Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, war and hope in a shattered state

Abstract

Mary Harper's book is a very timely account of the major aspects of the protracted Somali crisis. In six chapters plus Introduction and Conclusion, Harper puts across one main argument: Somalia is not entirely failed. There are many aspects of the Somali situation that merit our attention and can be described as hopeful, positive developments. A lot can be learned from ‘the Somali way of doing things’ (p. 2). This contrasts strongly with the negative perspectives on everything Somali that dominate current international politics and popular perceptions. In fact, the word ‘Somalia’ has become a synonym for war, anarchy, terrorism, piracy, and humanitarian disaster, and the country serves as a warning to all others not to go down the road of complete state collapse. Chapter 1 on clan and country, and Chapter 2 on history aim to provide the necessary background for readers unfamiliar with Somali affairs. While they go a considerable way toward doing that, these are the book's weakest chapters. They contain several factual errors or mistranslations of Somali names. For instance, the assumption of a north–south migration of Somalis (p. 45) contradicts the established literature on that subject, and the chapters perpetuate a stereotypical picture of ‘the Somali’ as a ‘nomadic’ and ‘warlike’ people (pp. 23, 45, for example).