In 1991, certain political and military leaders in Somalia,
wishing to gain exclusive control over the state, mobilized their
followers to use terror--wounding, raping, and killing--to expel a
vast number of Somalis from the capital city of Mogadishu and
south-central and southern Somalia. Manipulating clan sentiment,
they succeeded in turning ordinary civilians against neighbors,
friends, and coworkers. Although this episode of organized communal
violence is common knowledge among Somalis, its real nature has not
been publicly acknowledged and has been ignored, concealed, or
misrepresented in scholarly works and political memoirs--until now.
Marshaling a vast amount of source material, including Somali
poetry and survivor accounts, "Clan Cleansing in Somalia" analyzes
this campaign of clan cleansing against the historical background
of a violent and divisive military dictatorship, in the
contemporary context of regime collapse, and in relationship to the
rampant militia warfare that followed in its wake."Clan Cleansing
in Somalia" also reflects on the relationship between history,
truth, and postconflict reconstruction in Somalia. Documenting the
organization and intent behind the campaign of clan cleansing,
Lidwien Kapteijns traces the emergence of the hate narratives and
code words that came to serve as rationales and triggers for the
violence. However, it was not clans that killed, she insists, but
people who killed in the name of clan. Kapteijns argues that the
mutual forgiveness for which politicians often so lightly call is
not a feasible proposition as long as the violent acts for which
Somalis should forgive each other remain suppressed and
undiscussed. "Clan Cleansing in Somalia" establishes that public
acknowledgment of the ruinous turn to communal violence is
indispensable to social and moral repair, and can provide a gateway
for the critical memory work required from Somalis on all sides of
this multifaceted conflict.
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