Paul Goldsmith
12 October 2008
analysis
Nairobi — What is it that makes Pirates different from other brigands; why do dacoits of the sea excite the imagination where the land-bound highwayman invokes fear and loathing? To explain, we cite the curious case of the Pirates of Puntland.
Somalia may be an arid and environmentally challenged country, but its strategic location and long coastline is a major asset. How these improbable pirates came to fulfill the country's manifest destiny is a long if circular story.
To begin with, during the Cold War, Somalia's proximity to Arabia and the shipping lanes connecting Europe to its oil attracted superpower competition.
The Soviet Union befriended President Siad Barre during his scientific socialism phase (or "camel-sharing," to use the local term). All Somalis were jalle, brothers -- actually brothers-in-arms -- after the Soviets provided weaponry that made Somalia Africa's most militarised nation.
But some brothers were more jalle than others. In 1978, against the advice of his generals, Barre crossed the line and invaded the Ogaden to liberate the jalle in Ethiopia, who also belonged to his wife's clan.
When Barre denied involvement during a visit to the Kremlin, his hosts produced aerial photographs pinpointing the Somali army's positions.
The Soviets flip-flopped. Together with their Cuban protégés, they launched the largest single logistical operation in military history to support their new Afro-Marxist comrades in Ethiopia. The comrades scorched the jalle invaders.
The survivors limped home, leaving behind the hundreds of bombed out tanks and burning armoured cars testifying to Barre's ill-advised gambit. Barre squashed an attempted coup by disillusioned army officers, and then executed the Majertain clan top brass.
The survivors escaped across the border, where Barre's brother diktator, Mengistu Haile Mariam, funded an armed liberation movement led by the former army colonel, Abdullahi Yusuf.
Barre switched his support to clan-based militias (i.e., Darod clan militias) to stay in power; conservative Arab governments pitched in with small arms (i.e. AK-47s) worth $450 million.
Consistent with the law predicting that most policies end up producing the opposite results, jalle camel-sharing ended up reviving the monolithic status of the segmentary lineage and clans in Somali society, enabling Barre to hold on for another 15 years -- a period during which conditions in Somalia in general declined.
But after Mohammed Farah Aideed's Hawiye Habr Gedir dislodged Afwein (meaning "Big Mouth," the dictator's nickname) for good in January 1993, things began to seriously go south. Both literally, in regard to the thousands of refugees pouring into Kenya, and more figuratively in the case of the civil war erupting in the capital, Mogadishu.
The conflict provided the backdrop for the benignly entitled US intervention, Operation Restore Hope, which culminated with the battle Somalis dubbed Ma Alinti Ranga and Ridley Scott depicted on the silver screen under the title, Black Hawk Down.
We need to highlight two aspects of the failed special forces mission to capture the warlord Aideed:
One, the retreat of the international community from Somalia following the extended street fight between the rangers and his Habr Gedr clan; and, two, the contrast between the clan's unseemly parading of the corpse of the fallen helicopter pilot and the capture of another pilot by a mooryan militia, who treated their captive's wounds before collecting a ransom for returning him to the US command. Mooryan refers to gangs not affiliated to a particular clan -- arguably the best prototype for understanding the Pirates of Puntland phenomenon.
Ethnic capital and Social transition
Somalia has remained stateless for over 15 years and life somehow goes on, even in "the Mog," despite periodic eruptions of civil strife and all-out war in the capital and its environs.
During this span, the notion that clans represent both the main problem and central variable determining the ultimate outcome of the unresolved crisis, has become strongly rooted among Somalis and non-Somali observers alike.
Several countervailing developments during this prolonged period of transition, however, warrant serious attention: The blossoming of the Somali Diaspora; the rise and fall of the Islamic Courts Movement; and the progress realised by the unrecogised Republic of Somaliland.
While territorial Somalia remains mired in poverty, Diaspora Somalia, only recently established on new soil, is prospering. Somalis are building a reputation for being peaceful and law-abiding citizens abroad, especially compared with other immigrant communities.
They are accumulating capital at a remarkable rate. Somalis based in Dubai are the free port's second largest exporters after the Iranians.
They have transformed the former low-income residential ward of Nairobi's Eastleigh into a major commercial centre, and the same process is underway in the Rwanda Somalia suburb of Addis Ababa, and in other diverse and sundry cities across the globe where the jalle cluster.
The Somali Diaspora are tired of remitting money, they want to invest it. This ethnic capital is already beginning to flow into Somaliland, where clan elders committed to negotiating the peace through political means at an early point in the post-state crisis.
When President Riyaale Kahin won the 2002 national elections by a mere 50 votes, Somaliland's political parties resolved the potential crisis amicably. Successful completion of the national polls later this year is likely to see the rate of investment take off.
Diaspora capital flows into Mogadishu too, but several caveats apply.
Southern Somalia is an environmentally benign land where rain falls and rivers run year round, making it a magnet for clan in-migration. The region is ethnically diverse and home to a complex mix of large and small, nomadic, agro-pastoral, and sedentary clans.
Because the kheer, customary clan law, is more difficult to administer in these circumstances, Sharia law helps bridge the divide.
Pre-colonial southern governance was based on this synthetic Islamic-Somali justice system, and through the agency of the business community, it resumed in the south after the state collapsed.
When the Salafi Al Ittihad movement, in contrast, tried to take over Kismayu, the salafi Islamicists were run out of town.
But the spread of the Islamic Courts model to the even more jumbled social microcosm of Mogadishu provided an opportunity for the failed leaders of Al Ittihad to re-enter the game.
The region's warlords, who operated as a kheer onto themselves, formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, or ARPCT, to stem the tide. President Bush, against the advice of his own State Department, bankrolled the formerly bête noire brigade.
The Islamic Courts Union (ICU), supported by the multi-clan jihadist militia, Al Shabaab, and funded by the anti-jihadist government of Eritrea, prevailed.
The ICU was a practical arrangement for restoring law and order that brought Islamic civil society actors from moderate organisations like Al Islah and a clutch of radical jihadis under the same umbrella.
The ICU model foreshadowed similar political developments occurring in Kenya and Zimbabwe, and its brief six-month rule is now regarded as Mogadishu's Golden Age.
But like Afwein before them, they miscalculated their capacity to take on a superpower-backed Ethiopian state. The Ethiopians escorted President Abdullahi Yusuf's beleaguered Transitional National Government back to Mogadishu.
Despite the support of the Ethiopian army, the TFG's political legitimacy is compromised and its ability to govern is severely constrained by a Taliban-Iraqi style insurgency ostensibly spearheaded by Al Shabaab militants.
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Since the first time I came across your website i have noticed one thing,and that is you write negative articles and sometimes sweet dividing news about Somalia.We have good old days in our past ,present and same will come in the future.I usually dont believe what the west says about Africa nor what their students say about my country's past or present.I do read and do my own research to know whats fact and whats fiction.One thing is clear Somalia will come back united,strong and prosperous.For those who are campaigning to separate the North West from the rest of the… [Read Full Text]
This article is disjointed in its presentation. While the "writer" (I use that word loosely) might be a seasoned traveler, he has only elemental knowledge of Somalia's history, politics and culture. One takes from this article that Al-Shabab and the pirates in Puntland are one and the same group. That is hardly the case.
Somalis in Greater Somalia (the 5 stars) are fiercely independent nation (read here as culturally unique from others in the region) and do not take lightly that foreigners are pillaging their natural marine resources. While I am no fan of the pirates' tactics in enforcing this… [Read Full Text]
Mr. Goldsmith,
I enjoyed reading your article. I would differ with you on two points.
First, the placement of a news story on GOOGLE regarding Somali pirates who died from some chemical exposure on a captured Iranian ship has nothing to do with how the rest of the world ranks the current crisis in Somalia.
Second, the death of 3 pirates on the Iranian ship was a claim that has never been substantiated. The claim was issued by a government official whose motivation is the elimination… [Read Full Text]
What stupidity. Does anyone who reads these article possess either intelligence or education or knowledge of the world? True the west has ignored Africa other than protecting its own interest. That must stop. We need to protect all opressed? Just because they cannot make it to our shores does not mean they do not deserve to be free. Stop piracy. We should do as the mullahs did. They steal ships. We steal their life. The world needs to unite to follow this doctrine in these dire times. We cannot even deliver humanitarian aid because we allow these terrorists to live… [Read Full Text]
To Irasmus:
We need world JIHAD in the area not crusade. After all Islam is the predominant religion in the area. Crusade has a negative connotation in this overwhelmingly muslim region. I suppose world JIHAD can be brought to your neck of the woods, too. Let's say you.
The worst,most misleading article I have ever read!The author is biased and he should be cited for everything he wrote.Yet it looks as if he was bribed by some Somali clans to insult them others.Everything he wrote about people,land and history is an insult to Somali people.Shame on you.