SYL founders saw common values as a tool to overcome clan segmentation.

Evidence

The nationalist founders of the SYL understood the major contradiction in Somali identity. On the one hand, Somalis shared common values that uniquely brought them together, and on the other hand, their underdevelopment created internal segmentation that barred their collective advancement. Mindful of this conundrum, they thought it was possible to capitalize on the common values and significantly tame, if not eliminate, the politically divisive tendency of genealogical segmentation. The SYL’s two constitutional pillars of uniting and liberating all Somalis within the peninsula and building a collective political identity based on common citizenship were revolutionary ideas at the time whose wisdom is yet to be realized. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 430

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that these ideas’ wisdom ‘is yet to be realized’ suggests assessing whether post-1991 state collapse validates or complicates this framing.