Barrier to Somali Unity: Clan Rivalry

[baalcade]

More than most countries in Africa, Somalia has appeared to scholars, and even its own citizens, as possessing the basic ingredients for a cohesive nation. The nearly six million Somalis speak the same language, almost all of them are Muslims of the Sunni sect and most lead a nomadic pastoral life herding camels and cattle in the deserts.

 

But underlying these common themes is a deep clan rivalry that in the last 20 years has been enhanced by an armory of modern weapons supplied by both cold-war superpowers. Instead of fighting with traditional spears and shields, the clans have more recently conducted their feuds with mortars and machine guns.

 

Now, as the country has devolved into anarchy, some experts on Africa worry that Somalia may be the most extreme example of what could occur elsewhere on the continent. Neighboring Ethiopia, for example, already appears to be splitting up into ethnically based areas as the new central Government loses control over vast sections of the country.

 

"Many people see what is happening in Somalia as a pattern that could develop in Ethiopia, Sudan, Zaire and from which Kenya is not immune," said Michael Southwick, deputy chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Nairobi. "We could end up with Africa the way it was before the colonialists came, divided up into tribal enclaves." Cold-War Weapons

 

A sliver of a country that juts into the Indian Ocean on the Horn of Africa, Somalia, with its proximity to the Middle East and the sea lanes to Asia, was considered strategically important by the Soviet Union and the United States during the cold war. Soon after a police colonel in the former Italian colonial force, Mohammed Siad Barre, seized power in 1969, the Soviets sent him ample weapons. It was a reward, in part, for declaring "scientific socialism" the country's ideology.

 

The Soviets dropped Mr. Siad Barre in 1977 after Ethiopia turned to Marxism, and by 1980 the United States had filled the vacuum. Washington dispatched weapons to Somalia, built its most expensive embassy compound in Africa on the shore of the Indian Ocean, and sent agricultural experts to help on a variety of projects.

 

Much of the American aid money ended up in corrupt pockets. According to David D. Laitin, author of "Somalia, Nation in Search of a State," Mr. Siad Barre's ministers and middlemen skimmed up to 40 percent of all foreign-aid contracts.

 

But when the cold war ended, Mr. Siad Barre found himself deserted, the intense interest by the superpowers replaced by indifference as his repressive regime began to teeter in 1990 under pressures from clans that he had brutally excluded from power.

 

Mr. Siad Barre was ousted in January 1991 by rebel forces led by the ****** clan, one of the major clans in Somalia. The ****** were seeking the power that Mr. Siad Barre had reserved exclusively for his own people, the *****, and in particular the ***** subclan called the Mahareen.

 

For nearly a year, the ****** managed to keep control in the southern section of Somalia, which until 1960 had been an Italian colony. The northern part of the country, which was colonized by the British and is mostly inhabited by one clan, the Isaaks, declared itself a separate state, Somaliland, soon after Mr. Siad Barre fled.

 

But in November, the two most closely connected subclans of the ****** declared war on each other. For five months, the Habir Gidir led by Mohammed Sarah Aidid, and the Abgals, headed by Mohammed Ali Mahdi, fought each other in the capital with the weapons left behind by the Soviets, the Americans, the Italians and the Germans.

 

The fighting, combined with looting, virtually destroyed the city and certainly the fabric of society. Some educated Somalis, disgusted with the warfare, concluded that Mr. Aidid, a former Somali Army general, and Mr. Ali Mahdi were merely struggling to reap for themselves the spoils that Mr. Siad Barre had kept for 21 years. First Loyalty: the Clan

 

While the fighting went on, killing, according to humanitarian agencies, about 30,000 people, much of the world ignored it. Almost all of the United States diplomats who were airlifted out of the Mogadishu Embassy by helicopter just days before Mr. Siad Barre fell were assigned to other posts. State Department officials in Washington said the issue of Somalia did not move beyond the realm of the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Herman J. Cohen, until last month.

 

A United Nations cease-fire worked out in late March between Mr. Aidid and Mr. Ali Mahdi has more or less held, United Nations officials say. But the clan-based fighting has moved to other areas of the country, as Mr. Aidid tries to gain advantage over the ***** clan of the ousted Mr. Siad Barre.

 

Many Somalis say they are embarrassed to acknowledge that their first loyalty is to their clan.

 

"It is extremely rude for a Somali to ask another Somali which clan he belongs to," said an American-educated Somali in Mogudishu. "It is often difficult to tell by just looking at a Somali which clan he belongs to. But by asking discreet questions, he will quickly find out." Somali Town Politics

 

For the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been the chief humanitarian agency working in Somalia in the last 18 months, understanding clan politics has been a requisite for the job.

 

"Life is lived and death is died by clan," said Geoff Loane, relief coordinator for Somalia for the Red Cross. "The ***** are strong. So are the Habir Gidir, General Aidid's clan. The non-Somali clans are the weakest. They are the descendants of slaves."

 

The height of clan politics came to the forefront two weeks ago in the port of Kismayo, a town which recently came under the control of Mr. Aidid. The Red Cross had won the agreement of Mr. Aidid's forces to move a number of ***** families, whose men worked for the Red Cross, out of the city. The ***** believed they were in hostile territory and wanted to leave, the Red Cross said.

 

But the Aidid forces broke the agreement, took the ***** men aside and apparently killed them.

 

Source

[Paragon]

^^You should mention that the article you have copy-pasted was published in 1992.