Methodological misjudgements: The myth of ‘clan cleansing’ in Somalia

[Estarix]

99% of Somalis dissagree. Ethnic cleansing happened, the evidence were the events (loss of life, mass refugee movement, anecdotal accounts from civillians and journalists) that transpired during the civil wars and the huge demographic changes that manifested itself by 1993. Now i'm willing to accept all clans engaged in clan cleansing but i think it's ridiculous to trivialize or reject the crimes of the USC, which was by the far the most heinous and barbaric clan militia that have ever existed in modern Somali history.

lol@@@@@@@@99% somalis dissagree. 100 of us agree that we are the richest, smartest and much more.

Dear Esterix; did you read the article???? It has nothing to do with rejecting crimes. In fact, it has nothing to dó with cleansing per se. It does not question whether this took place or not. It is about the faulty methodology employed by the author of the book.

Anecdotes are NOT science; Books (most of them) have no scientific value in many sciences although in the humanities and the social sciences they are viewed as such. Scientific peer reviewed articles are. Some chapters of that book would have been rejected outright if submitted to journals (at least to top journals). To my knowledge, this is the first time this issue has been discussed in the academic literature. Before that the discussions were at the fadhi-ku-dirir level. The author should not have marketed the book as an academic work. That is her mistake. She opened herself to academic criticisms.

P.s. Some horrible things have happened in Somalia for many decades. We need to write about them; not in books that are used in fadhi-ku-dirir but in journal articles (to stand academic reviewing) in order to have some clout.

I have the book and read much of it and i did'nt see all that wrong with it. You can accuse me of bias because of my clan background though. I won't blame you. This is not the first attempt to academically scrutinize and debunk her claims; i recall one was written soon after her release. But that one, concentrated more on the finger blaming that was in the book.

[GalliumerianSlayer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dae00I_qtQ


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oUCpFagnXc

[gedo_gurl]

There was mass clan cleansing, no other term suffices for the South.

[TheMightyNomad]

A fresh paper that kills Lidwien Kapteijns' book on ethnic cleansing in Somalia. Just published in the "African Journal of History and Culture".


http://www.academicjournals.org/journal ... 0F72A56351

Interesting paper, even tho i disagree with Mohamed Haji Ingriis on many things as he sometimes treads the same line as other Eurocentric orientalist scholars who are routinely copied into Somalist europhone writings. Nevertheless i agree with him on the reluctance to go beyond clan narratives in the study and analysis of conflict in Somalia. And how mythical Lidwien Kapteijins writings are.

It is such contradictory statements that have become a tendency in the work.[b] As her book is the first novel masquerading as a work of academic, this may be the reason why novelist Nuruddin Farah sees the work his most favourite book in Somali Studies.[/b]

Loool. I liked how he is criticized her and at the same time took a jab at Nuruddin Farrah.

Without using proper professional “historian’s craft,” a term used by Kapteijns (2013) without attributing to Marc Bloch (1992), one confronts with a myth-making in a mythico-historical history. Kapteijns’s methodology acquires a new composition, interspersed by narration and information that are “irrespective of fact and fiction” (Kapteijns, 2013).[ii] While it is not uncommon for historians to consider what happened through the voices of the third person (Bloch, 1992: 45), the heavy reliance on politicians as informants evidently restricted Kapteijns (2013) to go beyond the perspective of clan narration

This is the key part that tends to dictate Somali modern historiography of what actually happened. The reluctance to have a holistic view of the dynamics of Somali society, which prevents people from re-stereotyping and mis-diagnosing Somali culture.

Aside from Mohamed Haji Ingriss rebuttal , i would also like to argue against Kapteijins's conclusion that conceptualization of different clan narratives and giving verification to this societal victimization (i.e Acknowledging the existing hate narratives) is the best medicine to heal somalis.

On the contrary, more complex and deeply rooted understanding of what transpired is what is needed rather than giving clearance to shallow & politically motivated narratives.

Giving life to shallow and political motivated narratives, rather than a nuanced complex understanding what needs to be done and valued is not only divisive & polarizing in many aspects but also stalls and delays the reconciliation process. Which is a process that requires (comprimisation). This whole Qabilism is the problem and Anti-tribal rhetoric peoples seem to be fond of nowadays is what has stagnated Somali society these past 25+ years.

The biggest myth of all is the whole narrative that Clan was the primary agent in conflict and violence in Somalia. When in fact the primary cause was material the root of the violence (Land/territory, resources and political participation). These widespread grievances came about due to the imposition of incompatible structures and the constant adherence to western and non-Somali values & political ideologies.

The trigger point to this was the totalitarianism used to silence these sentiments of unequal political participation and unequal resources distribution.

Scapegoating ''Qolo'' or Somali social structure has become the prevalent theme in Somalia society. There is not a time nor a place where you won't find a toddler in diapers or a grandma in badiyoo telling you the issues of Somali society can be over-simplistically summed up as ''Qabilism'' or ''Tribalism''. The all too common narrative shoved down peoples throats is ''People are fighting each other because of Tribe'' Not only is this intellectually dishonest claim/assertion but it is also flat out misleading & mis-representative of our social structure.

Heck i could get into why ''Tribe'' and ''Qabil'' are unsuitable terms for describing our unique social reality. I rather prefer Somali constructed terminology like ''Reer''(closest relative), ''Qoys''(Nuclear family) and ''Qolo''(Extented Family), which describes the family & community oriented nature of Somali society rather than this cliche depiction of us as some ''unlawful vulgar tribalists'', which is just a sad production of Colonial ethnology that here showed the limits of its capacity to understand communities organized in a different way than the Western hierarchical system of organization.

Its in my belief what is necessary is to shift the focus from Clan narratives and onto creating a viable system of governance rooted in Somali values and a reconciliation process that is indigenous and free from foreign agents & political actors. We have the opportunity today to learn from our failures and to re-invent ourselves.

[TheMightyNomad]

I have actually gone deeper into explaining the politics behind the grievances i mentioned up above.

Please read this.

The only thing Kacaan regime did was deny the existence of clans and scapegoat every Somali issue on our social structure. This narrative that clan was the biggest agent in conflict and division in Somalis is a myth. Conflict in Somalia is not happening because of Clan.

People find it easier to blame ''Clan'' as every Somali is a member of one, than to dvelve into the complexities of Somali problems

Let me clue you in on the different inequities that existed in the Kacaan regime that helped shape the political climate that exist today.

In the first decade of the independent Somali state, politics was centered in Mogadishu. Although the country was democratic, many communities outside of Mogadishu were marginalized. This created a deep mistrust for a centralized state.

Here are some key factors operating the current day mistrust.

1) Unequal destribution of resources fostering mistrust

Before the civil war people living north and far down south had to go to mogadishu to get what they need from housing,Education,passport and jobs. Somalis from various regions had these complaint about not going all the way to mogadishu to get these services but to recieve them locally.

Somalis from all backgrounds shared thecomplaint: “I do not want to go to Mogadishu to get a passport or a university education.'' I need to access these services close to home.”

These complaints were not unfounded, previous governments did maintain resources for these basic services in the
capital, even though they could have been delivered locally.6

Thus Somalis associate centralized and authoritarian government with the unequal sharing of resources – a practice locally referred to as ''sad-bursi''.


2). Unequal political participation fostering mistrust.

Many people who support decentralization also demand genuine political participation.
representatives. This demand is not limited to the elites of one region or clan, or even one class (the elite). Rather, it is common to hear Somalis saying, “I do not want Mogadishu authority to appoint the mayor of my town or the governor of my region.”

This is a widespread grievance that many Somalis, across the country, have against centralized and authoritarian administration in the capital. This is particularly the case because previous governments appointed governors, mayors, police commissioners, and all other bureaucrats for different agencies. This previous system was so centralized that even the decision to transfer a schoolteacher from one place to another
was made in Mogadishu.


3). The reason behind current day federal states.

The build up of mistrust against a centralized state fueled by the lack of political participation and resource distrubiution resulted in the creation of federal clan states.

Reinforcing this mistrust against a centralized state is newly common practice to organize a political party somewhere and claim presidency over a given region.

The issues are more complex then clan or clannism. They are based on actual grieviances and if we dont get to the roots of these issues, instead of complaining about the symptoms we will never see the light of day.

http://english.dohainstitute.org/file/G ... 64b9b9964b

[TheMightyNomad]

Lamagoodle. Thank you for posting this walaal , Mohamed Haji Ingriis did a phenomenal job walahi. I am clapping for this intellectual studd.

This is the first time i have seen a mainstream Somali academic have the balls to directly Karbash these Doofaar writers and do it on a intellecual basis. Kudos to him. I liked how he made many points i have made several times here on Somalinet and Somalispot.

However, Kapteijns (2013) recognises Puntland as autonomous federal State. By contrast, she avoids to regard Somaliland as such. For supporting Puntland remarks, see Kapteijns (2013: 176 & 230; 2001b: 682-684). Numerous other contradictory statements are constant feature in the book. It is worth noting that the claim of clan cleansing is again and again (re)surfacing the clan hatred to the political forums in and outside Somalia, but not in Somaliland.

Her inherent contradicting view of being anti-federalism that conflates with her pro-puntland stance

The close connection between Kapteijns and Wardheer website vis-à-vis the nostalgic days of the clano-dictatorial dominance cannot create a history that never was.[ii]It goes without saying that Anita Adam, who lived Somalia for the two decades prior to 1991, has been better placed to write a book about the 1991 clan cataclysms than Kapteijns, who based her sources on gossip and hearsay.

It also makes sense why the notorious qabilist haters and Die hard Puntland supporters on Somali forums have certain liking to this mythical book. Especially Duchess Aka Ashley and Gemini. As well as the likes of ThePrince.

http://www.somalispot.com/threads/read- ... 1991.3475/

This book that spews soo much clan hatred is a masterpiece? Are you kidding me?

The Garowe International Book Fair was co-organized by Somali Institute for Development and Research Analysis (SIDRA) and SCANSOM Publishers.

Among the speakers were Prof Lidwien E Kapteijns who is Somali Culture Researcher at Welesley College and the author of‘Clan Cleansing in Somalia: The Ruinous Turn of 1991’ and Russian Somali linguist Dr. G. Kapchits.

http://www.garoweonline.com/en/news/pun ... -book-fair
It is not suprising how this Ajanabi psuedo intellectual got invited to speak to Puntland Book Fair a couple of weeks back ,Seeing the obvious Pro-Puntland political narratives she tossed along with dehumanizing hersays & gossips on her book


''Clan cleansing'' is a false neologism that emerged after 1990s which is there to push clan hatred unto the political Arena in and outside of Somalia. It is mythical in every way.