The first all-girl basketball team in Somaliland aims for fame

Hafsa Omer, a 21-year-old captain, dribbles, lays up off the backboard, and watches as the ball clatters into the hoop while wrapped in the tricolor flag of her own country.

Her goal is to play professionally for her homeland, but there’s a catch: Somaliland isn’t really a country.

Even though the breakaway area has been governing itself and experiencing relative peace and stability since declaring independence in 1991, it has struggled to obtain international recognition from any foreign country.

By mobilizing their more than 10,000 social media followers, Omer and her two sisters—who also play for the first all-girls team in the fledgling nation, Hargeisa Girls Basketball—are determined to bring Somaliland to the attention of the world.

“Somaliland is looking for their recognition and we believe that we could be part of bringing the recognition… by wearing the flags, by talking about our country, by promoting it through the short video TikTok’s or Instagram pictures,” she stated.

When local officials stated in January that they would allow landlocked Ethiopia access to the Red Sea in exchange for recognition as an independent nation, raising diplomatic concerns with Somalia’s federal government, concerns regarding Somaliland’s sovereignty came into stark relief.

The agreement granting landlocked Ethiopia a 50-year lease around the port of Berbera, with access to the Red Sea for its naval and commercial tankers, was rejected by Somalia, which regards Somaliland as part of its territory.

Officials from Somaliland said they have a good chance of becoming the 55th country in Africa.

The former British protectorate has a functioning democratic political system, functioning government institutions, passports, currency, and its own coast guard, which is headed by a female admiral.

This performance contrasts sharply with much of the rest of Somalia, where government forces have been engaged in a brutal counterinsurgency against insurgents from al Shabaab who are affiliated with al Qaeda.

Omer views her commitment to the independence of Somaliland as a continuation of the violent resistance to dictator Siad Barre that her father and uncles waged in the 1980s.

“My dad talks about it every day, what he and his friends had been through, while he watched his cousins dying in front of him,” she continued.

Even while the 3.5 million-person enclave is still far from receiving official recognition outside, Omer has made great strides toward advancing women’s rights.

There are now numerous female teams in existence since she started Hargeisa Girls Basketball in 2018. They now compete in an all-girls league, defying Somaliland’s traditional social mores and religious convictions.

Basketball helps Fatima Omer, her sister, achieve both objectives.

She remarked, “All we want is for the world to see us.”