Understanding the Somalia Conflagration: Identity, political Islam and peacebuilding

Abstract

This is a critical and politically engaged book on conflict and peace building in Somalia. Abdi Elmi begins by exploring the sources of the conflict, but the thrust of the analysis focuses on factors commonly viewed as obstacles to peace in the current context, and how these may be dealt with: clan divisiveness, religious militancy, and the roles of external actors. Setting out the ways in which clan identity structures and organizes Somali society, including conflict and violence, the book evaluates a range of strategies for addressing the endemic divisiveness in national politics. The author considers some form of clan-based power sharing inevitable at least in the short-term (while disapproving of the current ‘4.5’ formula, which gives equal quotas for representation in government to the four major clans and a half-point to a cluster of minority clans), in so far as it provides a mode of representation that carries legitimacy with most Somalis. But he emphasizes the need for longer-term strategies that promote a thickening of cross-clan identities based on Islam and Somali culture as a basis for peace building.