From The Somali Federation

Located in the Horn of Africa, adjacent to the Arabian Peninsula, Somalia is steeped in thousands of years of history. The ancient Egyptians spoke of it as "God's Land" (the Land of Punt). Chinese merchants frequented the Somali coast in the tenth and fourteenth centuries and, according to tradition, returned home with giraffes, leopards, and tortoises to add color and variety to the imperial menagerie. Greek merchant ships and medieval Arab dhows plied the Somali coast; for them it formed the eastern fringe of Bilad as Sudan, "the Land of the Blacks." More specifically, medieval Arabs referred to the Somalis, along with related peoples, as the Berberi.

By the eighteenth century, the Somalis essentially had developed their present way of life, which is based on pastoral nomadism and the Islamic faith. During the colonial period (approximately 1891 to 1960), the Somalis were separated into five mini-Somalilands:

• (1) British Somaliland (north central);
• (2) French Somaliland (east and southeast);
• (3) Italian Somaliland (south);
• (4) Ethiopian Somaliland (the Ogaden);
• (5) and, what came to be called the Northern Frontier District (NFD) of Kenya, or Kenyan Somaliland.

In 1960 Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland were merged into a single independent state, the Somali Republic.

The Somali Republic endured 22 years of dictatorship under Mohamed Siad Barre from 1969 to 1991. Since 1991 the country has been split into the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, which comprises of the former British Somaliland protectorate, Puntland, which declares itself as an autonomous federal region of Somalia and the rest of southern Somalia. Somaliland and Puntland are relatively peaceful and prosperous compared to the southern part of the country which as been ruled by competing militias since 1991.

Here we, members of the Somali Diaspora, try to present a way in which the Somali diaspora could take part in a virtual reformation of their homeland. We have posted a draft Somali Federal Constitution in the form of an editable wiki-page to help fellow Somalis take part in the constitution making process. The aim here is not to simply edit the document for the purpose of fulfilling personal agendas but as a means to help create a unifying document that binds us all as members of one Somali community.

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