THE SOMALI BANTUS OF SOMALIA Pre-war, Somalia had experienced very complicated issues of racial segregation and human rights abuse most of which were neither exposed to the world community nor were expressed in conferences on human rights level. Serious crime by the military regime of Mohamed Siyaad Bare stiff racial discrimination by every administration before Bare and harsh degradation practiced particularly against people of Somali Bantu ethnic community caught the international human rights institution. Surprisingly unaware of the real social, political, and economic situation of the country which segregated its people not in term of their color or the content of their physical feature and ethnic background. During the civil war which started in late December 1990 the magnitude of human rights abuse on the Somali Bantu people have escalated beyond any measurable boundaries with the weak unarmed racially marginalized Bantu community falling victims of all armed factions. According to the Bantus elders, the present discrimination and oppression against this community is a tradition that has its roots in pre independent of Somalia. The world community has not heard much or enough about the real aspects on the real situation of the Somali Bantu people in Somalia, their rights and the general social oppression which they have been subjected to. The Somali Bantu is a community whose productivity in every aspect of their skills and profession is indisputable. They dwell on the large range of fertile land and thus make the highest number of farmers living in the majority of the villages and town in southern Somalia. The Bantus in the urban areas consist of the largest number of technicians in Somalia and are lowest paid. Exploiting the Bantus have been an existing conspiracy since the colonial era. Treating the Bantus only to the lowest paid jobs had been the policy of every Somali administration. With all their assets of professional skills, productive farmland and gracious behavior bestowed upon them. The Somali Bantu endeavor couldnt help but lag behind all the other communities in Somalia, mainly because they were traditionally denied to participate in the government administration and essential decision making positions required political support and development of welfare of community of vast and productive like them. As a result, this had inherited the Bantus major setback in the social, political as well as in the economic development as they lacked a prominent figure in a key position to advocate genuinely for development of the community. The magnitude of social marginalization, human rights abuse and subsequent under development of the Bantus was a conspiracy empowered by the national policy which was based on the crippling of the Bantus economic power so as to distance them from seeking political participation. As a result, they were deprived of the power with which to support them negotiate for development and equal status with the rest of the non Bantu communities. In order to bring this sensitive issues to focus, we have conducted a small survey to study the magnitude of human rights abuse against the Bantus community of Somalia. The findings were both astonishing as well as interesting paving way for more extensive much more detailed research to be conducted when some interested body or organization a vials us with the necessary resources.
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 22:29:15 +0000
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