What can be done to rebrand Somalia?

[Khadar]

Originally Posted by Ras Siyan

Somali society has traditionally been moderate, religious extremism is both alien and dangerous and needs to be eradicated through education, openness.

I frankly never understood the idea behind Arabization...Like WTF, why Arabic? What do those advocating for it hope to achieve with that exactly? I just don't get the point, someone help. Somali and English are more than enough as the 2 working languages of the country. I honestly feel insulted by arabization, especially for a people with a proud history and identity. A lot of people in Somalia are just sick. You guys need to carry out a "mental cleaning" in your country

Assalamu Calaykum. The answer is simple brother. Arabic is the language of our prophet peace be upon him. The Qur'an is in arabic, and so many of our islamic history books, Fiqh, Hadiths, etc. It is also the only language we will speak in the afterlife. I hope that helps.

[Waaberi]

Originally Posted by Ras Siyan

Somali society has traditionally been moderate, religious extremism is both alien and dangerous and needs to be eradicated through education, openness.

I frankly never understood the idea behind Arabization...Like WTF, why Arabic? What do those advocating for it hope to achieve with that exactly? I just don't get the point, someone help. Somali and English are more than enough as the 2 working languages of the country. I honestly feel insulted by arabization, especially for a people with a proud history and identity. A lot of people in Somalia are just sick. You guys need to carry out a "mental cleaning" in your country

Why Arabic?, why is Djibouti Francophone, everything is political. our cousins in Djibouti choose French as their working language because you have two different ethnic groups so french was seen as neutral. Somalis choose Arabic for many reasons, economically because in the 70 oil was booming and thousand of our people worked in Gulf sending million back in remittance. politically because we though arabs would back us up politically in our perennial conflict with Ethiopia and lastly because Arabic was a way to reclaim/reaffirm our allegiance to islam and islamic civilization after decades of colonization by Christian Europeans it just to bad the arab didn't feel the same and abandoned us when we most needed them.


But that was in the 70s and 80s when our people had purpose and confidence in ourselves and our destiny after the war the society was left traumatizes and many believed that our society did something wrong before the war to warrant Gods wrath so they try to become as close to godliness to some how attone which is why today we have Arabization on Steroids.

[juzme123]

Originally Posted by Waaberi

to bad the arab didn't feel the same and abandoned us when we most needed them.

Nonsense. Its not like the Arabs owe you anything, ama ay awood leeyihiin ay caawitaan dhab ah (oo wax bedeli kara) ku sii yaan. Ma waxbay ku waydiisteen mise kuuguu balanqaadeen?... No. Dadka oo aydun is hoos dhigeysaan iska daaya. Maxaydun is lahaydeen in la idin dheho hoo 50 dirham ama caawimintan madaama aad luqadiina ka dhigteed af carbeed. Sidaas dunidu uma shaqayso.

[juzme123]

I dont see why this is being dramatised or turned into a topic about language, religion and our relationship with the Arab world.

As far as im concerned:

1. Somali should be the official language.

2. Arabic, English and other languages should obviously also be taught and spoken due to their usefulness.

3. Siyaasiyan danteena way ku jirtaa inaynu luqadda af-carabiga ka dhiganno kamid luqadaheena waddaniga ah, madaama ay ina aanfacayso dhanka siyaasadda oo inagu dhoweynaso wadannada carbeed. Laakiin taas micneheedu maahan:

-Iin laga tegaayo af-soomaali
- Ama dedaal/muujin gaar ah la saarayo Af Carabi dhanka isticmaalka iyo xittaa waxbarashada
- Ama in dhanka siyaasaddeena caalamiga ah aynu wadannada carbeed uun si gaar ah isoogu koolayno.

4. What we could do is have one official language (Somali). And then "secondary official languages of commerce, education and research" i.e. English and Arabic.

5. p.s. This thread is supposed to be about about "re-branding" (as a whole). I think we've got side tracked with language.

[Waaberi]

Originally Posted by juzme123

Nonsense. Its not like the Arabs owe you anything, ama ay awood leeyihiin ay caawitaan dhab ah (oo wax bedeli kara) ku sii yaan. Ma waxbay ku waydiisteen mise kuuguu balanqaadeen?... No. Dadka oo aydun is hoos dhigeysaan iska daaya. Maxaydun is lahaydeen in la idin dheho hoo 50 dirham ama caawimintan madaama aad luqadiina ka dhigteed af carbeed. Sidaas dunidu uma shaqayso.

waa runtaa Arabta don't owes us anything, i was trying to show my understanding of the logic or motivation of somalis in 70s and 80s as to why we joined the arab league. and why somalis seem to be arabizing even though the Arab league and Arabs awood ma hestaan adunyadan waa umada ugu daciifsan. their wealth and power waa cosmetic. and beyond diiniya arabic is off little use to us it not the language of commerce or of science and technology it was once but not today.

[Xusein]

It's a bit off topic.

But I would rather have Somalia emulate places like Malaysia, Turkey, and Indonesia rather than the Arab states, it would really help fix our image.

[Ras Siyan]

Originally Posted by Khadar

Assalamu Calaykum. The answer is simple brother. Arabic is the language of our prophet peace be upon him. The Qur'an is in arabic, and so many of our islamic history books, Fiqh, Hadiths, etc.

That doesn't hold. Somalis do not need to speak Arabic to practice their faith. Indonesians, Turks, Pakistanis, Iranians do not have Arabic as their official languages, needless to say that that doesn't make them any less Muslim. Why would a nation state like Somalia do? It should be an option for people who wanna learn it, but not made official nor it's use widespread.

Whatever the historic reasons were, Arabic is not needed in Somalia. Arabization on the other hand is a threat to Somalia's cultural identity and should be fought fervently

It is also the only language we will speak in the afterlife.

So you learn Arabic to be able to communicate in the afterlife? Hilarious

[Constantine MMX]

People are confusing 'extremism' with 'Arabization', and playing the blame-game with regards to the degenerates found amongst our people by placing the fault somewhere else. The Somali language is dominant, it faces no direct or indirect threat, so having a language like Arabic as your second official language which is spoken by your largest trading block - the Arab World - is absolutely a wise thing to do. We have a bi-millenial historic relationship with that part of the world, Arabic is just as much part of our heritage as French is to European countries like the UK and the Netherlands.

Just because in your minds its 'not cool' to be associated with Arabs today doesn't mean more level-headed Somalis will join the bash-Arabs bandwagon, as there are plenty of bandwagons bashing us, but who cares? Is that reason enough to alienate a large market that has never shown hostility towards you, but is instead very welcoming of your people, especially certain parts of that block like the UAE, Oman and Yemen?

This is just superficial nonsense, and a misplaced sense of ingratiation with the West. Somalia can have ties with all the corners of the world depending on its interests; with Africa through the AU, with the Arab World through the Arab League, with Europe and N. America through the UN, with Asia through the OIC, G77, etc, our membership in the Arab League doesn't prevent us from making ties with whomever, and wherever.

There is also no threat to the Somali identity that cannot be undone. The extremists only became prominent post-State collapse and the disintergration of the Somali Armed Forces. Their decrees were followed through brute force, not voluntarily. The moment the extremists pack their bags, the people in those areas go back to their old way of life similar to those in stable cities like Bosaso and Hargeisa.

Just look at Mogadishu today, men and women mingling at the beaches, myriad of sports-clubs, beach-restaurants, music and fashion stores, barbershops and salons reopened within a split second of post-Al Shabaab. This is not a grassroots cultural movement, but a symptom of state-collapse, once the new government has trained and equipped its military, that symptom will be gone for good, along with the others.

The guy that said Somalis were the most tolerant people in Africa once upon a time is a big fat liar. Somalis have always been a xenophobic people, only in a cosmopolitan metropolis like Mogadishu did the people show some semblance of tolerance. Otherwise, we have a lot of social upgrading and bigotry cleansing to do with regards to how we see other people, be it Caucasians, Middle-easterners, Asians, or fellow Africans, especially those part of our country, and not from the dominant ethnic group. Tolerant, we were not, but we can be eventually, but not through conveniently blaming it on 'Arabization'.

As for the original purpose of the thread, Xusein already got the full scope elsewhere, but Somalia has nothing to worry about. Once the security issues have been delt with permanently, the country has too much to offer for it to be ignored. Rich historic heritage and ancient cities, longest coastline with serene beaches, unique endemic bird areas, potential safari routes, highlands for backpackers. Plenty of globally known Somali ambassadors such as K'naan, Mo Farah, Iman and the Mataano sisters that could build a bridge between Somalia and the rest of world.

People forget there was ever a war in a certain country after period of five-years of consecutive peace. Nobody on the streets of London or New York knows what Angola just rose from a decade ago, nobody really remembers the crap Sarajevo went through in the 90s. Its in the subconcious of many, but some skilled branding can easily tip the scales in favour of the country in question. This is more an issue of having the will-power to exert yourself in a positive manner globally, and allocating the appropriate funds to back such a campaign.

Everything besides a good branding team, stability and purpose-built infrastructure, is a red-herring!

[Xusein]

Originally Posted by Constantine MMX

People forget there was ever a war in a certain country after period of five-years of consecutive peace. Nobody on the streets of London or New York knows what Angola just rose from a decade ago, nobody really remembers the crap Sarajevo went through in the 90s. Its in the subconcious of many, but some skilled branding can easily tip the scales in favour of the country in question. This is more an issue of having the will-power to exert yourself in a positive manner globally, and allocating the appropriate funds to back such a campaign.

This is true. Angola was in a war even longer than us, almost 30 years, but a near decade of oil fueled recovery has made all outside memories of their war go down. Maybe Somalia doesn't need to be rebanded at all? Let the market fix it all by itself?

[k6734]

I hate Arabic, Somalia's 2nd language should be English.

[ModernNomad01]

Originally Posted by k6734

I hate Arabic, Somalia's 2nd language should be English.

Why would you hate Arabic? Smh

[Khadar]

"So you learn Arabic to be able to communicate in the afterlife? Hilarious "

LOL

You got me wrong bro. I didn't say we learn Arabic to be able to communicate in the afterlife. I said Arabic is the language of our prophet. When I said Arabic is the language of the afterlife, I did not mean this Arabic people use now. Sorry for the confusion.

P.S...
The Arabic in the afterlife is not the same as the one that the Arabs speak now. Heck it is not even the original Arabic. I haven't seen any Arab countries whether it be Middleast or in Africa communicating the right Arabic. And the Arabic language in paradise as I heard is WAY better than any other language.

[k6734]

I hate Arabic because i can't understand a word of it.

English is so much sweeter and better

[Xusein]

Originally Posted by k6734

I hate Arabic because i can't understand a word of it.

So you hate most languages then?

[Northie]

Somalia has a long rich history of Poetry and story telling. Some of my favorite childhood stories were Somali. Like hensel and greddle were originally old tales from Germany, dak-dheere is Somali. Somalis have enough stories to publish volumes upon volumes. We must tailor our society to fit our culture, why build an opera house when we can build poetry houses seating hundreds. We must tap into what we know best.

[Northie]

The government should really think about setting up hospitality training institutions. Somalis have become soo polarized in the last 20-30 years that they forgot how incredibly beautiful our country is, and the fact that foreigners will eventually want to experience all that our countries natural beauty has to offer. By setting up hospitality training schools we will have a heads start on the first tourist waves that will be inevetible. You know what they say, first impressions last forever. Somalia is a country of beautiful contrasts, we have stunning mountain ranges in the sanaag region with idealic views, beautiful beaches, sub-tropical jungles in the south, I mean the natural beauty of our country will sell itself, we have to convince the people to participate in this.

With government and non government programs with the help of PSA's and country wide advertising we can try to convince people that tourism is good for the country. To treat people with respect and to welcome them in our country. The more tourists the more money rolling into The country, which means more people buying your products, which means more money for the PEople.

[Constantine MMX]

The Hospitality training idea is a good one, Northie. I'm liking the quality of your contributions, exactly what the forum needs, please keep it up!

[Northie]

Thanks bro, I got a couple ideas. This is def a good forum to divulge some lol

[snomad]

Like Turkey, Japan and South Korea, Somalia needs to become a producing nation, self sufficient and reliant on no country or "power" for imports or likewise, we have the land and sea resources to meet this goal, I think this should be our main aim, and "image" we need to portray. That would set an m example for other African nations to follow.

[Camellete]

Originally Posted by Northie

Somalia has a long rich history of Poetry and story telling. Some of my favorite childhood stories were Somali. Like hensel and greddle were originally old tales from Germany, dak-dheere is Somali. Somalis have enough stories to publish volumes upon volumes. We must tailor our society to fit our culture, why build an opera house when we can build poetry houses seating hundreds. We must tap into what we know best.

I really like this idea. Poetry and riwayaads run in our veins and exploiting this sector is a must if we want to stand out from the rest!