Healing dimensions of Somali poetry in response to military humanitarian intervention

Abstract

The US-led UN military humanitarian intervention in Somalia (UN Operation in Somalia, 1992–1995), involved high levels of lawful violence (collateral damage) and unlawful abuses (killings, torture, rape, humiliation, and bullying) perpetrated by the intervening forces against the local population. Over a decade after violent events, the psychosocial world of the Somali people remains largely dominated by undigested particles of the devastating experiences and their personal narratives display variety of unprocessed “images of horror” and other verbal and nonverbal trauma signals. However, in contrast to the personal narratives which often re-enact traumatic past, Somali oral verses perform a multifunctional role in facilitating psychosocial healing and recovery relying on both traditional and modern artistic tools. Focusing on several pieces of intervention-related poetry collected in Dadaab refugee camps, Nairobi, and London, this paper explores the complex and multilayered therapeutic agency of the Somali oral verse in relation to individual and collective suffering inflicted by military intervention.