Somali political elite

[Midas]

I found a pdf version of a somali studies article that explains why the the culute of the poltical elite is the way it is. It's also very enlightening on how fucked somalia was right before post independence and cuts through the rosy fake image created by people looking back after decades of Civil War.
Particularly this section about somali elite formation.

 

[GemState]

The nationalists were and still are correct. What they failed at was simply the inability to get over the resource scarcity of Somalia, and not just holding real elections. I'm still baffled the Kacaan felt the need to rig it, most people genuinely supported them in the first decade.

 

[Midas]

I honestly think after reading this and what I know about our medieval history we've just been getting fucked over and over again. Adal war +oromo migrations + portugese destroying our coastal cities + trade shifting over to the new world routes . Was too strong of a combo and made us unable to build any state again. Then the suez canal jump started the trade again. But 3 decades later we got colonized by two separate countries. One didn't build anything and the other italy was just incredibly incompetent and all we really got from them was a dysfunctional political elite culture. Which only made reunification between Northern and Southern somali elites more difficult since italian was the language of the government. I mean look at italy today these guys have had 60!! Governments in the last 90 years . Their terrible political culture combined with our own clannish culture was a double whammy.

 

[Burqad]

I found a pdf version of a somali studies article that explains why the the culute of the poltical elite is the way it is. It's also very enlightening on how fucked somalia was right before post independence and cuts through the rosy fake image created by people looking back after decades of Civil War.
Particularly this section about somali elite formation.
View attachment 319948View attachment 319949View attachment 319950View attachment 319951View attachment 319952

>cites IM Lewis

 

[Midas]

I. Lewis while obviously racist. Has value in his scholarship. Even though it had huge flaws there is a reason somali scholars still use it.

 

[𐒋𐒖𐒆𐒔𐒖𐒕𐒈]

The only reason some pseudo Somali scholars reference his material is their lack of scholarly, ingenuity, and intellectual curiosity. I would not read anything I M Lewis or R Burton writes about .So, as so much of it is conjecture, intel gathering, and fantasy through colonial prism.

What Muslims writers have written, and there are large volumes, offer far greater value and substance.

 

[Burqad]

I. Lewis while obviously racist. Has value in his scholarship. Even though it had huge flaws there is a reason somali scholars still use it.

no one uses him. Read the Slavic scholars (who actually spoke the language) over the English orientalists.

 

[Midas]

Lol I've seen that meme on twitter. But you guys are obviously missing the point. Obviously the two eastern European scholars contributed far more and weren't arrogant and full of themselves like lewis. But the idea that lewis had no useful insight and that somali scholars shouldn't use him is not a serious position. Even more for Richard burton considering he is one of the few early 19th century sources we have. Yes you should be very critical and not take what they're saying at face value but there is a reason lots of people on the forum have quoted burton as a source. Use every source no matter how flawed is what serious scholarship is about.