics:

  1. In 1884, Britain did not sign a single treaty with an Isaaq clan. Treaties were signed with the Habar Younis, Habar Jeclo, and Habar Awal separately, which strongly indicates that politically they were not one unit.
  2. In the 1960 elections, there was no Isaaq versus non-Isaaq division. Isaaq leaders were split on both sides of the NUF, SNL, and USP.
  3. In 1960, if the Isaaq had been a single clan like the Esa in Djibouti, they would not have initiated the later incomplete and illegal union project with Somalia. They saw themselves as a set of clans within the Somali-speaking people, not as a single clan. Ideally, if they were a single clan, they would have sought to control the state and exclude others (as Djibouti did).
  4. In 2003, the Isaaq clans were divided on the election of Riyale, a non-Isaaq president.
  5. In 2021, a majority of Isaaq clans in the city of Hargeisa elected a non-Isaaq MP with the highest number of votes.

Once you understand this, you'll start to appreciate the real complexity of clans in Somaliland.

Disclaimer: other non-Isaaq often assume and view the Isaaq clans as a single unit, despite how the Isaaq have acted politically since 1884.

This is where outsiders must decide which point of view is closer to reality and provides a richer and deeper understanding of Somaliland.

Unfortunately, many outsiders also study Somalia, so they prefer the Isaaq narrative because it fits the Somali stereotype: an ungovernable, primitive clans that hates each other.