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Home , Ogaden War, Siad Barre

Refugee Exodus from : Revisiting the Causes Hassan A. Mohamed

Rhmc? needed to be rescued from themselves Cet article se propose d'exarniner les causes du conflit Somalien qui a (Rakia 1992). provoque l'exode de plus de deux millions de rkfugies. Par une approche It is unfortunate that the discourse historique du developpement de la tra@die, l'auteur offre une perspective on the crisis in Somalia has so far ig- plus complexe et tres differente de celle offerte par les medias qui se nored the complex historical develop- cantonnent dans des discussions simplistes et superficielles des symptbmes ment of the tragedy. Abdi Samatar actuels. Pour Hassan Mohammed, les causes de la crise Somalienne sont liees (1992, 626) aptly described the prob- Bun processus de desintegration de la societe civile et de ses valeurs sociales, lem: culturelleset politiques, une desintegration qui resulte de quatre evhements One of the casualties of the gruesome historiques: le decoupage de la nation et du territoire Somalien en plusieurs nightmare that is gripping Somalia entites; l'impact de la guerre froide; l'imposition de systemes politique, has been the capacity to thinkhistori- culture1 et educatif &rangers B la culture Somalienne; et enfin, la manipula- cally and systematically about the nature of the malady, and to find tion et l'exploitation des divisions claniques par l'elite politique afin de practical ways of controlling the demeurer au pouvoir. present in order to build a more sus- tainable future. Introduction stream explanations. The severity of the crisis in Somalia was largely un- The failure of "Operation Restore The most recent and probably the larg- known to the outside world prior to Hope" is an apt illustration of this est refugee exodus in the history of the the televised images of starving multi- point; the good intentionsof the opera- started in Somalia in tudes and marauding armed young- tion made many innocent vic- 1988. By the end of 1992, the world had sters which attracted the world's tims rather than beneficiaries of the witnessed the ugly consequences of attention-eventually leading to the supposedly humanitarian interven- four years of civil war and that now famous "Operation Restore tion. had devastated Somalia and led to the Hope." But the impressions portrayed To understand fully the causes of disintegration of the state and civil so- gave neither an accurate picture nor the crisis, it is necessary to go beyond ciety. The destructive forces of war and adequately explained the genesis of the traditional scholarship which famine have claimed the lives of ap- the crisis. In most cases, the causes of tends to reduce the causes to a single proximately 350,000 Somalis and sent the current chaos and crises in Somalia factor, namely, Somali segmentary more than one million refugees to have been attributed to internal fac- clanism (Abdi Samatar 1992 and every corner of the globe. Most of the tors, such as "a senseless tribal war Keynan 1992). The causes behind the refugees fled to neighbouring coun- over state-control." This became the crisis are the result of an interplay of tries. According to sources such as U.S. standard premise for most of the popu- political, economic, sociocultural and Committee for Refugees (1993) and lar and academic writings on the crisis ecological factors that have been in the UNHCR (1993) there were about in Somalia. making for a long time (Wisner 1992; 400,000 Somali refugees in in The fixation on the immediate social Keynan 1992 and Abdi Samatar 1992). 1992, another 320,000 in and crisis-such as lawlessness, The correlations of these can be under- approximately 85,000 hosted by tiny and starvation-an be both mislead- stood from a historical perspective that . Another 250,000 refugees ing and unjust. It is misleadingbecause views the disintegrationof indigenous were dispersed in Asia, Europe and the emphasis is on the symptoms and social systems and civil society as the North America. Besides, about two not on the causes of the situation. This consequences of: million people were internally dis- approach not only leads to inadequate 1. the impact of the colonial legacy placed (see Tables 1-4). understanding of the problems but is especially the partition of the So- This article discusses the causes of also unjust when the diagnosis prima- mali nation and territories; the Somali disaster from a different rily focuses on the single dimension of 2. the legacy of the ; perspective than the standard main- internal factors, while ignoring exter- 3. the imposition of alien centralized nal and historical aspects. Such a sin- structures, systems of governance, gle-sided approach tended "to blame culture and education which con- the victims for their misery and agony" tributed to the disintegrationof the Hassan A. Mohamed is a doctoral candidateat the Centerforlntmtional Education, University (Keynan 1992) and resulted in the por- indigenous political, economic of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a research trayal of Somalis as "either gun-crazy and sociocultural modes of life and associate at CRS, Ymk University. looters or as hapless victims" that structures that were compatible

6 Refirge, Vol. 14, No. 1 (April 1994) I with the harsh and precarious en- which Britain later ceded to Kenya); by stable colonial rule elsewhere [in vironment of the Horn of Africa; Italian in the south; French Africa]" (Harbeson 1991). Conse- ' and finally Somaliland (now Djibouti); and a large quently, this legacy gave birth to 4. the failure of the mentally colo- region known as which all strong sentiments of Pan-Somalism, nized ruling elite to develop viable three European powers relinquished whose pursuit helped precipitate spo- alternatives to western values and portions of to Emperor Menelik of radic wars between Somalia and Ethio- systems of governance rather than Ethiopia as a reward for his collabora- pia. For example, the wars of 1960, resorting to the manipulation and tion (Lewis 1988; Harbeson 1991; 1963-64 and 1976-78 directly contrib- exploitation of the segmentary na- Zolberg 1992 and Sheikh-Abdi 1993). uted to several refugee populations. ture of the Somali social system in Only two parts of the Somali nation- Before we discuss Pan-So~alismletus order to stay in power. the former and first look at the role of the superpowers former --out of five during the Cold War era in the Horn of The Partition of the Somali Nation: gained independence and united, on Africa. A Colonial Legacy July 1,1960 to form the present Somali A major causal factor in the current Democratic Republic. For Somalis, one The Role of the Superpowers crisis is the impact of the colonial par- of the most devastating results of the The proximity of the Horn of Africa to tition of Somali nation into five sepa- colonial .partition was that it "frus- the Suez Canal and the oil rich Middle rate parts: British Somaliland in the trated Somqli national aspirations and East have made it attractive to foreign north; North Frontier District (NFD, fractured the basis for statehood laid involvement in its affairs. The and the former , driven by geopolitical and ideological motives, turned the Hornof Africa into one of the most bitterly contested bat- tlefields of the Cold War. Since the early 1960~~the superpowers-partly in response to the demands of their local clients-dumped massive amounts of deadly weapons into the region. Somalia and Ethiopia are among the poorest countries in the world, yet during the and 1980s their mili- tary rulers diverted tremendous amounts of national resources to build and sustain huge standing armies. One Somali writer, Keynan (1993) esti- mated that Somalia spent between 60 and 80 percent of its annual budget on defense. He put the annual public ex- penditure per soldier at $US 2,065; compared to, say, the salary of $US 100 to a senior lecturer at the Somali Na- tional University. The cost of soldiers weapons to the local people-deliv- ered in the form of loans and aid- exceeded $US 12 billion. For example, atfhe height of in "just five months, between November 1977 and March 1978, the Soviet Union dumped $US 2 billion worth of sophis- ticated weaponry in the Horn (Keynan 1992,6-7)." Today, the deadly arms in the hands of the Somalis that confront the UN multilateral military mission are the legacy of the Cold War (Zolberg 1992). There is no need to elaborate the

Refuge, Vol. 14, No. 1 (April 1994) 7 role these arms have played in Soma- Ethiopian rule in Ogaden. Second, the were diverted to the diverse warring lia's ongoing destruction and refugee defeat had a negative psychological factions among the elite. exodus. impact on the morale and self-esteem of the population and set the stage for Tribalism in African Social Pan-Somalism: The Faded Dream the political disintegration of Somali Systems The post-colonial regimes of Somalia unity. Once the last hope for Pan- Son, the tribalism business is the spent considerable amounts of energy Somalism had vanished, all-of the re- work of the urban people. They cook and resources toward unification of sources, energy and sentiments that it there and then serve it to us. (Issa, the dismembered Somali nation. Pur- had been directed toward the external a peasant in , spring 1990; suing this dream led to constant hos- enemies became a double edged sword Quoted by Abdi Samatar 1992,625). tilities and open warfare between that was now turned inward. Third, One of the major contentions of this Somalia and the neighbouring coun- people could no longer endure the paper is that the majority of Somalis do tries of Ethiopia and Kenya during the political, economic and social hard- not view tribalism as the cause of their 1960s. A decade later, sensing the de- ships, and openly challenged the lead- problems but rather as the creation of cline of the legitimacy of their military ership as a result. Thus, the pursuit of the ruling elites. In the past, it had been rule, (Somalia's former dic- Pan-Somalism had directly contrib- the colonial administrations that used tator) and his colleagues played their uted to the present destruction. the "centrifugal tendencies" of indig- final card-Pan-Somalism, a matter Harbeson (1991, 223), comparing the enous social structures as a divide and heavy in every Somali's heart. consequences of Ogaden war for the rule strategy to consolidate their In 1975, Somalia supported the rulers of Ethiopia and Somalia, also power. In the pursuit of their economic dominant Western Somali Liberation contends: and political interests, the post-inde- Movement (WSLF) in Ogaden (under The causes of the [current] civil wars pendence ruling elites used tribalism Ethiopian rule) in an attempt to realize in Somalia are significantly different to divide and manipulate the clan-seg- the dream of Somali unification. On from those in Ethiopia. The 1977- mented, but otherwise homogenous, July 23,1977 the Somali army entered 1978 Ogaden war between Ethiopia Somali society. Ogaden in support of WSLF. It quickly and Somalia had failed to extend and This view is not unique to the So- captured more than 95 percent of the escalate the ongoing Ethiopian civil mali context; we find support from Somali inhabited lands and launched wars and in general had helped to African scholars who argue that, in rally support for a beleaguered assaults on the outskirts of Hararland Mengistu regime. In contrast, in So- Africa, colonialism has created "tfibal- Dira-Dawa. malia the Ogaden conflict inspired ism" in addition to nation-states. For The balance of power changed the civil war that was to topple the example, Osaghae (1991,28) contends when the former military regime in regime of Siad Barre more than a that "modern" forms of tribe and trib- Ethiopia broke off relations with the decade later. alism are emergent social structures. United States. At the same time, Soma- Finally, the defeat had widened the He cites Raymond Apthorpoe who ar- lia expelled the Soviets. Viewing the division among the ruling class that gues that "the colonial regimes admin- Horn of Africa as a strategic area, the had already been engaged in a feud istratively created tribes as we think of superpowersswitched horses. The So- over the misappropriation of public them today." Similarly, Ali Mazrui viet Union embarked on a massive air- resources and the state treasury: (1980) argues that the western impact lift, which the world had not Once the new regime consolidated has instilled three levels of identity experienced since the World War 11, to its power, which took about four to among Africans: the identity of tribe support the Ethiopian side and to save five years, the hard-fisted military tops the list followed by identities of Mengistu's regime. Siad Barre was bureaucracybegan openly to raid the nation-stateand race. The point here is unable either to persuade Russia to be public coffers at an unprecedented that the way tribalism is defined and neutral or to secure western help. Con- rate, particularly after the Ogaden used today evolved during the colo- sequently, Somalia lost the war to the war of 1977-8. The defeat of the So- nial era. Of course, African communi- mali army added more fuel to the forces of Ethiopia, equipped with Cu- disintegration of the rulingjunta and ties were divided along different ban, East German and Soviet expertise the armed forces (Samatar and lineage and kinship structures, but the and technology. Samatar 1987,683). divisive aspects of tribalism were less pronounced because African societies The Aftermath of Ogaden War The squabbling among the leader- had indigenous social laws and The Somali rulers had disastrously ship took the form of "pitting one fac- norms-called Xeer in the Somali con- miscalculated the whole endeavour tion against the other in an old and text-that regulated civil society and and the Somali people paid a costly familiar fashion" (i.e., "clanism"; ibid, ensured political stability. Hence, price. First, there was the unprec- 684). A clan-based attempted coup in many African communities were more edented flight of 1.5 million refugees 1978was brutally suppressed and con- stable and harmonious than they are from the vengeful re-imposition of sequently the resources of the nation today. These systems have been mar-

8 Rafuge, Vol. 14, No. 1 (April 1994) ginalized as result of colonialism and ute basic productive or subsistence re- cisive influence" as Abdi Samatamnd western influence. sources to individuals in need. In this Ahmed Samatar (1987, 680) put it. context, the Xeer kinship system Thus, the post-colonial leaders have The Indigenous Somali Social served both as a cohesive and a divi- used Eurocentriccolonial models in all System: Kinship and Xeer sive factor, depending on the dictates aspects of governance. Michael For centuries the "pillar of Somali so- of the prevailing social, political and Crowder also attests: cial structure" was the communal sys- economic relations of the society-i.e., The colonial experience has affected tem based on family and clan whether they were antagonistic or co- the way Africa has developed over relationships and interactions (Abdi operative. The nature of these relation- the past twenty-fiveyears ... there are Samatar 1992, 629). Each basic family ships were largely moderated by the many parallels to be found between unit or household stood as an "autono- Xeerbetween the different groups. The the colonial state and the independ- mous unit" in its economic produc- excesses of segmentary clanism were ent state than are conceded (Samatar tion, yet the neighbouring groups had tamed and constrained by the obliga- and Samatar 1987,680). guaranteed their own physical and tory values of Xeer just as western indi- In the case of Somalia, the adoption social security through formal con- vidualistic society is regulated by law of British style parliamentary politics tracts (Xeer) of alliances among men and order. exemplifies the imprint of colonial her- who calculated their loyalties to one In pre-colonial Somalia this system itage on its disciples who came into another in terms of kinship. Kinship, a ' was somewhat stable, Abdi Samatar power, not to mention that the consti- misunderstood concept in the case of (1992,631) described the resilience and tution they were followingwas drafted Somalia, is more complex than simple viability of the pre-colonial Somali by foreign experts: biological relationship. A Somali Xeer system as follows: The Somali Independence Constitu- scholar has recently described the full What gave the Xeer staying power in tion of 1960 was written by Italian meaning of kinship in the pre-colonial the absence of centralised coercive and American experts, one of whom Somali social order as follows: machinery was the voluntarism as- reputedly boasted of drafting the The of kinship had two cen- sociated with the absolute necessity in a Rome hotel over a tral elements: Blood-ties and Xeer. of relying and living on one's la- bottle of whisky (Adam 1992,22). The first was essentially a product of bour/livestock rather than exploit- This fact illustrates the colonized genealogical connections buttressed ing others. Such an ethic-in mentality of the Somali elites which by a patrilineal system harking back conjunction with Islam-prevented and restrained centrifugal -tenden- led to their failure to develop the coun- to real or invented common origin/ try even according to western sys- ancestor; the latter was the embodi- cies in the lineage system, thereby ment of common wisdom and the inhibiting terrible men from plung- tems-for they were as divorced from locus of inter/ intra generationaland, ing the community into a nightmare. the reality of the country they were ,in its most general depiction, a Pan- leading as was their foreign drafted Somali code of conduct. The com- With the advent of the western-style constitution. bined meaning of these elements centralized state, the Xeer system was constituted the-&lieu in which both continuously undermined by super- Clanism and Elite Manipulation in the private and the public were de- seding state laws and rules. Modern Somalia fined. This, then, was the basis of kin- Somali (and African) state rulers and Some scholars perceive the Somali in- ship-an ideology commensurate elites may no longer be guided by val- digenous social system as egalitarian, with reciprocal production relations (Abdi Samatar 1992,630). ues based on Xeer as these were re- labelling it "pastoral democracy" placed by foreign social values and (Lewis 1961; Touval1963; Laitin and Historically, in the absence of cen- systems of governance. Samatar 1987).Furthermore, they have tralized and "institutionalized state suggested that a multiparty system structures," theXeer was a socially con- The Post-Colonial Centralized State would be consistent with the pastoral strueed system of norms and values In most Third World countries and values of the Somalis. Hence, the con- established to ensure the security, so- particularly Africa, the post-colonial stitution of the new Somali State, up cialjustice and harmony of Somali pas- ruling class inherited the colonial until 1969, guaranteed the freedom to toral communities. The Xeer system structures and its culture of state man- organize and compete for political of- was latter modified and reinforced by agement. This fact created a depend- fice through a multiparty western- Islamic values. The role of Xeer was to ency relationship with former colonial style political system. But what was codify the political obligations of inter- powers which constituted not only inconsistent with the pastoral ethos of clan, as well as intra-clan, lineage economic and political but also cul- the Somali people was the emphasis mates and their followers who collabo- tural and intellectual aspects. The the new constitution placed on the in- rated socially and economically to depth of such dependence was such dividual entity in contrast to group- share certain labour tasks, to defend or that the "colonial regime was to relin- clan-entity. There is a difference extend grazing areas, and to redistrib- quish visible power but not to lose de- between the western notion of democ-

Refuse, Vol. 14, No. 1 (April 1994) 9 racy that is based on values of indi- sequent challenges to his leadership Keynan, Hassan. 1992. "The making of the vidualistic society as compared to the were invariably organizationally clan- Somali tragedy and how it can be tack- Somali pastoral democracy that is based. Trust rather than ideas or ideol- led." Unpublished paper. based on communal social system and ogy became the determining factor in Laitin, D.D. and S.S. Samatar. 1987. Somalia: values-an aspect that has been over- political alliances. Nation in search of a state. Boulder, Colo- looked. Eventually, in late 1990, Barre's not- rado: Westview Press. The failure to appreciate such dif- so-secret practice of divide and rule Lewis, I.M. 1979. "Kim &Sung in Somalia: The end of tribalism?" In Politics in lead- ferences led to the derailment of the broke down. At home he simply ran ership: A comparatiw perspective, edited infant parliamentary democracy and out of clans: the Ogadens; the largest by W.A. Shack and S.P. Cohen. Oxford: theemergence of clan-based political and vital ; and even the quiet Clarendon Press. rivalry at the national level. The seg- and peaceful Rahanwayn deserted -1969. " and particularism mentary nature of Somali society be- him. Finally, the USC (mainly consti- in Somalia." In Tradition and transition in came the Achilles' heel that power tuted of Hawiye clans) with the help of : Studies of the tribal element in hungry elites exploited. National re- others overran Barre's palace in early modern era, edited by P.H. Gulliver. sources were distributed through January 1991. But instead of sharing Routledge k Kegan Paul. clans rather than through an impartial the leadership, the factional leaders -. 1961. A pastoral democracy: A study of merit system. Individuals were pro- fought over it, fuelling a new inter-clan pastoralism and politics among the Northern moted on the basis of their clan ties civil war that killed more than 350,000 Somali of the Horn OfAfrica. London: Ox- ford University Press. rather than on their individual merit Somalis and scattered two million 1961. "Force and fission in Northern and proven leadership qualities. This refugees around the globe. -. Somali lineage structure." American An- practice, which was neither western thropology 631:95-112. nor indigenous but somewhat akin to Conclusion Mazrui, Ali. 1980. The African condition. Lon- that of colonial administration, incited There is no denial that it is Somalis don: Cambridge University Press. factionalism and aggravated the "an- who are killing each other in clan- Osaghae, Eghosa. 1991. "Colonialism and archic tendencies already present in based conflict. However, to focus African political thought." UFAHAMU the society" (Laitin and Samatar 1987, solely on clanism is overly simplistic 19(2&3):22-37. 76). The result was chaos and the de- and gives a misleading explanation of Omaar, Rakia. 1992. "Human rights: Victims railment of the democratic process. the causes of the present crisis. The real of national disintegration." Paper pre- There was a contradiction between causes of civil conflict in Somalia lie sented in a symposium, Somalia: Human the ideal and the practical, a lack of less with the nature of clan segrnenta- disaster and world politics, October 15-16, integrity on the part of the leaders and tion and more with the impact of the 1992, Come11 University: Institute for Af- a confusion in the Somali psyche. A partition of the Somali nation; the ma- rican Development. double standard of moral norms de- nipulation by the ruling elites of the Samatar, Abdi and Ahmed Samatar. 1987. veloped and was internalized to the Somali segmentary social system; the "The material roots of the suspended Af- extent that the Somali individual, on marginalization of the indigenous so- rican state: Arguments from Somalia." The Journal of Modern African Studies the one hand, publicly abhors clanism, cial system (Xeer); and the inadequacy 25(4):669-690. and on the other, privately relies on it of the mediating role of the rulers and Samatar, Abdi. 1992. "Socialclasses and eco- to attain personal ends. Somali psy- the state mechanisms that replaced it. nomic restructuring in pastoral Africa: chiatrist, Hussein Bulhan (1992, 13) It is the combination of the above fac- Somali notes." African Studies Review describes this phenomenon as follows: tors that led to the destruction of the 251:lOl-27. Few things reveal the social neurosis country and the fabric of the Somali Samatar, Ahmed. 1988. Socialist Somalia: of the westernized Somali as the in- nation. Rhetoric and reality. London: Zed Books. congruence of what he declares in -. 1987. "Somalia impasse: state power public versus what he acts upon in References and dissent politics." Third World Quar- the privacy of his clan. terly 9 (3):871-90. Siad Barre, an ex-officer of the colonial Adam, Hussein M. 1992. "Somalia: milita- Sheik-Abdi, Abdi. 1993. Divine madness: Mo- army and a shrewd player of Somali rism, warlordism or democracy?" Review hammed Abudulle Hassan 1856-1920. Lon- clan politics, exploited this phenom- of African Political Economy 5411-26. don: Zed Books. ena to prolong his rule for more than Bulhan, Hussein. 1992. "The legacy of des- Touval, Saadia. 1963. : In- two decades. With the help of state potism." Paper presented in a sympo- ternational politics and the drive for unity in sium, Somalia: Human disaster and world treasury he courted the loyalties of clan the Horn of Africa. Cambridge, Mass.: politics, October 15-16,1992, ComellUni- Harvard University Press. leaders and played them off against versity: Institute for African Develop- each other-to the point of supplying ment. Wisner, Ben. 1992. "The political ecology of famine in Somalia." Unpublished paper. funds and ammunition to opposing Harbeson, John. 1991. "The Horn Of Africa: groups. Those who opposed Barre From chaos, political renewal?" Current Zolberg, Aristide. 1992. "The spectre of anar- played the same game as he did. Sub- History (May):221-224. chy." Dissent (Summer):303-11.0

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