Insurance the Somaliland Way

Dear reader

when we drive cars and destroy someone elses property with it or we get into fights and hurt the other person badly, when we shovel snow from our roofs and kill innocent passers by in the process, usually we are held responsible for our behaviour and we have to pay. If it is not clear who's fault it was, we have insurance experts, police forces and in the end even courts and judges to determine that. Not so in Somaliland.

You must understand that in Somaliland everything is about the tribe you belong to. There's a complex tribal system in place which has been established at the beginning of time. Here's how insurance works in the tribal world.

Lets assume a man from my tribe has killed another man in a car accident. He is a distant relative and I don't know him well. I happen to live abroad with my wife and three kids, one girl and two boys. The family of the man who was killed wants compensation from the culprit. The compensation for a dead person lies around the equivalent of 100 camels. One camel goes at approx. 800 dollars at this time. There is no determination of guilt - it could have been a suicidal person jumping in front of a car for all we know - and no law involved. It is clear that there is one dead person and another one who will have to pay.

So, I am now asked by my tribe together with everyone else from my tribe to contribute to the payment due. Only men are asked to do so, not women. But as a man I will also have to pay a share for every son I have. For my family this means I pay my shre as well as the shares of my two sons. Until the entire amount has been paid off. That 'debt' is inherited by the sons of my sons and so on.

On one hand this is clever, because each tribe and each clan and each family will teach their kids not to drive recklessly, not to get into fights and generally behave themselves so that there will never be payment due to another family, tribe or clan.

On the other hand, it makes you want to deny your sons. I have been told of a woman living in Geneva who gave birth to her third son. She desperately wished for a girl - among other reasons for the one just explained - and so she let it be known that she had given birth to a baby girl. Ten years went by and the day came when she visited her homeland with her children. Well, guess what? She's paying for three sons now!