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Culture and society
Clanship
The Somali clan system has
two main lineage lines, the Samale and the Sab. In genealogical terms
the Digil and Rahanweyn clan families belong to the Sab, while the
Darod, Hawiye, Isaq, and Dir clan families belong to the Samale.
Although the clan families are not strictly territorially delimited,
they do tend to occupy distinct geographical locations, i.e., the Isaq
and the Dir in the north; the Digil and Rahanweyn in the agricultural
areas in the south; the Hawiye in and around Mogadishu and the Darod
in the south and in the north. The differentiation between Sab and
Samale is reflected in the basic contrast between the nomadic
pastoralism of the Samale and the sedentary farming of the Sab.
The different clan
families are too large to function as viable political units. Below
the level of clan families, clans are more significant aspects of
social organisation and identification. Clans in turn are further
subdivided. The Isaq clan family, for example, historically has been
divided into eight main clan groupings - the Habar Awal, the Habar
Yunis, the 'lidegall'lidagale, the Arab, and four Habar Ja'lo clans (Lewis
1994: 202). These are further divided into sub-clans, primary
lineage groups, and below this, dia-paying groups, whose function is
to pay the 'blood wealth' involved in the settlement of feuds. An
individual's participation is at the level of the primary lineage
group, while the dia-paying group 'is the basic political and judicial
unit of pastoral society' (Lewis
1961: 6). Elsewhere however, Lewis remarks that any lineage acting
as a separate political unit is capable of functioning as a dia-paying
group, albeit on a short-term basis (Lewis
1994: 22). The shir or meeting of clan groups is the
traditional means of resolving disputes.
While clanship promotes
short-term and unstable political alliances, it also acts as the
primary source of stability and cohesion in Somali society. Clan
networks provide a means of identification and support that are vital
under insecure environmental, social, and political conditions. In
general, the clan genealogical system functions as a pastoral mode of
adaptation to a harsh physical environment (see Sections 4.1
and 4.2).
Minorities
The majority, some 85 per
cent of the population, are ethnic Somalis, with Bantu and Arab
minorities comprising about 15 per cent of the total. Individuals of
Bantu descent mainly live in the farming villages in the south, while
Arabs have traditionally occupied the coastal cities. Minorities (including
a number of 'occupational castes') are not evenly distributed
throughout Somalia but are concentrated in the central and southern
regions, urban centres, and along the coastline and the Shabelle and
Juba Rivers. Bantu minority groups (many of whom are the descendants
of slaves imported into Somalia in the nineteenth century) were
particularly targeted by the Hawiye and Darod, who seized the
agricultural land from Bantu farmers in the inter-riverine areas
during the 1990s (Besteman
1999). This followed a long period of marginalisation of the Bantu
under the colonial and Barre regimes. The Bantu lack direct clan ties
to the dominant Somali clans and the protection from violence which
this confers. The Bravanese, a minority with a distinctive culture and
language who are situated on the coast south of Mogadishu, have been
under Habr Gedir control since the mid-1990s. These and other minority
groups were particularly vulnerable to displacement during the course
of the civil war in the 1991-2 period, and constitute significant
numbers of those who have been internally displaced or who sought
safety across international borders as refugees (see
Section 5.2).
The Digil and Rahanweyn,
as 'minority' clans, were also targeted with violence during the civil
war and were victims of killings, lootings, and other human rights
violations by the various militias, mainly Aideed's Somali National
Alliance (SNA).
A precise definition of
the position of minorities is difficult, given that the number of
individuals claiming minority status has increased - or was created -
because of the civil war and the experience of oppression that
particular groups have experienced. The generic term 'Benadiri', for
example (used to broadly describe the coastal population of Somalia
between Mogadishu and Kismayo), although not in common use before the
war, is now adopted by many Somali refugees as an indicator of
minority status (Perouse
de Monclos 1997).
Websites:
Danish Immigration Service
Report on Minority Groups in Somalia, December 2000 - http://asylumlaw.org/countries/index.cfm?fuseaction=showDocuments&countryID=207
Cultural Orientation Net,
'Somali Bantu: Their History and Culture' - http://www.culturalorientation.net/bantu/sbtoc.html
Religion
The vast majority of
Somalis are Sunni Muslims, almost entirely of the Shaf'ite school.
Islam is an important unifying factor for Somalis, particularly since
there is no major schism within its Islamic faith. Along with clanship,
Islam represents one of the cornerstones of Somali national identity.
Islam spread to Somalia at an early stage (eighth century AD),
reinforcing links with Arabia that were already established through
migration and trade. There are remaining traces of pre-Islamic
traditional religions, particularly in the inter-riverine area (Cassanelli
1982). Amongst Somalis there is a strong tradition of tariiqa,
or Sufi orders. The different tariiqas are religious
brotherhoods that serve as centres of learning and religious authority.
The best-known leader of the Salihiya tariiqa was Sayyed
Mohammed Abdulle Hassan in the early twentieth century, who led the
anti-colonial movement at the time.
In contemporary Somalia,
the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has presented a challenge to the tariiqa
and the traditional veneration of saints. The development of Shari'a
courts in parts of Mogadishu and Somaliland is of great symbolic
importance. Ali Mahdi of the Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA) was the
first to adopt Islam in northern Mogadishu in 1994 as a means of
securing legitimacy and restoring law and order. While Islam is not a
unified force, al-lttihad (the Union) is one of the larger groupings
and has been linked to 'terrorist' activity, particularly by the US
government as part of their 'war on terrorism'. No military
interventions have as yet been made in Somalia to curtail terrorist
activity. The assets of the Somali telecommunications company Al
Bakarat were frozen by the US administration in an attempt to curtail
the transmission of funds to terrorist groups overseas. The operation
of al-lttihad is currently believed to have been weakened after
repeated attacks by Ethiopia (Connell
2002).
Language
Alongside clanship and
Islam, language is a key component of the Somali national identity
that was promoted by elite groups in the post-war period (Samatar
1988; Ahmed
1995). The Somali language is a member of a group of languages
called Lowland Eastern Cushitic, and is a sub-group of the Cushitic
language family. Somali has two major dialects - the standard dialect
spoken by most Somalis and the Digil/Rahanweyn dialect spoken
primarily in the inter-riverine areas. The settled Bantu communities
in the inter-riverine area were long regarded as of different (and
inferior) ancestral stock to the Somalis 'proper', the Samale. The
standardisation of Somali script in 1972 reflects this historical
division. Prior to this date English and Italian served as the
official languages of government and the education system. The new
script was based upon the dominant dialect and therefore entrenched
the social position of the more powerful groups in the central and
northern regions (Cassanelli
1996).
The literacy campaigns of
the 1970s were part of Barre's democratisation programme. Targeted at
the nomadic population, these efforts did not accommodate the dialects
spoken by the Digil and Rahanewyn. Despite this, some progress was
made in the development of national literacy during the 1970s.
Although warfare has disrupted the education system in recent years,
figures supplied by the UN in 1990 indicated a literacy rate of 24 per
cent of the population.
Websites:
US Department of State,
Background Notes: Somalia - http://state.gov/www/background_notes/somalia_0798_bgn.html
Cultural Orientation Net,
'Somalis, Their History and Culture' - http://www.culturalorientation.net/somali/stoc.html
© by: FMO RESEARCH
GUIDE - Somalia -
David Griffiths - July 2003
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