Desperate times call for desperate actions, after decades of seeking recognition from the world and knocking every single door in every continent.
The north western region of Somalia Somaliland gave up on it's wild goose hunt and the Mirqaan convinced them it is possible to use an obscure ancient cave(Rock) painting to gain independence from Somalia by threatening to destroy it.
Somaliland Leaders: Either recognize us and give us an independence from Somalia or see invaluable history of humankind disappear by Graffiti painting By unknown subjects.
This beautiful cave rock will turn from this...
---->To this If you don't recognize us.
The north western region of Somalia Somaliland gave up on it's wild goose hunt and the Mirqaan convinced them it is possible to use an obscure ancient cave(Rock) painting to gain independence from Somalia by threatening to destroy it.
Somaliland Leaders: Either recognize us and give us an independence from Somalia or see invaluable history of humankind disappear by Graffiti painting By unknown subjects.
This beautiful cave rock will turn from this...
---->To this If you don't recognize us.
Somaliland’s quest for recognition passes through its ancient caves
Leaders in the breakaway region of Somalia say the international community faces a stark choice: Recognize their independence, or see invaluable history of humankind disappear.
By Max Bearak
JANUARY 31, 2021
LAAS GEEL, Somaliland — The cave walls here are alive with masterpieces of ocher on sandstone, our oldest paint on our oldest canvas.
It is safe to say the ancient pastoralists who created this exquisite rock art thousands of years ago did not envision its use by a breakaway region of Somalia to campaign for international recognition as an independent state.
Yet their works have been drawn into a heated debate among politicians, archaeologists and others over the place of ancient heritage in arguing for the separation of Somaliland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia that has had its own military, currency and flag for 30 years — a very short while, in the grand scheme of things.
Somaliland’s government has vigorously sought recognition through diplomacy but has failed — except recently with another recognition seeker, Taiwan. A recent flurry of diplomatic effort across Africa began in Kenya, where Somaliland’s president won a promise of a consulate and direct flights by March, but no explicit acknowledgment of his region’s independence.
Africa’s largest dam powers dreams of prosperity in Ethiopia — and fears of hunger in Egypt.
Out of that failure, the heritage argument has gained steam, and it comes off almost as an ultimatum: Without the ease of access and funding that recognition would bring, the world risks the disappearance of invaluable monuments to humankind such as Laas Geel’s paintings.
“With independence, a world of funding and tourism would open up to us,” said Mohamed Ahmed Mohamoud Awad, Somaliland’s investment minister. “Without independence, all the history we offer the world will go extinct. Somalia will drag us down with it.”
Two tourists view the cave paintings. (Mustafa Saeed for The Washington Post)
The embers of the civil war that led to Somaliland’s declaration of independence in 1991 are still hot throughout most of Somalia. A succession of weak, corrupt governments in Mogadishu have only pushed Somaliland farther away, deepening the sense of divergent paths. In nationwide elections planned for this month, for instance, there is no trace of Somaliland’s participation.
Foreigners in Somaliland can move about easily; in the rest of Somalia, they rarely leave heavily militarized green zones. Al-Shabab — the Islamist extremist group that controls most non-urban areas in Somalia and carries out bombings, kidnappings and assassinations daily — does not have a sustained presence in Somaliland. Awad, who drives his own car and waves to passersby, scoffs at counterparts in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, who travel in convoys of dozens of bulletproof vehicles.
The images on the cave walls at Laas Geel include silhouettes of wild animals that were plentiful in the landscape 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, when the art was made. (Mustafa Saeed for The Washington Post)
At Laas Geel, newly graduated government-supported tour guides see it as part of their mission to rectify what one called “the great misunderstanding”: that Somaliland and Somalia are the same.
“Our ability to preserve history, like these paintings, and their inability to, is our greatest argument for recognition,” said Ahmed Yasin, 27. He stood beneath ritualistic depictions of cattle slaughter and silhouettes of wild animals such as giraffes that were plentiful here 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, when the art was made. Many of the paintings were partly erased, either by human interference or weathering.
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