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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Making Peace in Somaliland
Authors:Farah, Ahmed Y.ISNI
Lewis, Ioan M.ISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Cahiers d'études africaines
Volume:37
Issue:146
Pages:349-377
Language:English
Geographic terms:Somaliland
Somalia
Subjects:civil wars
peace treaties
Politics and Government
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://doi.org/10.3406/cea.1997.3518
Abstract:This paper reports the result of a brief anthropological field study, carried out in 1993, on the organization and progress of grass-roots peace initiatives in the Somaliland Republic. When President Siad Barre's government was overthrown in 1991, the Somali National Movement (SNM), whose support was primarily drawn from the northern Isaaq clan, set up an interim government in the northwest. However, this administration did not have the authority or the means to restore peace and stability. The paper examines grass-roots peace initiatives take by traditional political leaders, who gradually built up a national network of clan reconciliation conferences. Using traditional institutions and diplomacy, they succeeded to a remarkable degree in restoring relative calm and normalizing inter-clan relations on a wide front. The results of this low-budget, locally inspired process in the north were much more impressive than those of the expensive, high-profile peace conferences engineered by foreign agencies in southern Somalia. To illustrate the structure and operations of these clan councils ('Guurti'), the authors describe the case of the Habar Yonis clan in Erigavo district. Bibliogr., note, sum. in English and French.
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