Somalia: militarism, warlordism or democracy ?

Abstract

Somali politics have traditionally been structured in terms of the clan system which organises agro‐pastoral society. These clan‐based alignments have provided the lines of conflict along which struggles for recognition — for status and prestige but also, and significantly, for social justice and equality — have been fought. Under conditions of dependent capitalism and uneven class formation, clan consciousness takes on a trade union aspect, in defence of real material interests and in opposition to tendencies towards clan inequality. The Siyaad Barre regime disrupted the balance of clan interests by setting aside traditional tendencies to compromise and accommodate conflicts in order to impose clan hegemony on the country. The result has been to politicise and militarise clan groupings in opposition to the Siyaad government and to plunge the country into civil war. It has divided the country, given rise to regional and clan warlords, and imperilled moves towards democracy.