Leaving behind the years of Siad Barre’s military regime (1969-1991) and the chaos following his fall in southern Somalia, in 1991, Somaliland declared independence from Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Like other African countries, Somaliland has since experienced a process of democratization and political renewal which has brought to light, as we will see, a variety of languages and practices of freedom. At the same time, Somaliland, whose quest for international recognition was never taken into consideration by the international community, has remained partially connected to the instability of the entire Somali area, as the 2023 and 2024 conflicts and tensions have demonstrated.
The purpose of this article is therefore twofold. On the one hand, we will analyse the process of Somaliland’s formation as illustrative of the continuities and innovations which make “freedom” and “liberation” salient factors of Somalia’s broader postcolonial experience. We will focus particularly on the tur...