Ship Ahoy! God & Somalia

It’s happened again.

Allow me to be a little self-congratulatory for a moment. Once again Café Sundae planned months ago to take a look at a topic which is hot news at the moment. I don’t know how we do it!

You should have seen in the news lately quite a lot about Somalia and the amount of piracy there is around Somali waters, and in particular at the moment the kidnap of Paul and Rachel Chandler from Tunbridge Wells. There is much concern amongst the international community about the pirates and the ease at which they operate from their Somali bases and a growing fleet of navy ships representing many countries patrol the waters near Somalia in an effort to make the waters safe for commerce – which until the Chandlers were taken was the main target for the pirates. But is this the best solution to the problem or are we just treating the symptoms of a disease that will continue to spread?

Somalia is a young country, but a very old civilisation. Cave paintings have been found there that date back to around 9000BC. Situated where it is it was on a major trade route between Africa and the Middle East it enjoyed the wealth of cultural exchange as well as the financial benefits. Fast forward to the Europe’s 19^th century land grab of Africa and the people of the area successfully repelled attempts by Italy, France and Britain to colonise the area. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 heightens the importance of the straights of Aden as a trade route and brings about increased efforts by the Europeans to extend their spheres of influence on the Horn of Africa. The Dervish leader Mohammed Abdullah Hassan united the Somali people to retain their independence.

In 1920 Britain used aeroplanes against the Dervishes for the first time and Southern Somalia came under British influence. About the same time the North-East of the region came under Italian influence. British and Italian forces then clashed – particularly during the Second World War – to gain sole control of what was known as Somaliland. Independence came and Somalia was founded in 1960 when the British and Italian Governments both withdrew and allowed Somalia to become a united country. As often happened when a European country left a colony, there was a power vacuum and much squabbling amongst the various tribes living in Somalia and in 1991 the Government fell. Since then Somalia has been essentially governmentless – a situation which has led to the current state of near anarchy and the pirates being able to operate as blatantly as they do.

So what you have in Somalia is a fiercely independent country that was once an affluent and important society compared with its neighbours that has been brought to its knees in a very short space of time by European meddling. And to rub salt into the wounds a huge proportion of the world’s wealth gets paraded in front of its eyes as the huge container ships of the west sail through the Straights of Aden. The Somali people live in abject poverty and have to watch our luxury goods float past their nose ends as they journey to and from our markets. Put things in these terms and you can maybe begin to understand the actions of the pirates – their being willing to take on such a dangerous profession. Life on land is no better as the lack of Government means that for the last 20 years Somalia has been in a state of civil war as the various tribes struggle for power. Often the pirates are seen as heroes by the Somali people for defending Somalia’s right to make a living and boosting Somalia’s economy.

But we miss an important part of the picture here. Small groups of uneducated Africans, such as the pirates are, surely lack the resources to hold supertankers to ransom and extract payment for the return of the ships from their rightful owners. There has to be more people involved. Enter stage left - organised crime.

As I’ve already said Somalia is a lawless land, and into this disordered country came a criminal class to take the power which the politicians were unable to share and use it to exploit the people who were already broken and hope-less. When the pirates take a ship it is to these people they bring it, and they who gain from it. The pirates get paid some for their efforts, but it is organised crime that is the big winner. Exactly who is involved in this side of pirating is unknown. For obvious reasons they keep their identities very secret. Whether they’re from Somalia or the international community – or a mixture of both – is unclear, but while the fighting inside Somalia continues they are being allowed to operate uninhibited, making themselves richer and richer and risking the lives of ordinary Somalis.

I’ve painted a picture in very broad brushstrokes here. Hopefully you can see the picture is a more complex one than is often presented on the news. The solution to the issue has to be one that takes all these factors into account – and all the subtleties I’ve missed out. Whether we leave Somalia to sort itself out, or whether we intervene – and how we intervene – is very much up for debate. Whether the ships owners and insurance companies are helping or making matters worse by paying ransoms and whether we consider our history in the area to be part of the problem and the implications of responsibility that would bring are questions that will be asked if things are allowed to continue as they are now. In the short terms we wish for the safe return of the Chandlers and we hold them, their family and their captors in our prayers.