SYL leadership splits stemmed from worldview clashes, not genealogical tribalism

Evidence

Much of the dominant expatriate writings on Somali political conflict are couched in the language of tribalism. The material evidence presented in the volume proves that political dissonance among SYL leadership was not driven by innate genealogical loyalty but, on the contrary, by contrasting worldviews and political interests and ambitions. Finally, the history of the SYL and Somali liberation also reveals the Ethiopian emperor’s attempt, in the faint hope of absorbing all of Somalia, to thwart the desire of Northern and Southern Somalis to unify. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1089