Proposal of New name for Somaliland
Somalilandsun- Since the world is well aware of Somaliland now, I would propose the following name for the country to speed up its recognition. This name is derived from the historical nature of Somaliland location in the world. Such name would also remove the confusion of jealousy name-competition of Puntland and Jubbaland (which are provinces of Somalia) with Somaliland.
The new name would also help world media or news reporters, who are not familiar with Somaliland, distinguish it from Puntland and Jubbaland. We also need to change the colonial name and have our own African natural name.
The Sahel, a word derived from the Arabic ‘Sahil’ meaning sea coast or shore, is a semi-arid belt. The Red Sea is part of Sahel Region in Africa. The Sahel region is one of primarily agriculture and pastoralism, which is negatively affected by periodic droughts.
So, I would propose or recommend the name ‘Sahel’ for the country name to replace Somaliland because it is the natural name of Somaliland since Somaliland shares the description of semi-arid land with pastoralism in the East and agriculture in the West and located at the Red Sea.
In ancient times, Arabs used to call Somaliland coast Sahil, especially in the days of Awdal Muslim Emirate (The Adal Sultanate or Kingdom of Adal as a multi-ethnic medieval Muslim state located in the Horn of Africa).The kingdom flourished from around 1415 to 1577. The sultanate and state was established by the inhabitants of the Harar and controlled large parts of Somaliland, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea.
(Reer Suuri iyo Reer Saaxil (Zeila) yimid doonyaha Bumbay ma birbaa ku jaban, which means: The people of Suuri and the people of Sahel [Zeila at that time] have already come, what did happen to the boats of Bombay, are they broken with metal stuck in them?). Waa hees qadiim ah ee Reer Berbera samankaas. It is ancient song of Berbera inhabitants at that time.
SAHEL IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
1. Name of the country In English Language
– Country: Sahel
– Type of Goverment: Sahel Republic or Republic of Sahel
– Citizen or citizens of Sahel: Saheli/Sahelis or Sahelian/Sahelians
2. Name of the country In Arabic Language
– الساحل
– جمهورية الساحل
– الجمهورية الساحلية
– مواطن : ساحلي او ساحليون
3. Magaca Dalka Luqada Af Somaliga
– Dalka: Saaxil
– Jamhuuriyadda Saaxil
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– Muwaadinka: Saaxili/Reer Saaxil
4. The current Region of Sahel whose capital is Berbera would become: Guban Region
– منطقة جبن
– Gobolka Guban
Ibrahim Hassan Gagale
Email: ibrahimgagale@gmail.com
