Why Hadrawi Did Not Endorse Secession in Somalia

[Deeq A.]

Hadrawi was shocked to see the civil war that erupted in North Somalia briefly in 1992, and as a full-blown conflict (1994-1996) between Somali National Movement forces.

Hargeisa (Commentary) — The late Somali poet and playwright Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame (aka Hadrawi) had strong reservations about secession in Somalia. In one of his interviews before his passing, he said: “I see the same pattern in supporting secession as the reckless process to formalise the union without proper agreements” that paved the way for the creation of the Republic of Somalia in 1960.

In a November 1991 BBC Somali Service discussion on the four-month-long conflict in Mogadishu, which was raging between forces loyal to General Mohamed Farah Aidid and President Ali Mahdi Mohamed, Hadrawi deplored the practice of seeking power through the barrel of a gun, and in the process making citizens suffer.

He understood the difference between power and authority, the latter based on consent and accountability at all levels of government. He was shocked to see the civil war that erupted in North Somalia briefly in 1992, and as a full-blown conflict (1994-1996) between Somali National Movement forces. Hadrawi was a member of the SNM. During his active involvement with the armed opposition organisation against the military regime, he wrote many poems against the military dictatorship in pre-1991 Somalia. Authorities in Somalia tried to purge, where possible, his influence in the national curriculum and the arts. They were not able to censor his classic song Hooyoy la’aantaa (about the importance of mother and motherhood). 

In 2002, Hadrawi launched the Somali Peace March (Socdaalkii Nabadda), in which he visited districts throughout Somalia (both in the North and South) to begin peace dialogues among civilians. He was challenging the conventional wisdom that civilians were accountable for the actions of politicians/warlords they are associated with clan-wise. He viewed this outlook as a continuation of the military dictatorship policies that punished citizens for being associated with an armed opposition group. The hallmark of these policies was the scorched-earth campaigns the military regime carried out in Mudug in the early 1980s against the people falsely labelled sympathisers of Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF, then based in Ethiopia, and in Togdheer and the Northwest (Hargeisa) after 1981, when the Somali National Movement was formed as an opposition force against the military regime in Somalia. The SNM subsequently set up a base in Ethiopia.

Hadrawi died in Burao in August 2022, four months before the Laascaanood conflict broke out in 2023. He would have spoken up against the indiscriminate shelling the secessionist forces of the Somaliland Administration subjected Laascaanood to, causing death, destruction and massive displacement. It would have reminded him of the 1988 bombing of Hargeisa by the former Somali military regime when SNM forces launched a surprise attack on the second capital of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

© Puntland Post, 2025

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