Annales d'Ethiopie, 2003, vol. XIX: 341-364.

THE BANANA TEST: IS SOMAULAND READY FOR RECOGNITION?

Matt Bryden

The 'Banana Test'

Logic dictates that if something looks like a banana, smells like a banana and tastes like a banana, then the chances are good that it really is a banana. Likewise, if something looks like a state, smells like a state and tastes like a state, then it should be pretty safe to assume that it really is a state, right? Wrong. On empirical grounds, the self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland should have no trouble passing the 'banana test': it fulfils the principal criteria for statehood as defined in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States: boundaries well-defined in international law, a permanent population, and a functioning government that routinely engages in relations with other states and international organizations. But in the world of politics and statecraft, things are not always what they seem; as far as the international community is concerned, Somaliland is not - at least legally speaking - a state.

On the face of it, at least, there appear to be firm grounds for Somaliland's international recognition. There is no longer any reasonable doubt that the desire for independence represents the will of Somaliland's majority. Somaliland's political system has moved steadily in the direction of a constitutional democracy, highlighted by a constitutional referendum in May 2001, local elections in December 2002 and the first presidential poll scheduled for April 2003. And the durability of the Somaliland state has confounded the many sceptics who have delighted, over the years, in predicting its imminent collapse.

Within Somaliland, the pursuit of international recognition has become a sort of national obsession. The government has addressed little else in its foreign policy efforts over the years, and several non-governmental lobby groups among Somalilanders at home and abroad have dedicated themselves to the cause. Hardly a week goes by without the topic appearing the local media. Somaliland's three registered political parties have each promised to deliver the elusive prize,

Nevertheless, for more than a decade since the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic, the international community has steadfastly preferred what political scientist Jeffrey Herbst has termed "the continuing fiction that