BETWEEN CUSTOM AND CONSTITUTION: ETHNIC IDENTITY, POLITICAL LEGITIMACY AND THE GUURTI IN SOMALILAND
Abstract
Purpose of the study: This study examined how ethnic identity through the Guurti , Somaliland's Council of Elders, shapes political legitimacy and governance within a constitutional order that continues to rely on indigenous authority.
Problem statement: Scholarship on Somaliland has established the importance of clan institutions, reconciliation and hybrid governance, but it has less clearly explained how customary authority becomes political legitimacy in everyday governance and why that legitimacy is experienced differently across social groups.
Method/methodology: The study adopted interpretivist qualitative case study, conducted in Hargesia.The method of the study was interpretivist qualitative case study. There were 35 in-depth interviews, 10 key informant interviews and three focus group discussions involving 15 participants which resulted in a total of 60 participants, and triangulated with documentary, media and observational evidence. Patterns of meaning across clan, gender, generational and institutional positions were developed through reflexive thematic analysis.
Results of the study: The five findings that emerged were interconnected, with legitimacy of ‘Guurti' being linked to ‘Xeer' (Elder authority), ‘cultural mediation', ‘hybrid governance', ‘ethnic identity', and with legitimacy being unevenly distributed among social groups. The institution connects customary and constitutional power and women, youth and minority groups still face restricted access to deliberative power.
Conclusion and policy recommendation: Political legitimacy in Somaliland is best understood as a socially produced and performance-dependent relationship between custom and constitution. Reform should therefore preserve Xeer, consultation and elder mediation while improving transparent membership rules, accountability and structured participation for women, youth and minority communities.
Keywords: Guurti ; ethnic identity; political legitimacy; customary authority; hybrid governance; Somaliland
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