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ABSTRACT
This paper explores the interactions between Islamist insurgents and kinship-based communities in southern Somalia’s Lower Jubba province in the period of 2006–2012. It demonstrates how Islamist insurgents were able to manoeuvre in a complex sociopolitical landscape, distinguished by various clan and sub-clan groups, and establish a relatively stable and predictable system of order and governance unprecedented in the Somali Civil War. The insurgents’ success, this paper argues, rests on a combination of several related and simultaneous processes which all involved various levels of interactions between the Islamist rulers and local institutions. While the reformist-minded insurgents instilled fear through the application of violence, corporal punishment, and moral policing, they also displayed deep local knowledge, sensitivity, and a pragmatic approach to local institutions, successfully balancing the fine line between divisive ‘clan politics’ and the risk of alienating local power constellations.
Biographical note
Michael W Skjelderup has published several peer-reviewed articles on Somalia, insurgency, and rebel governance. In 2021, he receieved a PhD in International Environment and Development Studies, Ås, Norway, on rebel governance and insurgency in southern Somalia. He has travelled extensively on the Horn of Africa. Field trips to Kismayo, Mogadishu, and Nairobi make up a major part of his research effort.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank colleagues on the Rebel Governance project for their invaluable feedback in the writing of this article, as well as the editors of the special issue, and peer reviewers for their constructive comments.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Some notable contributions are, for example, Stig Jarle Hansen, Al-Shabaab in Somalia: The
history and ideology of a Militant Islamist group; Christopher Anzalone, ‘Framing Insurgency
and the Rebel Proto-State: Al-Shabaab’s Media and Information Operations’; Harun Maruf
and Dan Joseph, Inside al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al-Qaeda’s Most Powerful Ally;
Mary Harper, Everything you have told me is True: The many Faces of al-Shabaab; Tricia
Bacon and Daisy Muibu, ‘The Domestication of al-Shabaab’.
2. Improvised Explosive Device.
3. The five main clan groups or families are commonly referred to as Darood, Hawiye, Issaq, Diir, and Rahanewyn/Digil-Mirifle.
4. Within the larger clan groups, there are clan elders on several levels. In Lower Jubba, there are typically the overall sultaan and/or ugaas, while on the lower levels/sub clan levels, most elders are referred to as nabadoons (‘peacemakers’).
5. Interview with Kismayo residents, February 2018.
6. Mu’askar Ras Kamboni was at this point one of the several Islamist groups organising under the banner of Hizbul Islam.
7. The Issaq clan is the most political dominant clan family of Somaliland, but marginal in Mogadishu, where the Salahedeen group primarily operated.
8. The Digil-Mirifle clan is one of the dominant clan families in the Bay and Bakool provinces, but quite marginal politically in Mogadishu.
9. Interview in Mogadishu with ‘Hassan’, a former senior Islamist leader, July 2018.
10. Interview in Oslo with ‘Roble’, a former senior Islamist leader, January 2018.
11. Interview in Kismayo with ‘Hussein’, a former Salahedeen/ICU/al-Shabaab fighter, July 2019.
12. Interviews with clan elders in Kismayo, October 2018; Interview with former al-Shabaab members in Kismayo, July 2019.
13. Interview with in Kismayo with ‘Ibrahim’, a former Mu’askar Ras Kamboni member, July 2019
14. Interview in Kismayo with ‘Hussein’, a former Salahedeen/ICU/al-Shabaab fighter, July 2019.
15. Interview in Kismayo with ‘Mahmoud’, a former Mu’askar Ras Kamboni and al-Shabaab fighter, July 2019.
16. Interview in Kismayo with clan elders, former al-Shabaab members and ‘ordinary’ residents, February 2018, October 2018, July 2019, February–March 2020.
17. Interviews in Kismayo with clan elders, October 2018, February–March 2020.
18. Interview with a former senior leader of JVA in Mogadishu, July 2018.
19. Ogadeen, a clan group within the larger Darood clan family, is one of the politically dominant clan in Lower Jubba.
20. Interview in Kismayo with clan elders and former Islamist fighters, October 2018, July 2019.
21. Interview in Kismayo with clan elders, former Islamist fighters and ‘ordinary’ residents, February 2018, October 2018, July 2019, February–March 2020.
22. Interview with ‘Amina’ and other Kismayo residents, February 2020; Interview with a women group in Kismayo, February 2018.
23. Interview with Kismayo residents, February 2018 and 2020.
24. Interviews in Mogadishu with former senior ICU commanders, July 2018; Interviews in Kismayo with former Mu’askar Ras Kamboni and al-Shabaab members, October 2018, July 2019, February–March 2020.
25. Interview in Kismayo with ‘Abdinasir’, a former senior Mu’askar Ras Kamboni commander, October 2018.
26. Interview in Mogadishu with senior ICU leader, July 2018; Interview in Oslo with senior ICU leader, January, 2018.
27. Al-Shabaab’s Da’wa commanders were responsible for religious preaching and indoctrination.
28. Interview with former Mu’askar Ras Kamboni and al-Shabaab fighters in Kismayo, October 2018, July 2019
29. Interview in Nairobi with participants from al-Shabaab courts in southern Somalia, October 2010; Interview with clan elders in Kismayo, October 2018, February–March 2020