Unmasking the Wolf in Sheepas Clothing: Towards a Critique of the Conflicting Historiographies in Somalia

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Abstract

This article offers critical examination and explanation of the claim of “clan cleansing” in Somalia as was featured forcefully in the book by Lidwien Kapteijns on the 1991 Somali clan convulsions. Upon the publication of the book, conflicting narratives of the Somali conflicts were delegated from oral discourse to academic venture as the debate over who lost what, why and where in 1991 and over who won, what, why and where has become both a politicised project and an academic phenomenon. By re-evaluating the whole picture, the article casts a new light on Kapteijns’s book (2013) and demonstrates how inaccurate simplistic statements were used as a documentation of the clanised conflicts in 1991 Somalia. Blaming specific clans and communities of complicity for “clan cleansing,” when there is no reliable document and real proof, is tantamount to igniting a new round of warfare. Drawing on long experience of living and working in Mogadishu -the city this author was born and bred as well as the site of the conflict itself -and also using interviews conducted with players and bystanders of Somali politics across clan lines, the article argues that Kapteijns has produced the most mythico-historical work in Somali Studies.

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How to Cite This Article

Mohamed Haji Ingiriis. 2016. "Unmasking the Wolf in Sheepas Clothing: Towards a Critique of the Conflicting Historiographies in Somalia". Global Journal of Human-Social Science - D: History, Archaeology & Anthropology GJHSS-D Volume 16 (GJHSS Volume 16 Issue D2).

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July 5, 2016

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Unmasking the Wolf in Sheepas Clothing: Towards a Critique of the Conflicting Historiographies in Somalia

Mohamed Ingiriis
Mohamed Ingiriis University of Oxford