Somali National Reconciliation

Abstract

This chapter redefines the Somali conflict by refuting Somali exceptionalism and the approach based solely on clan. Instead, it argues that the genesis of hostilities is the state–society conflict that, as a consequence, has generated a violent power struggle among the political elite. In turn, this political elite power struggle has provoked political clannism and Islamism: the two indigenous ideologies. These conflicts have been generated sequentially as a result of state–society conflict, and must be addressed as part of a four-part process of reconciliation. The chapter also recommends a ten-point programme of reconciliation, which gradually realizes good governance practices and comprehensive elite and clan reconciliation. Moreover, it proposes a participatory approach and prudent synthesis of modernity and tradition.