1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463755803321

Autore

Kapteijns Lidwien

Titolo

Clan cleansing in Somalia [[electronic resource] ] : the ruinous legacy of 1991 / / Lidwien Kapteijns

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2013

ISBN

0-8122-2319-5

0-8122-0758-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (319 p.)

Collana

Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights

Disciplina

967.7305/3

Soggetti

Clans - Somalia - History - 20th century

Clans - Somalia - History - 21st century

Politics and literature - Somalia - History - 20th century

Politics and literature - Somalia - History - 21st century

Electronic books.

Somalia Politics and government 1960-1991

Somalia Politics and government 1991-

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [283]-296) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Note on Transliteration -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Speaking the Unspeakable: Somali Poets and Novelists on Civil War Violence -- Chapter 2. Historical Background to the Violence of State Collapse -- Chapter 3. Clan Cleansing in Mogadishu and Beyond -- Chapter 4. The Why and How of Clan Cleansing: Political Objectives and Discursive Means -- Time-Line of the Major Events Examined in This Book -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Name Index -- Subject Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

In 1991, certain political and military leaders in Somalia, wishing to gain exclusive control over the state, mobilized their followers to use terror-wounding, raping, and killing-to expel a vast number of Somalis from the capital city of Mogadishu and south-central and southern Somalia. Manipulating clan sentiment, they succeeded in turning ordinary civilians against neighbors, friends, and coworkers. Although this episode of organized communal violence is common knowledge among Somalis, its real nature has not been publicly acknowledged and



has been ignored, concealed, or misrepresented in scholarly works and political memoirs-until now. Marshaling a vast amount of source material, including Somali poetry and survivor accounts, Clan Cleansing in Somalia analyzes this campaign of clan cleansing against the historical background of a violent and divisive military dictatorship, in the contemporary context of regime collapse, and in relationship to the rampant militia warfare that followed in its wake. Clan Cleansing in Somalia also reflects on the relationship between history, truth, and post-conflict reconstruction in Somalia. Documenting the organization and intent behind the campaign of clan cleansing, Lidwien Kapteijns traces the emergence of the hate narratives and code words that came to serve as rationales and triggers for the violence. However, it was not clans that killed, she insists, but people who killed in the name of clan. Kapteijns argues that the mutual forgiveness for which politicians often so lightly call is not a feasible proposition as long as the violent acts for which Somalis should forgive each other remain suppressed and undiscussed. Clan Cleansing in Somalia establishes that public acknowledgment of the ruinous turn to communal violence is indispensable to social and moral repair, and can provide a gateway for the critical memory work required from Somalis on all sides of this multifaceted conflict.