Primordialist Blinders: A Reply to I. M. Lewis

Besteman, Catherine

doi:10.1525/can.1998.13.1.109

Cited by 53 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…To recognise the continued salience of clan constructs in Somali politics (or in popular perceptions of politics) does not equate to an endorsement of a primordialist conception of clan as the monolithic and timeless determinant of all power and social relations in the Somali context, or a reductionist approach which interprets all conflict through the lens of clan competition. Debates in the literature, particularly post state-collapse, have highlighted the shortcomings of such narratives while emphasising the fluidity of clan-identification and the diversity of material determinants of political change or contestation across the Somali territories (Samatar 1992(Samatar , 2011Besteman 1998;Luling 2006;Barnes 2006).…”

Section: Discursive Tropes: Foreign Intervention and The 'Venal Politmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cartoons in conflict: Amin Arts and transnational geopolitical imagination in the Somali-language public sphere

Chonka

2016

Critical African Studies

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Section: Discursive Tropes: Foreign Intervention and The 'Venal Politmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cartoons in conflict: Amin Arts and transnational geopolitical imagination in the Somali-language public sphere

Chonka

2016

Critical African Studies

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“…Lewis (1999Lewis ( [1961) famously described it as a segmentary lineage system, an egalitarian social structure based on kinship and contract governed by clan elders which is still functional today. The idea that tradition-based age-old solidarities and animosities between clans and sub-groups inherent to this system are responsible for the Somali plight today met with severe criticism from Besteman (1998), Mohamed (2007) and others. They point to the shifting meanings and content of what constitutes 'traditional' in Somalia's colonial and post-colonial society.…”

Section: Negotiating Statehood In the National Arena Prelude: Civil W...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating Statehood in a Hybrid Political Order: The Case of Somaliland

Renders¹,

Terlinden²

2011

Negotiating Statehood

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This article investigates the negotiation of statehood in Somaliland, a nonrecognized de facto state which emerged from Somalia's conflict and state collapse. The negotiation process centres on the continuing transformation of a hybrid political order, involving 'formal' as well as 'informal' spheres, both in existing institutions (as 'rules of the game') and in the bodies or agents enforcing these rules. The negotiation processes considered take place at the national and local level respectively, as well as between the two. These negotiations are heterogeneous, non-linear and ongoing. The article demonstrates how the polity's tolerance for heterogeneous negotiations and different forms of statehood allowed local political actors to establish peace in their own local settings first. Although it did not produce uniform statehood, it provided the basis for communities to explore the scope for common statehood. On the national level, hybrid elements initially allowed for a healthy adaptation of statehood to local needs, and for legitimate, productive instruments of negotiation. This responsiveness was not maintained, and current hybrid elements threaten to undermine the polity's stability.The authors would like to thank Markus Höhne and Tobias Hagmann, as well as the journal's referees, for their feedback on earlier versions of this article.

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“…Using concepts such as tribe or ethnicity alone to explain violence risks mystifying social realities (Besteman 1996:580; Calhoun 1995:231; Fox 1990:4; Kellner 1989:8). Indeed, scholars versed in polarization and conflict have difficulty agreeing on what ethnicity means (Keefe 1989:1; McHugh 1995:2; Southall 1997), and tribal and ethnic formations tend to give way to the historic and contemporary circumstances of native people when we examine the roots of social differentiation in specific cases (Besteman 1998; Ferguson and Whitehead 1992:16; Maybury‐Lewis 2002:114). It is therefore crucial to diagnose the historic and contemporary contingencies that lead to social differentiation and antagonisms, in order to find out what fundamental rationales motivate agents to pursue such schisms.…”

Section: Primordial Elites or Members Of Interest Groupsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commoners, Kings, and Subaltern: Political Factionalism and Structured Inequality in Lesotho

Turkon

2008

PoLAR

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Conflict studies continue to focus on ethnicity because violence often arises among culturally heterogeneous populations. Conflicts also occur, however, in culturally homogeneous settings such as Lesotho. In Lesotho, sporadic violence has resulted not from ethnic conflicts, but from contests between interest groups vying to control the state and concomitant perquisites. Particular models for state control are legitimized by global interests seeking to promote formation of labor and commodity markets. As a result, the political system in Lesotho has fractured into multiple parties which struggle to promote specialized interests, while expressions of civil society are commonly suppressed. This article concludes that without freedom to develop institutions of civil society, sporadic violence will remain a problem for Lesotho. The lessons learned from analysis of conflict in a culturally homogenous state such as Lesotho also shed light on the ways that factors other than ethnicity contribute to conflict in culturally heterogeneous populations. [Lesotho; public sphere; civil society; nationalism; transnationalism; identity] Here in Lesotho, if the workers strike, the government sends the police to shoot them. If the police strike, our government sends the army to shoot them. If our soldiers strike, then our government calls in the South African troops to shoot them. We have no freedom. (Informant, June 12, 2004).

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Primordialist Blinders: A Reply to I. M. Lewis

Cited by 53 publications

References 14 publications

Cartoons in conflict: Amin Arts and transnational geopolitical imagination in the Somali-language public sphere

Cartoons in conflict: Amin Arts and transnational geopolitical imagination in the Somali-language public sphere

Negotiating Statehood in a Hybrid Political Order: The Case of Somaliland

Commoners, Kings, and Subaltern: Political Factionalism and Structured Inequality in Lesotho

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