In 1991 the Somali state collapsed. Once heralded as the only true nation-state in Africa, the Somalia of the 1990s suffered brutal internecine warfare. At the same time a politically created famine caused the deaths of a half a million people and the flight of a million refugees.
During the civil war, scholarly and popular analyses explained Somalia's disintegration as the result of ancestral hatreds played out in warfare between various clans and subclans. In Unraveling Somalia, Catherine Besteman challenges this view and argues that the actual pattern of violence—inflicted disproportionately on rural southerners—contradicts the prevailing model of ethnic homogeneity and clan opposition. She contends that the dissolution of the Somali nation-state can be understood only by recognizing that over the past century and a half there emerged in Somalia a social order based on principles other than simple clan organization—a social order deeply stratified on the basis of race, status, class, region, and language.
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"Besteman's well-written and important book is a fine example of how careful scholarship can expose the realities behind widely held beliefs."—Choice
About the Author
Catherine Besteman is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Colby College.
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This review is from: Unraveling Somalia: Race, Class, and the Legacy of Slavery (The Ethnography of Political Violence) (Paperback)
It arrives real quick, n on time for my project. Its was a great experience reading the book and understanding the class system in Somalia.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
A letter arrives, telling me that every child under the age of five was now dead in the Jubba valley village in southern Somalia where I had lived several years previously. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
jubba valley, middle jubba, middle valley farmers, pastoralist elders, registered titleholders, lower jubba, middle valley villages, lineal purity, pastoral slaves, regional agricultural officer, riverbank land, slavery heritage, segmentary lineage model, valley villagers, clan affiliations, racialized space, militia head, clan basis, slavery experiences, slave descendants, slave ancestry, slave heritage, slaves arriving, state rhetoric, clan membership Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Baay Region, Nassib Bundo, Jubba River, Cabdow Yusuf, Dhasheeg Loc, Siyad Barre, Benaadir Coast, Cold War, Loc Yare, Ministry of Agriculture, Ogaadeen Somalis, Sheikh Cabdulle, Sheikh Nasibow, Dhasheeg Gora, Shabeelle Ajuraan, Sheikh Cabdi Nur, United States, Indian Ocean, World War, Abdi Samatar, British Somaliland, Jorge Acero, Sheikh Cabdow Kheyr, Swedish Church Relief, Amnesty International New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
A letter arrives, telling me that every child under the age of five was now dead in the Jubba valley village in southern Somalia where I had lived several years previously. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
jubba valley, middle jubba, middle valley farmers, pastoralist elders, registered titleholders, lower jubba, middle valley villages, lineal purity, pastoral slaves, regional agricultural officer, riverbank land, slavery heritage, segmentary lineage model, valley villagers, clan affiliations, racialized space, militia head, clan basis, slavery experiences, slave descendants, slave ancestry, slave heritage, slaves arriving, state rhetoric, clan membership Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Baay Region, Nassib Bundo, Jubba River, Cabdow Yusuf, Dhasheeg Loc, Siyad Barre, Benaadir Coast, Cold War, Loc Yare, Ministry of Agriculture, Ogaadeen Somalis, Sheikh Cabdulle, Sheikh Nasibow, Dhasheeg Gora, Shabeelle Ajuraan, Sheikh Cabdi Nur, United States, Indian Ocean, World War, Abdi Samatar, British Somaliland, Jorge Acero, Sheikh Cabdow Kheyr, Swedish Church Relief, Amnesty International New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 89
books:
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8
books
cite this book:
See all 8 books citing this book
- Struggle for Land in Southern Somalia: The War Behind the War by Catherine Besteman in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The Invention of Somalia by Ali Jimale Ahmed in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The End of Slavery in Africa by Suzanne Miers in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Violence Within: Cultural And Political Opposition In Divided Nations by Kay Warren in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Invention of Tradition (Canto) by Eric Hobsbawm in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 89 books this book cites
- State Crises, Globalisation and National Movements in North-East Africa: The Horn's Dilemma (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics) by Asafa Jalata on page 26, and Back Matter
- Liberia: The Violence of Democracy (The Ethnography of Political Violence) by Mary H. Moran in Back Matter
- The State, Identity and Violence: Political Disintegration in the Post-Cold War World (War and Society) by R. Brian Ferguson on page 298
- Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress (African Expressive Cultures) by Jean Allman on page 62
- Somalia: Economy without State (African Issues) by Peter D. Little in Back Matter
See all 8 books citing this book
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