Past, present and future are all linked and one begets the other, therefore we cannot talk of the latter without mentioning the former two. People often wonder and ask us: “How it is that one of the most homogenous people in Africa find themselves engulfed in such a catastrophic civil war? The Somali civil war is not taking place in vacuum, but is part and parcel of the wider post-colonial crisis afflicting societies in Africa, which has manifested itself differently depending on each country’s historical, social and economic background.

The deterioration of the Somali state and the subsequent final collapse was neither sudden nor quick and it originated from the conflict caused by the incompatibility inherent in the post-colonial institutions and the pastoral-cum-agrarian stateless way of life of the Somali society, further exasperated by twenty years of dictatorship

Notwithstanding the collapse of the state and the severe loss of human lives and material resources, there is hope for recovery and renaissance and what a Somali scholar said during the darkest days of the unrest “Battered and bruised but still a nation” still stands. Twelve years after the day Barre fled Somalia, the overall situation is much better; in 1990 the per capita GDP was US$120 and today it is US$550.

Civil war is a slow and painful process inasmuch as it involves changes in the way people think and behave. From an attitude of “we are better off without a government’ we have come to a stage where we are fully aware of the necessity for a government in a modern society and we are ready to accept all the necessary compromises and sacrifices.

As a result of the civil war, not only the trend toward concentration of resources, both human and material, in a few cities has been reversed but, in most parts of the country, people have taken charge of their lives. More or less stable regional institutions, in harmony with our culture, have been established in many parts of the country and foundations have been laid that will allow our people to leap forward while shedding all the shackles but at the same time preserving the best of our cultural heritage.

After more than a dozen failed reconciliation conferences, in August 2000 a reconciliation conference hosted by the Republic of Djibouti ended with the formation of a Transitional National Government. The TNG, recognized by all the international organizations (UN, AU, IGAD, Arab League, OIC etc), has been since raising the concerns of the Somali people in the international fora. Despite the opposition of those who refused to take part at the conference, the TNG has succeeded in improving considerably the situation.

There is an ongoing reconciliation conference hosted by the Kenyan Government under the aegis of IGAD. For the first time, all interested parties, both internal and external, are participating in this conference. It has already completed the first two stages and entered the third and final one, which will, hopefully, culminate with the formation of a broad based government of national reconciliation.

I believe that there are several factors that will work to the advantage of a quick recovery: