Jidwaaq Clan and its Lack of Political and Social Representation

Over the years, the Jidwaaq community of North America and East Africa has been organizing themselves so that they can participate in the changing social and political sphere of both places. For instance, they formed in the diaspora the Dulmidiid movement which helped topple the dictator president of Ethiopia’s Somali state in 2018. However, it seems that the elite of Jidwaaq community are realizing that Jidwaaq community needs to set a priority whereby participation in the East Africa affairs is the first priority.

The Jidwaaq community is from the Jidwaaq clan, one of the major Somali clans of the Darood clan. Because of Jidwaaq’s lack of participation in the social and political arena of East African, mainly in Ethiopia and Somalia, the Jidwaaq clan and the Jidwaaq community face daily marginalizations from other Somali clans and every powerful entity that can be a game changer in what is at stake; the Jidwaaq clan lacks political representation in the Somalia’s state of Jubaland, for example. And in the Somali state of Ethiopia, although the recent political change has pulled it a little bit higher of the ladder, the Jidwaaq clan is not yet where it needs to be to fully enjoy its rights. In the coming months, there will be grassroots mobilization in North America and East Africa to change the status quo. As a community, we’re urging the new prime minister of Somalia, Hamze Abdi Barre, to appoint a member of Jidwaaq community of Jubaland State in the new cabinet he is about to form, considering the 4.5 clan based system on which the current clan political power sharing depends.