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Title: | The Invention of Somalia |
Editor: | Ahmed, Ali Jimale![]() |
Chapter(s): | Present |
Year: | 1995 |
Pages: | 265 |
Language: | English |
City of publisher: | Lawrenceville, NJ |
Publisher: | Red Sea Press |
ISBN: | 0932415989; 0932415997 |
Geographic term: | Somalia |
Subjects: | Somali studies Islamic history Somali women history ethnic groups pre-Christian era 0-999 1000-1999 |
Abstract: | Siyaad Barre's ouster from power in Somalia in January 1991 not only unleashed an internecine fighting among Somali clans, but also revealed the 'hidden' class character of urban areas like Mogadishu. The civil war had caught many people by surprise. How was it possible that a nation that had so much in common - or so it seemed - could suddenly 'snap' and easily descend into such a fratricidal mayhem? The authors in this volume do not only suggest alternative ways of seeing and interpreting existing data, but also initiate and propose new ways of reading the Somali past and present. Almost all essays were read as part of the 'Invention of Somalia' seminars at the African Studies Association meetings in Seattle 1992 and in Boston 1993 and also at the Somali Studies Association in Worcester 1993. The subjects are: Islam in Somali history (Mohamed Haji Mukhtar); the Banadir Coast (Mohamed M. Kassim); the Gosha (Catherine Besteman); the role of Somali intellectuals (Ahmed Qassim Ali; Ali Jimale Ahmed); the Somali origin (Abdi M. Kusow); the Somali State and the Somali clan system (both by Abdalla Omar Mansur); Somali women (Christine Choi Ahmed); identity and dance in the riverine areas of Somalia (Francesca Declich); critiques of the invention of Somalia (Edward Alpers); and the eastern Horn of Africa, 1000 BC to AD 1400 (Christopher Ehret). |