Partial Notes/Summary on "Getting Somalia Wrong" by Mary Harper

Partial Notes/Summary on Getting Somalia Wrong: Faith, War, and Hope in a Shattered State by Mary Harper (her blog is GREAT)

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

1960's Catholic Church in Mogadishu

Snapshot Takeaway:

Before a journalist writes a Somalia story for a paper—they should be required to first read this book.

NOTES:

Intro:

Harper take issue with the notion of the ‘failed state’ label which is important because as she points out, when was Somalia ever a working state. 

Importance of not simply equating idea of Somalia with Mogadishu—the two aren’t interchangeable. 

2007 intervention overthrow first source of stability in almost 20 years. 

“Trouble in Somalia can mean trouble across the Horn of Africa.”  This stems from the idea of the “Greater Somalia” and the substantial linguistic and ethnic Somali population living throughout the neighboring countries. 

Clan and Country:

- Camels a symbols of Somali life—as a currency—as a lifeblood of society at large—for transport, for trade, for marriage. 

Oral history and storytelling remains central to Somali life.  Oral poetry stems from figures like the Mad Mullah of late 19^th century (to early 20^th)  to popular rapper K’naan

Qat is also central and a point of contention and economy.

4.5 formula for clan is widely contested: Darod, Dir, Hawiye and Rahanweyn.  Al-Shabab seeks to subvert/overtake clan culture.  However, lineage still remains of incredible importance.    Harper aptly describes the complexity and fluidity of clan structure today where alliances are important but there are so many sub-clans that outside observers (and even students) are unable to permeate their web. 

History:

Harpers devotes only 25 pages to Somalia’s history but does so with journalistic flair and skill, interspersing colorful quotes and anecdotes through her retelling of drier dates and figures.  It is here that she hits her stride and were graduate students steeped in the mundane, heavily-reviewed but poorly written academic writing will appreciate her writing prowess. 

She hits the high points as she takes reader through Somalia’s contact, conflict and expansion

Following Siad Berre falls, she describes a “country without government, affected by vicious, unpredictable and widespread violence.” 

The international intervention of course did little to stop it and in many ways served to only further solidify the position of the warlords, encourage mal-intentioned entrepreneurs and intensify the urban conflict (Bradbury 63). 

Her mention of the myriad ‘self-declared’ presidents is apt as this is a very real occurrence.  A new one was ‘elected’ just recently: http://www.somaliareport.com/index.php/post/3317/Harardheeres_Newly_Declared_Female_President

She points to the ingenuity of the Somali people in living without a state as holding myriad lessons for addressing the issue today in Somalia and throughout the world. 

Islamism:

Most Somalis don’t practice militant Islam—they are in fact mainly moderate Sunnis.  They’ve mainly clung to sufi theosophy—not sharia. 

While militant jihad has reared its head throughout their history it has often play the role of reaction in their history

Show Al-Itihaad as an Al-Shabab precursor—and as a purist reaction to amalgamated Somali Islamic practice. 

The effectiveness of the UIC and the order brought (at the expense of personal freedoms)

Fascinating details of her own communication and efforts at insight into the Al-Shabab organization.  She also captures the noted worry of their import and exportation of radical jihad. 

She correctly surmises that violent Islamism has always existed in Somalia’s peripheries and has reacted to outside intervention—taking advantage of it to move to the forefront. 

Islam does not equal bad—all the time. 

NOTES PENDING: 

A Failed State

Piracy

Somalia and the Outside World

Want to read more on Somalia?  I received Warriors: Life and death among the Somalis for Christmas and I look forward to reading it.
 

I've also frequently commented on Somalia in this blog:

African Poets of the Week Compilation

My post on the Kickstarter project: "Lessons of Basketball and War."

The story of a small group of adolescent girls who are dropped into Kevin’s life from half a world away in war-torn Somalia.  After surviving a childhood marked by violence and deprivation, they now find themselves in a strange land with little to hold onto beyond the familiar comfort offered by family, culture and religion.

My post "Famine and Photography Examined" or "The Children Cried Thunder Through My Feet" about Barry Malone's thoughtful article : Me and the Man With an IPAD by Barry Malone.

This is an important article and is striking in its honesty and self-examination.  Particularly cogent is 

when he writes the following:
"Because it’s a cycle. African governments know that drought is coming and they don’t prepare. Foreign

charities working there talk about long-term plans to help people become self-sufficient but they’ve been

failing to achieve them for 20 years. It’s as much about politics and war and poor economic policies as it

is about no rain. I’m no expert but I know that much."

Minneapolis-A Twin with Mogadishu? or Mogadishu's calling Cory Booker

TZB Chronicles continue- Learning about the Somali Civil War

Key passage from today's notes on the US involvement in Somalia's civil war:

Instead of detaining or killing the warlords the US invited them to peace conferences etc…
"encouraging the militias to form a government was like appointing the Mafia to run Manhattan.”  
John Fox commented: “At least I get to do what they taught me in the foreign service and have 
drinks with a room full of mass murderers."

My Post on 'On Ending Piracy in Somalia' or 'Rebooting Max Boot' or 'It's time Kelly Rowland Got Hers'

My post on Why did Somali pirates kill four American yachters?

The Christian Science Monitor asks this question and I think it's a good one to examine in that it leads to further important questions?  

Poet of the Week from Somalia: Abdirashid Omar: A brave poet of the week from Somalia!

Poet of the Week from Somalia: K'naan

My post on UN Resolution 2073 - The Situation in Somalia 

Want to read more on Africa?  I put together an executive reading list here (of which Getting Somalia Wrong is Included):

Partial Notes on the Gallab's "First Islamist Republic" (Sudan)

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Below are my partial notes on The First Islamist Republic by Abdullahi A. Gallab.

Adullahi A. Gallab, The First Islamic Republic (Ashgate, 2008)

THESIS: Sudanese experience shows that Islamism (and all other ‘isms’) can and should be contested.

Introduction

Sudan was one of the 1^st African countries to gain independence but the last 50 years have been a dismal failure.

The Birth of the First Islamic Republic

- in the first coup (30 June 1989) Al-Bashir (in Sudanese Defense Force) colluded with Ali Uthman Muhammad Taha (NIF) and Al-Turabi to overthrow Sadiq al-Mahdi but deliberately jailed Turabi and others to mask the fact that it was an Islamist coup.  They wouldn’t admit this till al-Bashir was deposed 10 years later. 

- This 10 year rule was a ‘reign of terror’

Revolution in the Sudan

- 1989-1999 revolution-like period at least

- Rise of dictatorial rule that used oppression to establish Islamist model distinct to al-Turabi’s Islamists ideas and state theories

About the Islamists

- What does Islamist mean?  Better to use “political islam”?  How do we use the term “fundamentalism”? 

- Since 1928 emergence of Society of Muslim Brothers (Hasan al-Banna), local ideological groups have evolved such as Sudanese Islamists.

- al-Turabi has led movement since 1964 through a number of variations of governance and political structure that continues to present

The Islamist State in Sudan

- Islamists in Sudan see themselves as making a fundamental break with Sudan’s past and the world at large

- National Charter for Political Action (1987) is a blueprint for radical change both regime-wise but also for an alternative society.

- first Islamic state was an embodiment of the comprehensive call which meant forcing people into “righteousness”

- With the coup one sees a fusion of Islamism and totalitarianism in the state’s rule and ideology

Chapter 1: Reflection on Islamism in Sudan

- al-Turabi overstepped in his initial aspirations for the way in which Islam in Sudan would become a global force and phenomena—a pan-islamic international order

- from base (qaeda) in Khartoum, they granted citizenship to Islamists from all over and formed two strategies:

            * Destabilize un-Islamic muslim and arab states and replace them

            * Claim leadership of world Islamic movement thru “Islamists Comintern” (under auspices of PAIC)

- within Sudan they violent suppressed all over religious groups to include muslims that fell outside their particular brand

The Islamists within the Sudan’s Social World

- Spirit of independence (and “invention of locality”) as an idea of cultural and historical continuity in Sudanese life

- Always viewed as separate from Egypt—this was characterized by Muhammad Ali’s invasion in 1820-1.  Sudan was primarily used to hunt for slaves and for resources.  However, inside Sudan fissions began to form along religious lines

Redrawing the Economic and Socio-Political Map

- 3 periods: british conquest in 1898, independence in 1956 and early years of Nimairi regime

- British failed to create modern state but did introduce Sudan to international system

- Independence Nimairi modeled nation after Nasser’s Arab Socialist regime (expansion of public education, transportation and comm.)

- Early Nimairi period saw crackdown on political parties, nationalization of financial institutions...

- peculiar nature of condominium composition: Britain’s unprecedented partnership with semi-colonized African state (Egypt) to colonize another country

- historically then, most northerners shared religion, language and some culture with Egyptians

- during colonial period, infrastructure and economy was developed (mainly in the north) to fracture dependence on Egypt—it basically gave them the tools/structures to for a nation-state.

- evolution of Sudanese identity: sacredness of Arabic language in relation to Koran; development of Arabic print journalism; spread of  Egyptian Arabic books and magazines and journals; orthodox islams as state religion; Arabism as major force.

Chapter 2: Elementary Forms of the Islamist Movement

The Elementary Form of the Movement

- Most say the movement is not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and is self-made and novel

- Author argues that no trends were novel or original in origin

The Anatomy of the Islamist Movement

Determinants and the Course of the Islamist Movement

Chapter 3: Competing Visions in the Aftermath of the October Revolution

The Emerging Field of Power

Who is Hasan al-Turabi?

The Coup as Mode of Change

Chapter 4: From the Corporation to the Coup

Property, Power and Violence: The Islamists’ Pattern of Stratification

The Trail of Violence

The Hijra to the Camp

The Hijra to the Campus

The Migration to the Land of Plenty

DISCUSSION NOTES:

The first thing is the Nile and the way it ties it to Egypt moreso than any other country in Africa.  So it’s integrated historically.

- Ottoman Trachia is first conquest of Sudan (with help of Egypt).  Out of this period comes the Mahdist regime in the late 19^th century.  Condominium follows this regime (overthrows it). 

Brits felt very threatened by Sufi Islam and so they integrated Islam into the colonial state to resolidify more orthodox elements of Islam. 

Politics have always been sectarian (not ethnic).  There have always been two parties that agree on Arab-Islamic Sudanese identity and that Sharia law should be used—but they disagree on how to implement and govern.  These two parties are Democratic and Umma parties (though their names go through many variations). 

Al-Bashir claims to be democratic but a more vanguard, democratic rule by the intellectual elite. 

Turabi is much more vanguard—he’s much more set on remaking society to his idea and then letting it choose his idea democratically after the fact.  Agenda of first republic is of Islamization and Arabization.  Their jihad is very complex—defeating the southerners first and then changing them to self-identifying Islamic Arabs. 

During the 10 year period, Turabi treats the civil war with south as a jihad.  He was always a real believer in his agenda—it wasn’t just about staying in power like with al-Bashir.  Turabi had a lot of support out of Darfur but his base was always at the university level.  He’s ultimately unsuccessful because he’s kicked out by Bashir in 1999.  Since then he continues to be a thorn in their side (even now at the age of 80).

Bashir doesn’t have much of an agenda now except to stay in power. 

*Arabization means Arabic is the official language and it’s taught in all the schools

Why did Bashir allow Turabi to create the PDFs?

Sudanese politics are always about the following agendas:

Assimiliation

Territorial integrity

*But they are pragmatic always

*Biggest issue after secession is the new periphery is closer with the lower 1/3 lopped off.  The periphery is closer and easier for Khartoum to marginalize and effect. 

*The three areas never voted on whether they were joining the north or the south.  The SPLA basically sold out those three areas because they were just concerned with getting the secession of the South.

- Post-Bashir Sudan is the biggest question!

- Paradox of Sudan is that it has a good democratic structure but that it’s always under military autocratic rule

- South was never secessionist until they found oil.  It was never a North-South problem but always a Center-Periphery problem (John Gareng).