The Gaboye of Somaliland: transformations and historical continuities of the labour exploitation and marginalisation of hereditary groups of occupational specialists

Abstract

ABSTRACT African hereditary groups of occupational specialists are an object of study neglected by social sciences. They often disappear into the broad category of minority groups, and social and historical analyses miss the specific characteristics of their forms of marginalisation. This article adopts the perspective of the Gaboye of Somaliland as an example of the contribution that these groups can make to the study of the transformation of labour organisation and social stratification in Africa. The case study of the Gaboye shows how labour exploitation and the marginalisation of occupational groups changed during the colonial period. Colonial institutions affected socio-economic relationships between local groups more deeply than they intended to, via the economic transformations they triggered and the consolidation of legal models and political apparatuses in Somaliland. By studying the legacies of elements which supported the Gaboye’s marginalisation in the past and focusing on their occupational segregation, the article also aims to define elements of comparative analysis which allow African hereditary groups of occupational specialists to be used as a point from which to observe processes which have affected different regions of Africa: the collapse of the postcolonial state, contemporary forms of transnational mobility, and the re-organisation of global economic networks.