African governments and regional analysts should assess Somaliland through its own history, rather than treat recognition as a blueprint for dismantling Ethiopia, empowering Puntland or redrawing Africa. The old misconception that Ethiopia supports Somaliland to weaken Somalia belongs to the same imagined chain reaction as Somali claims to reclaim the Ogaden, Ethiopia's Somali Region, as ancestral homeland. I could not disagree more. Separate the files.
Somaliland's case rests on state continuity. It was an independent country in 1960 before entering a legally incomplete de facto union with Somalia. Restoring that sovereignty is distinct from creating a state out of a region that never held it.
An Ethiopian region seeking secession on a credible economic case already has Eritrea's example, independence in 1993 after a long war and a referendum. It does not need Somaliland as a precedent. Puntland, Ethiopia's Somali Region and other African territories cannot claim prior sovereignty they never held; even Eritrea had not exercised modern sovereignty as an independent country before the 1990s.
Keeping Somaliland tied to Somalia sustains the illusion, rather than preserving Somalia's strength. It traps Somalia in a claim over a country it does not govern, denies Somaliland the normal tools of recognised statehood and prevents either from addressing its own political reality.
Somaliland and Somalia are like a warship and a submarine, built to operate differently. Glue them together and neither can move as intended.
Remove the tape, and both can finally move.