13/03/2025
Somaliland Secession Vs. a Hypothetical New England Secession: Somaliland's claim to independence is akin to a hypothetical New England secession from the U.S. based solely on historical British nomenclature
By Ali Hoosoow (Somali Institute of Chinese Studies)
During the era of the Anglo-Saxon colonial expansion, both the New England region in the northeastern United States and the Somaliland region in northern were named and colonized by European colonial powers. To add on, New England was named as such by British colonial explorer John Smith in the early 17th century, just as British colonial administrators named the portion of the Somali land under their colony as "British ." This distinction was made to differentiate it from "Italian Somaliland," the other territory of land under Italian colonial rule. However, a name alone does not create an inherent right to sovereignty. If mere colonial nomenclature granted legitimacy to statehood, then any region once labeled by a foreign power could claim the right to independent statehood based on historical colonial settlements. This position was rejected by The People’s Republic of China regarding , and likewise it also applies to the separatist province in which cannot gain independence based on colonial history and relevant narratives.
If New England region in the U.S. cannot claim sovereignty based on colonial history and British naming conventions, then Somaliland’s…
