Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T10:16:02.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From Pre-Colonial Past to the Post-Colonial Present: The Contemporary Clan-Based Configurations of Statebuilding in Somalia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2018

Abstract:

This article is driven by an empirical paradox over where Somalia came from (pre-colonial clan-states) and where it ended up (return to pre-colonial clano-territorial conflicts). Existing academic studies on contemporary Somalia, which were supposed to provide critical analysis, continue to applaud the creation of clan-states within the failed state of Somalia. Based on a variety of unique primary sources, this article offers a new perspective on the current state formation processes occurring in the purview of the Somali State. Somali clans are determined to come to terms with the state collapse by averting the return to political power of the detested military regime, which was led by one clan-based leadership that tended to terrorize other rival clans and denied any equal power- and resource-sharing framework. Conceptualizing the contemporary Somali state as similar to pre-colonial clan-sultanates, this article argues that contemporary Somalis are reverting to a pre-colonial realm where each clan had its clan sultan seeking for a clan-state of its own right. Where else do clan-states compete against each other in entering into “treaties” with external entities intent on exploiting war-torn Somalia as tabula rasa? It is towards the objective of answering this question and of providing a better understanding of the Somali conflict that this article is offered to add a comparative empirical understanding of the different trajectories of state formations in Somalia.

Résumé:

Le paradoxe empirique de la provenance de la Somalie (États-clans précoloniaux) et de sa trajectoire finale (retour aux conflits de clans-territoriaux précoloniaux) est le guide conducteur de cet article. Les études académiques actuelles sur la Somalie contemporaine, qui étaient censées fournir une analyse critique, continuent d’applaudir la création d’États-clans dans le cadre de l’État de Somalie défaillant. Cet article qui s’appuie sur une variété de sources primaires uniques, offre une nouvelle perspective sur les processus actuels de construction d’état se produisant dans le cadre de l’État somalien. Les clans somaliens sont déterminés à parvenir à accepter l’effondrement de l’État en évitant le retour au pouvoir politique du régime militaire détesté, qui a été contrôlé par la direction d’un clan monopolisateur avec une tendance à terroriser les autres clans rivaux et a nié tout schéma d’égalité du pouvoir et de partage des ressources. En conceptualisant l’État somalien contemporain comme semblable au clan-sultanats précoloniaux, cet article fait valoir que les Somaliens contemporains reviennent à un schéma précolonial où le Sultan de chaque clan était forcé d’être à la recherche d’un État-clan de plein droit. Existe-t-il ailleurs des États-clans qui rivalisent entre eux en concluant des « traités » avec des puissances extérieures qui ont la pleine intention d’exploiter la Somalie déchirée par la guerre en tant que tabula rasa ? Ayant pour objectif de répondre à cette question ainsi que d’apporter une meilleure compréhension du conflit somalien cet article se propose d’apporter une compréhension empirique comparative des différentes trajectoires de la construction des états en Somalie.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdi, Abdishakir Y. 1996. “Local/Regional Administration Systems as Key to Somalia’s Future Governance System.” Paper presented at the 6th International Congress of Somali Studies, Berlin, December 6–9.Google Scholar
Adam, Hussein M. 1994. “Somalia: Federalism and Self-Determination.” In Conflict and Peace in the Horn of Africa: Federalism and its Alternatives, edited by Woodward, Peter and Forsyth, Murray, 114–23. Aldershot: Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Africa Newsroom. 2016. “EU Confirms its Unwavering Commitment to the Somali people.” 3 November.Google Scholar
Ahad, Ali Mumin. 2014. “The Externally Defined Somali National Identity.” Journal of Somali Studies 1 (1): 3561.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Ali Jimale. 1995. “Daybreak is Near, Won’t You Become Sour?: Going Beyond the Current Rhetoric in Somali Studies.” In The Invention of Somalia, edited by Ahmed, Ali Jimale, 135–55. Lawrenceville, NJ: The Red Sea Press.Google Scholar
Ali, Salah Mohamed. 1996. “Somalia: A Pluralism to be [D]evised.” Paper presented at the 6th International Congress of Somali Studies, Berlin, December 6–9.Google Scholar
Alpers, Edward A. 1983. “Muqdisho in the Nineteenth Century: A Regional Perspective.” The Journal of African History 24 (4): 441–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
AMISOM. 2016. “German Delegation Tours Future Centre for Disengaged Former Combatants in Kismaayo.” 3 November.Google Scholar
AU Document. 2005. “Fact-Finding Mission to Somaliland, 30 April to 4 May 2002.” Addis Ababa: Unpublished AU Commission Document.Google Scholar
(Baadiyow), Abdurahman Abdullahi. 2017. Making Sense of Somali History, Vol 1. London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.Google Scholar
Bakonyi, Jutta. 2011. Land ohne Staat: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im Krieg am Beispiel Somalias, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus.Google Scholar
Bakonyi, Jutta, and Stuvøy, Kirsti, 2005. “Violence & Social Order beyond the State: Somalia & Angola.” Review of African Political Economy 32 (104–105): 359–82.Google Scholar
Baldacci, Giulio. 1909. “The Promontory of Cape Guardafui.” Journal of the Royal African Society 9 (33): 59–2.Google Scholar
Barile, Pietro. 1935. Colonizzazione Fascista nella Somalia Méridionale. Roma: Società Italiana Arti Grafiche.Google Scholar
Besteman, Catherine. 1996. “Violent Politics and the Politics of Violence: The Dissolution of the Somali Nation-State.” American Ethnologist 23 (3): 579–96.Google Scholar
Bootaan, Ahmed A. 1996. “Somalia: Federal State or Federation of Tribes.” Paper presented at the 6th International Congress of Somali Studies, Berlin, December 6–9.Google Scholar
Bøås, Morten. 2010. “Returning to Realities: a Building-Block Approach to State and Statecraft in Eastern Congo and Somalia.” Conflict, Security & Development 10 (4): 443–64.Google Scholar
Bøås, Morten, and Rotwitt, Narve. 2010. Remaking the Somali State: a Renewed Building-Block Approach. Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre, Noref Report, September.Google Scholar
Brazhalovich, F. L., Klyuchnikov, M. I., and Lukyanov, A. I.. 2016. “The Political-Geographical Aspects of Problematic Statehood (Exemplified by Somalia).” Geography and Natural Resources 37 (3): 264–70.Google Scholar
Bryden, Matt. 1999. “New Hope for Somalia? The Building Block Approach.” Review of African Political Economy 26 (79): 134–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryden, Matt. 2004. “State-within-a-Failed-State: Somaliland and the Challenge of International Recognition.” In States-Within-States: Incipient Political Entities in the Post-Cold War Era, edited by Kingston, Paul and Spears, Ian S., 167–88. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Burton, Richard. 1856. First Footsteps in East Africa. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Call, Charles. 2008. “Ending Wars, Building States.” In Building States to Build Peace, edited by Call, Charles with Wyeth, Vanessa, 122. London: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Cassanelli, Lee V. (1982) The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Cassanelli, Lee V. 1996. “Explaining the Somali Crisis.” In The Struggle for Land in Southern Somalia: The War Behind the War, edited by Besteman, Catherine and Cassanelli, Lee V., 1326. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Cerulli, Enrico. 1957. Somalia Scritti Vari Editi ed Inediti, Vol. 1. Roma: A Cura dell’Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia.Google Scholar
Christopher, Lieutenant W. 1844. “Extract from a Journal by Lieut. W. Christopher, Commanding the H. C. Brig of War “Tigris” on the East Coast of Africa. Dated 8 May 1843.” Journal of the Royal Geographic Society (14): 76103.Google Scholar
Colucci, Massimo. 1924. Principi di Diritto Consuetudinario dell Somalia Italiana Meridionale. Florencia: Societa Editrice La Voce.Google Scholar
Compagnon, Daniel. 1993. “Somaliland, un Ondre Politique en Gestation?” Politique Africaine (50) June: 920.Google Scholar
Conrad, Joseph. 1902. Heart of Darkness. London: William Blackwood & Sons.Google Scholar
Constitution of the Regional Puntland State of Somalia. 2007–2008. First Draft of Revised Constitution. Document on file with the author.Google Scholar
Cruttenden, Lieutenant C. J. 1844-46. “Report on the Mijjertheyn Tribe of Somallies, inhabiting the district forming the North–East point of Africa.” Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society (7): 111–26.Google Scholar
Cruttenden, Lieutenant C. J. 1849. “Memoir on the Western or Edoor Tribes, Inhabiting the Somali Coast of N.E. Africa, with the Southern Branches of the Family of Darrood, Resident on the Banks of the Webbe Shabeyli, Commonly Called the River Webbe.” Journal of The Royal Geographical Society of London (19): 4976.Google Scholar
Daniels, Christopher L. 2012. Somali Piracy and Terrorism in the Horn of Africa. Lanham: The Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Dill, Janina. 2010. “Puntland’s Declaration of Autonomy and Somaliland’s Secession: Two Quests for Self-Governance in a Failed State.” In Asymmetric Federalism and the Settlement of Ethnic Conflicts, edited by Weller, Marc and Nobbs, Katherine, 278–97. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djama, Marcel 1997. “Trajectoire du pouvoir en pays somali.” Cahiers d’Études africaines 37 (2): 146: 403–28.Google Scholar
Doornbos, Martin. 2000. “When a State is a State? Exploring Puntland.” In Trajectories de Libération en Afrique Contemporaine: Hommage à Robert Buijtenhuijs , edited by Konings, Piet, Binsbergen, Wim van and Hesseling, Gerti, 125–40. Paris: ASC-Karthala.Google Scholar
Doornbos, Martin. 2002. “Somalia: Alternative Scenarios for Political Reconstruction.” African Affairs 101 (402): 93107.Google Scholar
Drysdale, John. 2000. Stoics without Pillows: A Way Forward for the Somalilands. London: Haan.Google Scholar
Eno, Omar. 1996. “Sifting through a Sieve—Solutions for Somalia.” Paper presented at the 6th International Congress of Somali Studies, Berlin, December 6–9.Google Scholar
Fahy, Kathleen. 1999. “Post-Governance Somalia beyond 2000: Prospects for a Nation without a State?” Trócairc Development Review, Dublin, 81104.Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 1967. The Wretched of the Earth, translated by Farrington, Constance. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Ganzglass, Martin R. 1996. “The Restoration of the Somali Justice System.” International Peacekeeping 3 (1): 113–38.Google Scholar
Geshekter, Charles. 1996. “The Search for Peaceful Development in a Century of War: Global Restraints on 20th Century Somali Socio-Economic Development.” Paper presented at the 6th International Congress of Somali Studies, Berlin, December 6–9.Google Scholar
Guillain, Charles. 1856–1857. Documents sur l’histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l’Afrique Orientale. Paris: Arthus Bertrand.Google Scholar
Hagmann, Tobias, and Hoehne, Markus V.. 2009. “Failures of the State Failure Debate: Evidence from the Somali Territories.” Journal of International Development 21 (1): 4257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagmann, Tobias, and Péclard, Didier. 2010. “Negotiating Statehood: Dynamics in Power and Domination in Africa.” Development and Change 41 (4): 539–62.Google Scholar
Hansen, Stig Jarle. 2013. Al-Shabaab in Somalia: The History and Ideology of a Militant Islamist Group, 2005–2012. London: C. Hurst.Google Scholar
Hess, Robert L. 1966. Italian Colonialism in Somalia. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hesse, Brian J. 2010. “Lessons in Successful Somali Governance.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 28 (1): 7183.Google Scholar
Hesse, Brian J. 2010b. “Where Somalia Works.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 28 (3): 343–62.Google Scholar
Hills, Alice. 2014. “Does Police Work Need a Police Institution? The Evidence from Mogadishu.” Policing and Society: An International Journal of Research and Policy. No vol., no number, unpaginated.Google Scholar
Hoehne, Markus. 2015. Between Somaliland and Puntland: Marginalization, militarization and conflicting political visions. London: Rift Valley Institute.Google Scholar
Hoehne, Markus. 2016. “The Rupture of Territoriality and the Diminishing Relevance of Cross-cutting Ties in Somalia after 1990.” Development and Change 47 (6): 1379–411.Google Scholar
Horseed Media. 2010. “Boqolaal Dad ah oo Laga Musaafuriyey Bosa[a]so iyo Hawlgalada Socda.” July 20.Google Scholar
Huband, Mark. 1992. “The Disintegration of Somalia.” The Guardian (London), 7 August.Google Scholar
Huliaras, Asteris. 2002. “The Viability of Somaliland: Internal Constraints and Regional Geopolitics.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 20 (2): 157–82.Google Scholar
IGAD. 2015. “Communiqué of 53rd Extra-Ordinary Session of the IGAD Council of Ministers.” Document on file with the author.Google Scholar
Ingiriis, Mohamed Haji. 2010. “Somalia: From Finest to Failed State.” Africa Review, part I, 17 September.Google Scholar
Ingiriis, Mohamed Haji. 2016a. The Suicidal State in Somalia: The Rise and Fall of the Siad Barre Regime, 1969–1991. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Ingiriis, Mohamed Haji. 2016b. “‘We Swallowed the State as the State Swallowed us’: The Genesis and Genealogies of Genocide in Somalia.” African Security 9 (3): 237–58.Google Scholar
Ingiriis, Mohamed Haji. 2016c. “Many Somalia(s), Multiple Memories: Remembrances as Present Politics, Past Politics as Remembrances in War-torn Somali Discourses.” African Identities 14 (4): 348–69.Google Scholar
Ingiriis, Mohamed Haji. 2016d. “How Somalia Works: Mimicry and the Making of Mohamed Siad Barre’s Regime in Mogadishu.” Africa Today 63 (1): 5783.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2006. “Somaliland: Time for African Union Leadership.” Africa Report, 23 May.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2009. “Somalia: The Trouble with Puntland.” Crisis Group Africa Briefing, No. 64, August 12.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert H. 2011. Quasi-States: Sovereignty, International Relations and the Third World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
James, F. L. 1888. The Unknown Horn of Africa: An Exploration From Berbera to the Leopard River. London: George Philip and Son.Google Scholar
Johnson, Martha C., and Smaker, Meg. 2014. “State Building in De Facto States: Somaliland and Puntland Compared.” Africa Today 60 (4): 323.Google Scholar
Kimenyi, Mwangi S., Mbaku, John Mukum, and Moyo, Nelipher. 2010. “Reconstituting Africa’s Failed States: The Case of Somalia.” Social Research 77 (4): 1339–66.Google Scholar
Kingston, Paul. 2004. “States-within-States: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives.” In States-within-States: Incipient Political Entities in the Post-Cold War Era, edited by Kingston, Paul and Spears, Ian, 113. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1977. Politics, Language, and Thought: The Somali Experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D., and Samatar, Said S.. 1987. Somalia: Nation in Search of a State. London: Gower.Google Scholar
Leeson, Peter T. 2007. “Better Off Stateless: Somalia before and after Government Collapse.” Journal of Comparative Economics 35 (4): 689710.Google Scholar
Leonard, David K., and Samantar, Mohamed. 2013. “Reconstructing Political Order Among the Somalis: The Historical Record in the South and Centre.” IDS Bulletin 44 (1): 4452.Google Scholar
Little, Peter D. 2003. Somalia: Economy without State. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Makinda, Samuel M. 1993. Seeking Peace from Chaos: Humanitarian Intervention in Somalia. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makinda, Samuel M. 1999. “Clan Conflict and Factionalism in Somalia.” In Warlords in International Relations, edited by Rich, Paul B., 120–39. New York: St Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Mamdani, Mahmood. 1996. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Marlowe, David Henry. 1963. “The Galjaal Barsana of Central Somalia: A Lineage-Political System in a Changing World.” Unpublished PhD diss., Harvard University.Google Scholar
Maschietto, Roberta Holanda. 2016. “Decentralisation and local governance in Mozambique: the challenges of promoting bottom-up dynamics from the top down.” Conflict, Security & Development 16 (2): 103–23.Google Scholar
Maxwell, Daniel, and Majid, Nisar. 2016. Famine in Somalia: Competing Imperatives Collecting Failures, 2011–2012. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Menkhaus, Ken. 1998. “Somalia: Political Order in a Stateless Society.” Current History 97 (619): 220–24.Google Scholar
Menkhaus, Ken. 2006/07. “Governance without Government in Somalia: Spoilers, State Building, and the Politics of Coping.” International Security 31 (3): 74106.Google Scholar
Menkhaus, Ken. 2014. “State Failure, State-Building, and Prospects for a ‘Functional Failed State’ in Somalia.” The Annals, AAPSS 656 (1): 154–72.Google Scholar
Miles, Samuel Barrett. 1872. “On the Neighbourhood of Bunder Marayah.” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society 42: 6176.Google Scholar
Mohamed, Saeed Sheikh. 1992. “The Rise and Fall of Somali Nationalism.” Refuge 12 (5): (November-December), 47.Google Scholar
Mubarak, Jamil A. 1997. “The ‘Hidden Hand’ Behind the Resilience of the Stateless Economy of Somalia.” World Development 25 (12): 2027–41.Google Scholar
New Deal. 2014. “Delivering Somalia’s New Deal Compact, Ministerial High Level Partnership Forum.” Copenhagen, 19–20 November.Google Scholar
Nolte, Insa. 2002. “Federalism and Communal Conflict in Nigeria.” Regional and Federal Studies, 12 (1): 171–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Notten, Michael. 2006. The Law of the Somalis: A Stable Foundation for Economic Development in the Horn of Africa, edited by Heath MacCallum, Spencer. Trenton, NJ: The Red Sea Press.Google Scholar
Patman, Robert G. 2010. Strategic Shortfall: The Somalia Syndrome and the March to 9/11. Santa Barbara: Praeger.Google Scholar
Peel, C. V. A. 1986 [1900]. Somaliland: Being an Account of Two Expeditions into the Far Interior, 2nd edition. London: Darf.Google Scholar
Radio Mogadishu. 2017. “AKHRISO Khudbadda Madaxweynaha J.F.S. uu ka Jeediyay Furitaankii Golaha Shacabka.” July 9.Google Scholar
Raeymaekers, Timothy, Menkhaus, Ken, and Vlassenroot, Koen. 2008. “State and Non-State Regulation in African Protracted Crises: Governance without Government?” Africa Focus 21 (2): 721.Google Scholar
Révoil, Georges. 1882. La Vallée du Darror: Voyage aux pays Çomalis Afrique Orientale. Paris: Challamel.Google Scholar
Robecchi-Brichetti, Luiggi. 1899. Somalia e Benadir: Viaggio di Esplorazione nell’Africa Orientale. Milano: Carlo Aliprandi.Google Scholar
Rotberg, Robert I. ed. 2003. When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Le Sage, Andre. 2005. “Stateless Justice in Somalia: Formal and Informal Rule of Law Initiatives.” Geneva: Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, July.Google Scholar
Stewart, Frances, Brown, Graham, and Mancini, Luca. 2005. “Why Horizontal Inequalities Matter: Some Implications for Measurement.” CRISE Working Paper 19, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Somali Compact Report. 2015. Somali Compact Progress Report 2015—New Deal Somalia. Document on file with the author.Google Scholar
Sorens, Jason P., and Wantchekon, Leonard. 2000. “Social Order without the State: The Case of Somalia.” Working Paper, Department of Political Science, Yale University.Google Scholar
Srebrnik, Henry. 2004. “Can clans form nations? Somaliland in the making.” In De Facto States: The Quest for Sovereignty, edited by Bahcheli, Tozun, Bartmann, Barry and Srebrnik, Henry, 210–31. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stringham, Noel, and Forney, Jonathan. 2017. “It Takes a Village to Raise a Militia: Local Politics, the Nuer White Army, and South Sudan’s Civil Wars.” The Journal of Modern African Studies, 55 (2): 177–99.Google Scholar
Swayne, Major H. G. C. 1900. Seventeen Trips through Somaliland and a Visit to Abyssinia: A Record of Exploration and Big Game Shooting, with Descriptive Notes on the Fauna of the Country, 2nd edition. London: Rowland Ward.Google Scholar
The Charter of Puntland State of Somalia. 1998. Document on file with the author.Google Scholar
The Republic of Somaliland. 1996. Submission on Statehood and Recognition of Republic of Somaliland, Hargeisa.Google Scholar
The Somalia Herald. 2014a. “Editorial: a New Dawn and Hope for Somalia.” Mogadishu, Saturday, November 1–15: 6.Google Scholar
The Somalia Herald. 2014b. “Editorial: Somalia Deserves Stability.” Mogadishu, November–December: 6.Google Scholar
The World Bank. 2005. Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics, the World Bank.Google Scholar
UNDP. 1998. Somalia Human Development Report 1998. London, Geneva, Washington DC: UNDP.Google Scholar
Vigner, Christian. 1980. “The Colonial Dismemberment of Somalia.” In Somalia and the World: Proceedings of the International Symposium held in Mogadishu, October 15–21, 1979, edited by Adam, Hussein M., 330–51. Mogadishu: State Printing Press.Google Scholar
Villalón, Leonardo A., and Huxtable, Phillip A., eds. 1998. The African State at a Critical Juncture: Between Disintegration and Reconfiguration. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
de Waal, Alex. 2002. “Class and Power in a Stateless Somalia.” London, Justice Africa Occasional Paper Series Discussion Paper.Google Scholar
Walsh, Langton Prendergast. 1910. Under the Flag and Somali Coast Stories. London: Andrew Melrose.Google Scholar
Webersik, Christian. 2006. “Mogadishu: An Economy without a State.” Third World Quarterly 27 (8): 1463–80.Google Scholar
Webersik, Christian, and Crawford, Alec. 2015. “Commerce in the Chaos: Bananas, Charcoal, Fisheries, and Conflict in Somalia.” In Livelihoods, Natural Resources, and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, edited by Young, Helen and Goldman, Lisa, foreword by Egeland, Jan, 365–90. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zartman, I. William ed. 1995. Collapsed States: The Disintegration and Restoration of Legitimate Authority. London: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Ingiriis supplementary material 1

Ingiriis supplementary material

Download Ingiriis supplementary material 1(PDF)
PDF 22.4 KB