ABSTRACT
This chapter opens with the description of the second Annual Somaliland Diaspora Conference held at the Ambassador Hotel in Hargeysa in July 2012. It considers the capital of Somaliland as a political décor where different actors deploy their competing strategies. Through a description of the urban life in Hargeysa and its multiple players, the chapter highlights the transnational dimension in which local power is organised. It shows how efforts linked with the reconstruction process have led to the emergence of new forms of sovereignty and governance that take their source from a transnationalisation of power, based on transnational networks of businessmen, foreign aid and diaspora returnees that are changing the social, economic and political landscape in the region.
