Line #18 UsefulNotes/Somalia


1	[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/somalia-map_4744.gif]]
2	->''Somalia has 1,900 miles of coastline, a government that knows its place, and all the guns and wives you can afford to buy. Why have I never heard of this paradise before?''
3	-->-- '''Pierce Hawthorne''', ''{{Series/Community}}''
4
5	Somalia ('''Somali:''' ''Soomaaliya'', '''Arabic:''' ''الصومال‎ aṣ-Ṣūmāl''), officially known as the Federal Republic of Somalia ('''Somali:''' ''Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya'', '''Arabic:''' ''جمهورية الصومال الفدرالية‎ Jumhūriyyat aṣ-Ṣūmāl al-Fiderāliyya''), is an East UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}n desert country at the Horn of Africa with a long, rich history. However, it is nowadays better known in the West for the disastrous {{civil war}} that started during TheNineties and arguably still continues today.
6
7	The region was home to many wealthy city-states, which ballooned with increasing Indian Ocean trade. For centuries, it was one of the primary destinations from which spice and other Eastern goods would make it to the West. When European colonization of Africa began in the 1880s, the horn of Africa was one of the biggest hotbeds of resistance. Despite this, the region would eventually be conquered, as European powers (particularly Britain) had a vested interest in securing the Gulf of Aden and thus the entrance to the Red Sea. Britain would force the resistance to capitulate by using new aerial bombardment techniques developed in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. They took an area now commonly referred to as UsefulNotes/{{Somaliland}}. The rest of modern Somalia went to Italy.
8
9	After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Italy retained their colony under the precondition that they be released in 10 years. The idea was that the Italians could educate local officials and develop the infrastructure needed for Somalia to succeed as an independent nation. Finally, in 1960, the Italian and British colonies were cut loose and unified into a constitutional republic. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. After 9 years, the ruling Somalia Youth League was accused of election fraud and deposed by Siad Barre in a coup d'etat. Barre transformed the country into a Marxist-Leninist government. Barre attempted to modernize the country and emphasized a blend of socialism and Islamic beliefs to unify the scattered tribes and ethnic groups of Somalia. This lasted until 1977, when Somalia launched a war to claim ethnically Somali territories from Ethiopia. Initially they were quite successful, but the Soviet Union -a long time ally of Somalia until then- chose to back the Ethiopian government, which was also communist. Seeing this betrayal, Somalia aligned itself with America despite it continuing to be a Marxist state.
10
11	The government was weakened by the loss in the war against Ethiopia, and Barre's regime became increasingly tyrannical to hold onto power. The end result was a rebel insurgency that quickly spiraled into outright revolution, with Barre being removed from power in 1991. The country collapsed into anarchy afterwards, fracturing into multiple different tribes, clans, and ideological movements. The country has been locked in a perpetual civil war since 1991, and it has all but destroyed the state's infrastructure. Fighting continues between various factions, and in January 2009 the Transitional Federal Government was briefly sent into exile following the end of a war against Ethiopia, giving ''de facto'' control to Al-Shabaab, a fundamentalist Islamist faction aligned to Al-Qaeda. The UN-backed government eventually wrestled control over Mogadishu in 2011 and began enforcing security over the rest of the country. By 2015, the countryside has been largely secured, but Al-Shabaab continues to control remote territories of the southwest and wage regular attacks and bombings against both military and civilian targets. Many parts of the country are still pretty unsafe and you really ''don't'' want to get around without a security cadre, especially if you are a foreigner.
12
13	There are four main regions in Somalia. From north to south:
14	* UsefulNotes/{{Somaliland}}: ''De facto'' independent country. Used to be ruled by the British, while the others were ruled by the Italians. It joined the Greater Somalia project, but has been duly regretting it since the civil war. A world apart from other regions of the country and undoubtedly the safest area, with a functional, unbroken democratic government (a record for East Africa) and a police force who has control over the entire territory, which is kind of a given, considering that they have been vying hard for independence (no one has yet recognized them).
15	** Disputed region: Maakhir and Northland compose the region disputed between Somaliland and Puntland.
16	* Puntland: Not vying for independence, yet not as safe.
17	* Galmudug: Formerly ruled by pirates until they were driven out in 2007, the Galmudug government is trying to rebuild within its own country.
18	* Jubaland: Formerly occupied by the Islamic Courts Union, the group has fallen from power since 2006. The ICU's remnant, Al Shabaab, has since become the federal government's main enemy as of the present.
19	There are also three honorable mentions:
20	* Somali Galbeed (Western Somalia)/Ogaden: The "Somali Province" of UsefulNotes/{{Ethiopia}}. It is an historic and ethnic Somali region. It was handed over to the Ethiopians by the British. To say they are not being treated well by their new country is an understatement. Somalis from that region want to reunite with their brother and sisters to the east, and create a Greater Somalia.
21	* Woqooyi Bari (North Eastern): The "Somali Province" of UsefulNotes/{{Kenya}}. Was carved out of Jubaland and retained by the British when the rest of the region was given to the Italians as a reward for their cooperation in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. The site of a Cold War conflict in the 1960s and an attempted integration into Greater Somalia, it is also currently suffering spillover from the Somali Civil War and its aftermath (not helped by the fact that Al Shabaab's main camps are located in Jubaland).
22	* UsefulNotes/{{Djibouti}}: Like Ogaden, it is historically and culturally Somali. While Somaliland was ruled by the British and the rest by Italians, Djibouti was ruled by the French ("French Somaliland"). Unlike Somaliland, it did not join in the Greater Somalia project and became a separate proper country upon independence (proper as in internationally recognized).
23
24	In real life, while modern-day Somalia is generally unsafe by first world standards and the fact that the country does not have a truly functioning government is an issue, believing that armed terrorists rule the streets and the population is either a pirate terrorist or poverty-stricken is a complete overstatement. Many parts of Somalia, Mogadishu included, are O.K. for everyday civilians to reside in. In fact, searching up both the English spelling and the Somali spelling of the capital, "Muqdisho", on search engine images will show radically different results, the latter displaying scenic skylines of the capital with the former showing the negative side of the country broadcasted on the news. Also many Somalis in Somaliland choose not to identify Somaliland as its own nation but as a region of Somalia. Note that there is a sizeable global Somali diaspora, mainly inhabiting Western countries, some being temporary while others being permanent residences. Two of the largest Somali diaspora centers are London and Minneapolis-St. Paul, the latter being the foreign hub of the Somali world.
25
26	Noteworthy for both playing the trope {{We Are Struggling Together}} straight and subverting it at the same time, as the country has been wracked with civil war for decades, but the rival factions have temporarily united to drive out foreign groups sent to restore order (such as the American-led UsefulNotes/UnitedNations mission in the 1990s and the Ethiopian intervention in 2006-2008) before resuming fighting among themselves.
27
28	Despite being part of the Arab League, Somalia is not majority Arabic-speaking nor do its citizens culturally identify as Arab (this is the same case with Djibouti). The Somali language is related most closely to languages of the Ethiopian Highlands, most notably Oromo, the largest language in Ethiopia by number of speakers. It ''is'' genetically related to Arabic, but very, very distantly (think of the relation between English and Hindustani). The language is written in a Latin alphabet, introduced by linguist Shire Jama Ahmed in the 1970s following several failed attempts at a unified writing system.
29
30	'''In media'''
31	* ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' is all about the disastrous 1993 American operation to capture the warlord Mohammed Farrah Aidid.
32	* The Season 7 opener of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' has Ziva David held prisoner by Islamists in Somalia.
33	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' did an episode about [[RuthlessModernPirates Somali pirates.]]
34	* ''Series/FlashForward2009'' had [[spoiler: the beta test for the blackouts]] take place in Somalia. Some of the protagonists eventually find out about it and go there to investigate.
35	* The movie ''Fishing Without Nets'' is a tragedy about a fisherman dragged into the ruthless world of piracy.
36	* One of the missions in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' takes place in Boosaaso, Price's team need to extract info from a guy named Waraabe on the attacks on Europe.
37	* The 2nd American mission in the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' expansion pack ''Zero Hour'' is about safeguarding a UN convoy at a Somalian port. It's also the one mission in the series where you get to control both a battleship and an aircraft carrier with a whole wing of F-22 Raptors.
38	* The 2013 film ''Film/CaptainPhillips'', based on the real life hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somali pirates.
39	* Part of ''Film/TheExpendables3'' takes place in Somalia.
40	* The 2017 CW military drama ''Series/{{Valor}}'' focuses on a special forces mission to Somalia that went horribly wrong and the political and personal repercussions of said mission on the team that carried it out, and the United States as a whole.
41	* The 2018 Chinese military film ''Operation Red Sea'' [[ColdOpen begins]] with a special forces team retaking a Chinese freighter hijacked by Somali pirates.
42	* ''Manga/{{Jormungand}}'': In the beginning of the "African Golden Butterflies" arc, the HCLI crew is attacked by Somali pirates while sailing along the African coast to South Africa. [[MuggingTheMonster They picked the wrong ship to mess with.]]
43	* In ''Manga/MagicalGirlSpecOpsAsuka'', the Babel Brigade operative Giess is a [[ChildSoldiers Child Soldier]] recruited from Somalia.
44	----
45	[[AC:The Somali flag]]
46	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/somalia_flag_1440.png
47
48	->The white five-pointed star symbolizes the five areas dominated by the Somalis -- the British and Italian Somalilands (currently forming Somalia), Djibouti (once French Somaliland), Ogaden in UsefulNotes/{{Ethiopia}}, and the North Eastern Province in UsefulNotes/{{Kenya}}; the light blue field shares the same color as that of the United Nations, which was instrumental in granting Somalia legitimacy, though currently it symbolizes the Indian Ocean and the sky.
49	----
50	[[AC:The Somali national anthem]]
51	->Qolobaa calankeed,
52	->u waa ceynu,
53	->Qolobaa calankeed,
54	->u wa ceynu,
55	->Innaga keenu waa,
56	->Cirkoo kale ee,
57	->aan caadna lahayn,
58	->Ee caashaqa ee.
59
60	->Xidigyahay caddi waad,
61	->Naa ciidamisee,
62	->Carradaa kaligaa
63	->aadiga u curad ee
64	->cadceeda sideeda
65	->la caan noqo eey
66
67	->Cishadaad dhalataad calooshaydii
68	->Sidii culaygii cidaad marisee
69	->ha ku celin cawoy dhahe ee
70
71	--
72
73	->علم أي أمة يحمل لونه الخاص
74	->السماء فوقنا هل تبدو لنا
75	->لا توجد عيوب فيه ؛ أحبها بصراحة
76	->يا نجم الأبيض في خدمتك نحن
77	->أنت متفوق في أي جزء من أرضنا
78	->كن مشهور يا نجم مثل الشمس من بعيد
79	->يوم قيامك ، لديك قلوبنا
80	->طهَّرَ بالطهارة يا رايتنا
81	->قد لا يغمرك الرب ، نصلي نحن في هذه الليلة
82	->الجزء المنفصل من قواتنا المكونة من خمسة أفراد
83	->أرجو من الله أن يرجعوا إليكم
84	->هذا المصير الذي كتب لنا أن نلتقي الآن
85	[[note]]
86	->ealam 'ayi 'umat yahmil lawnah alkhasa
87	->alsama' fawqana hal tabdu lana
88	->la tujad euyub fih ; 'uhabuha bisaraha
89	->ya najm al'abyad fi khidmatik nahn
90	->'ant mutafawiq fi 'ayi juz' min 'ardina
91	->kun mashhur ya najm mithl alshams min baeid
92	->yum qiamak , ladayk qulubuna
93	->thar bialtaharat ya rayatana
94	->qad la yaghmuruk alrabu , nusaliy nahn fi hadhih allayla
95	->aljuz' almunfasil min quaatina almukawanat min khamsat 'afrad
96	->'arju min allah 'an yarjieuu 'iilaykum
97	->hadha almasir aladhi katab lana 'an naltaqi alan
98	[[/note]]
99
100	--
101
102	->Any nation’s flag, bears its own color
103	->The sky above us, does ours look like
104	->Defects it has none; love it with candor
105	->Oh you White Star, at your service we are
106	->Superior you are, in any part of our land
107	->Be famous oh Star, like the sun (of the far)
108	->On the day you arose, our hearts you have
109	->Purified with pureness, (Oh you our flag)
110	->Lord may not dim you, pray we in this night
111	->The detached part of, our forces of five
112	->I beseech from God, their return you cause
113	->This fate that wrote, for us to meet now
114	----
115	[[AC:Government]]
116	* Federal parliamentary republic
117	** President: Hassan Sheikh Mohamud
118	** Prime Minister: Hamza Abdi Barre
119	----
120	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
121	* '''Capital and largest city:''' Mogadishu
122	* '''Population:''' 15,893,219
123	* '''Area:''' 637,657 km² (246,201 sq mi) (43rd)
124	* '''Currency''': Somali shilling (Sh.) ([[FunWithAcronyms SOS]])
125	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' SO
126	* '''Country calling code:''' 252
127	* '''Highest point:''' Shimbiris (2450 m/8,038 ft) (97th)

Context UsefulNotes / Somalia