A Somaliland flag challenge young Awdalites have started on social media has caught on across Somaliland regions like bush fire.
Youth in the capital of the western region of Awdal started the challenge following appearances splashed on Facebook and Twitter by small pockets of other youth waving Somalia’s blue flag and wearing Somalia-supplied jerseys and tracksuits.
#Borama youth start the #KaniWaaKayga (This [flag] is mine) challenge where they pose with the Somaliland flag. #Awdal #Somaliland pic.twitter.com/MRWkvnREXJ
— إبن صوماليلاند (@IbnSomaliland) July 1, 2021
The latter groups aimed to adulterate Somaliland’s 61st commemoration of its 26 June 1960 full independence from Britain – at a time Somalia was still under colonial rule.
On that day, the blue, white-starred current flag of Somalia was hoisted to replace that of Great Britain although the design was attributed to have been borrowed as own by Somalians from an old Florida standard.
Incensed by the inaccurate picture, the Somalian-supported groups were depicting of a region widely revered as the cradle of modern-day Somaliland, the latter group proudly wearing the attractive, tri-colours of the Republic of Somaliland dared other regions to take up the challenge.
The youth challenge aimed to send a message to Somalia and saboteurs it funded that no amount of sabotage, bribery or coercion would change their attachment to a nation they werr born of, educated in and prospered in peace for the past 31 years. A secondary, underlying message was that a Somalia who cannot put its house in order was no match with a established, developing democracy that has earned the grudging respect of a hitherto insouciant world through practical demonstration of its norms and mettle.
The first to respond to the challenge was Las Anod. They were soon after followed by Burao, Erigavo, Hargeisa, Gabiley, Zeila, Balligubadle and the rest of the country’s major cities and towns.
Borama hosted the 1993 Grand Conference at the end of which a National Charter was adopted and the late Presidents Abdirahman Mohamoud Ali and Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal -first and second presidents of post-1991 Somaliland – changed places.
Historic and last speech of Somaliland's first president #AbdirahmanTuur Borama conference 1993.#Speech that can be a window we can see into the unique #challenges his goverment has faced during his president term and more likely similar challenges @musebiihi gov is facing now. pic.twitter.com/Lr6BUfACJF
— Ahmed M. ciidle (@AMciidle) November 28, 2019
Again in 1997, Borama hosted the third grand conference where Egal’s term was renewed following a stiff challenge from other candidates. During this conference, it was decided that a national constitution be drafted to replace the earlier National Charter.
The new constitution was approved by a one-person-one-vote referendum on 31 May 2001.
It is not surprising that Awdal defends Somaliland statehood so sincerely when one also considers that both the national flag and national anthem were the creation of Borama sons.
The late Murad Abdalla Mubarak (left) designed the tri-colour with the Tawhid and a black star emblazoned across two of its colour strips. Murad designed the green to stand for prosperity, the white for peace and the red for the long, costly struggle it had taken Somalilanders to restore a sovereignty they lost to a losing cause of Greater Somali people’s unity which the black star stood for. The Tawhid at the top not only stood for the nation’s faith but also to the sincerity and unity of its people and the co-existence it wished to live with other peoples of the region and the world.
The combination of attractive colours and intended messages won Murad the trophy.
Both the anthem and the flag fully interpreted the catastrophic results of the th1960 merger with Italian Somalia which became only too clear right from the onset that Somalilanders and their state were unwanted in Mogadishu and that they only served as a source of income for hordes of less educated, less scrupulous civil servants and armed forces. This especially became more evident during the latter 20 or so years the military junta ruled the country after taking over the rule by force on 21 October 1969. Moreover, the military regime pitted parts of Somaliland against others which, fortunately, did not continue beyond its deposal in January 1991.
Reer Burco accepted Borama’s challenge and called out Hargeisa #WaaKanKaygu pic.twitter.com/hw2gio5SpL
— Nabad iyo Caano (@VancitySam) July 1, 2021
