Somalia came to the world's attention in 1992 when television and newspapers began to report on the terrifyingly violent war and the famine that resulted. Half a million Somalis died that year, and over a million fled the country. Cameras followed US troops as they landed on the beaches at Mogadishu to lead what became an ill-fated UN intervention to end hunger and restore peace.
In this book, Somali women write and talk about the war, their experiences and the unacceptable choices they often faced. They explain clearly, in their own words, the changes, challenges – and sometimes the opportunities – that war brought, and how they coped with them.
Key themes include the slaughter and loss of men, who were the prime target for killings; rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war; changing roles in the family and within the pastoralist economy; women mobilising for peace; and leading social recovery in a war-torn society.
This book is not only an important record of women's experience of war, but also provides researchers and students of gender and conflict with rare first hand accounts highlighting the impact of war on gender relations, and women's struggle for equal political rights in a situation of state collapse.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Judith Gardner has a special interest in gender relations and how communities cope with crisis. She has worked in Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. She is currently the Africa & Middle East Regional Manager for CIIR.
Judy el Bushra has worked in the field of community development in Africa for 20 years, specialising most recently in research on gender and on conflict, and on development methodologies.
Map, vii,
Abbreviations, viii,
Acknowledgements, ix,
Preface, x,
A note on Somali poetry, xiii,
Introduction Judy Gardner and Judy El Bushra, 1,
PART 1: WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR,
1 Women's role in the pastoral economy Rhoda M. Ibrahim, 24,
Testimony 1: Habiba Osman, 41,
2 Traditions of marriage and the household Sadia Musse Ahmed, 51,
Testimony 2: Amina Sayid, 59,
3 War crimes against women and girls Fowzia Musse, 69,
Testimony 3: A group view, 85,
Testimony 4: Shukri Hariir, 89,
PART 2: WOMEN'S RESPONSES TO THE WAR,
Section 1: Changing roles and responsibilities in the family, 99,
4 Domestic conflict in the diaspora - Somali women asylum seekers and refugees in Canada Ladan Affi, 107,
5 Crisis or opportunity? Somali women traders and the war Amina Mohamoud Warsame, 116,
Testimony 5: Halimo Elmi, 127,
Section 2: Women mobilise for peace, 139,
6 Women and peace-making in Somaliland Zeynab Mohamed Hassan and Shukri Hariir Ismail, et al, 142,
7 Women, clan identity and peace-building Judith Gardner with Amina Mohamoud Warsame, 153,
8 Women's roles in peace-making in the Somali community in north eastern Kenya Dekha Ibrahim, 166,
Section 3: Women's rights, leadership and political empowerment, 175,
Testimony 6: Dahabo Isse, 179,
9 Post-war recovery and participation Compiled from information provided by Shukri Hariir and Zeynab Mohamed Hassan, 189,
Testimony 7: Noreen Michael Mariano, 209,
Starlin Abdi Arush – a tribute, 215,
Afterword: political update, July 2003, 220,
About the contributors, 223,
Appendices,
Appendix 1: Chronology of Somalia's civil war, 228,
Appendix 2: Somalia in facts and figures, 236,
Appendix 3: Glossary, 238,
Appendix 4: Bibliography, 241,
Index, 247,
Women's Role in the Pastoral Economy
Rhoda M. Ibrahim
After a journey so long
and tiring indeed,
Like a fully loaded camel,
tired as you are under the load,
You at last set a camp,
beside a hamlet with no blood ties to you,
Your livestock will need,
to be always kept in sight,
Your beast of burden will need
to be tied to their tethers.
The newly born baby sheep
have to be taken out to graze.
The house will always need
to be tidy and in shape.
Your children will always need
your comforting care and love.
Your husband will call for your
service in different ways. And
may at times scold you for
services poorly done.
And may at times beat you
for no apparent reason.
So stop whimpering
and perform as best you possibly can
The responsibilities and the duties
set out for you to do.
Introduction
Women play a vital role in the Somali pastoral economy. On top of women's universal domestic tasks – child-care, food preparation and household chores – they also have important roles in animal husbandry, the mainstay of the national economy. They employ considerable technical skill and knowledge in the construction and maintenance of the nomadic home (aqal – which they unpack and repack each time the family moves on), as well as in crafting utensils and containers and in administering natural medicines to livestock. Recurrent drought has obliged both women and men to adapt their economic roles. The conflict which has affected Somali society since 1988 has broken up families and required many women to take sole responsibility for their families.
This paper sets out to record the typical roles and lifestyles of girls and women in the pre-war pastoral economy of north western Somalia (now Somaliland), as I experienced it during prolonged visits to relatives. This personal experience is supplemented by research I carried out in 1992 and by more than 18 years' experience as a development worker in rural Somalia and Somaliland. I also refer to research carried out since the war by Vetaid and the Pastoral and Environmental Network for the Horn of Africa (PENHA).
My ethnographic description of the nomadic pastoral family shows how the family's division of labour, herd management, mobility, marriage patterns and lifestyle adaptability are all essential factors for everyday survival in an extremely difficult environment. I describe a girl's rite de passage into womanhood and her preparation for marriage. I describe some of the coping mechanisms pastoral families may resort to in times of severe drought, including the long-term or even permanent separation of the male head of the family from his wife or wives and children. I then try to trace some of the known impacts of the war and collapse of state structures on the pastoral way of life and on pastoral women in particular. These include loss of adult males through combat and migration to urban centres and the resulting changes in gender relations at the level of household decision-making and livelihood as well as household mobility. Among the questions my paper asks are, are these changes in gender relations going to be long-term and are they actually empowering for women? And what does the widespread male urban migration mean for the marital prospects of pastoral girls and the future of Somalia's nomadic pastoral economy?
What I describe here is representative of the pastoral way of life throughout Somalia although there will be some regional variations.
The pastoral economy
Pastoralism, the movement of households following seasonal grazing patterns, has been practised among Somalis for centuries. The movements of pastoralists and their livestock are directed by the seasons and by the availability of grass and water. In Somalia there are two rainy seasons (gu' and dayr) and two dry seasons (haggaa and jilaal). Pastoralists move between rainy season grassland with seasonal water supplies, and permanent water sources which they concentrate around during the dry season.
The main diet of the pastoralists depends heavily on animal products and is composed principally of milk from all livestock, and ghee and meat. Cereals are bought with cash from the sale of livestock. Since the commercialisation of livestock in the 1970s and 1980s pastoral communities have shifted towards urban-style food and clothes.
The pastoral economy depends on families herding a variety of species for production and for sale. Sheep and goats are herded as domestic stock, while camels are the family's main asset, valued both for their resistance to drought, for their market and social value, and for their varied uses in transport and as food. Camels represent the most important gifts – such as the bridewealth (yarad) given by a prospective husband's family to the family of his wife-to-be. The yarad will consist of one male and several more valuable female camels and sometimes a gun and a horse.
If a murder or wounding occurs, of all the livestock the perpetrator's family can give to the victim's family in compensation the camel will be the most important. The exact number of camels and livestock to be handed over will be carefully calculated to match the 'value' of the dead or wounded person and the impact of the damage caused. Livestock are the pastoralists' currency and the camel is the highest denomination. Up to 100 camels could be given (or their equivalent in sheep and goats) in the most serious cases of male homicide.
Female animals usually constitute the majority of a productive herd, while male herds are used for commercial purposes, being exchanged for town commodities such as grain, sugar, clothes and shoes. They are also kept for slaughtering for feasts, funerals and other social events. A family needs both male and female camels but will keep more females than males. The female camel is the most valued as an exchange asset and because it is the source of milk.
Male camels are important as stud and burden-bearing animals. Only male camels are used for transportation. Specially selected before they reach seven years old, the males chosen for transport camels (gaadiid) will be first castrated. Camels are extremely strong and to castrate one needs several strong men. Once castrated they will be broken in by the 'camel boys' (teenagers who may be sons or cousins of the family) and then trained by the men. Camels are not docile animals by nature; training takes up to a year. The camel is trained to sit for a long period whilst its back is loaded, to walk with a load for a long period of time, to wear a saddle and halter, to be led and to stand still, to obey commands. Somali pastoralists do not use camels as riding animals: only the very young, very old or sick are carried on the camel's back. It is to carry the family's house and household equipment that the camel is trained.
Once trained each transport camel can carry one house (aqal). Until they are sufficiently experienced the newly trained transport camels (qaalin or gaadiid) will be entrusted with carrying unbreakables only. An obedient and reliable transport camel is a highly valued asset. The older, most experienced transport camels, hayin, will be trusted to carry children and young livestock on the long journeys to find a new place to settle. Hayin are patient and obedient; the less experienced qaalin will be tied to and led along by the hayin to prevent them running away and destroying their burdens.
While female and castrated male camels spend much time in distant grazing areas with the camel-boys, transport camels will always be kept near to the household, and are thus available when needed by women to bring water from a distant water source, or to transport milk to be exchanged in town. When the time comes for the whole household to move on, the women work out how everything will be transported, which camels will carry what and how many camels will be needed. A family will only have a certain number of transport camels of their own (relating to the number of aqals in the household), but families will lend each other their transport camels if necessary, known as gaadiid qaad.
In very difficult times the household may be forced to sell some of its camels or may lose them through sickness or prolonged drought. But a family would never sell its transport camels while it still had options available. Without its transport camels the pastoral family is unable to survive; such a family is in a state of complete poverty.
The uncastrated male camels (baarqab), which are not selected for breeding or training as transport animals will be sold or slaughtered for meat. A household with 100 head of camels will keep just one or two stud camels for breeding. Although they graze with the herd for the rest of the year, during the breeding season stud camels are kept close to the family home, needing strong and experienced men to look after them. Breeding is carefully planned; to avoid interbreeding within the herd stud camels may be temporarily exchanged between families. There are stories of stud camels being given herbal medicines with aphrodisiac properties to improve their performance, or sometimes to calm them down.
Women's role in the pastoral economy
Somali society is a strongly patriarchal one. Sets of families (qoys), each with a male head, and usually related through the male line, settle and move together, forming a reer. Women continue to be members of their reer even after they have married and moved away to live with their husband's family, and this provides women with a measure of protection against mistreatment by her husband's relatives and clan family. A group of several qoys who settle in a common grazing area during a given season forms a beel.
The division of labour in the Somali pastoral family is clearly defined. Women view their role chiefly in relation to child-bearing, child-rearing and household tasks. Women are also the key contrib- utors to the family economy through their production of livestock by-products such as ghee and milk. As mothers, they bear Somali culture, and foster among their children the distinctive role-playing which determines future male and female patterns of behaviour.
Women are an important part of the labour force, and polygamy is common as a means of providing additional hands and an additional source of income. Typically, each wife and her children form a separate unit, each with her own hut (aqal) and the animals that she is allotted for her own use over which she has primary rights of ownership. In addition to productive animals, her livestock will include one or two male camels for transport as well as newly-calved female camels for milking.
The working day for nomadic women starts before sunrise, soon after dawn prayers, and finishes after the sun sets and the last prayer has been made. Women's main role in animal husbandry concerns milking and the management of small stock. Women are responsible for deciding what proportion of milk should be used for family consumption, feeding of young animals, sale as fresh milk, or processing. In herd management, women are responsible for selecting animals for sale, slaughter, and breeding, and for arranging these activities accordingly.
Pastoral women divide the grazing work between their children according to their age and ability. Children under seven are responsible for young livestock grazing around the house, while those between the ages of seven and ten are sent out to look after the adult livestock grazing further afield. Women count the number of livestock leaving in the morning and coming home in the evening. Older daughters are responsible for fetching water, and for cleaning the fence once every three days to protect livestock from ticks, pests and diseases.
Pastoral women are also responsible for selling surplus products such as harar (mats), excess milk, processed meat and wild fruits, exchanging these for commodities needed for household consumption.
Women cook food for the family, collect firewood, and do the washing. Elderly women are responsible for entertaining children, often by telling folk stories. Women also treat and feed sick animals, using medicinal skills and knowledge about local herbs.
As people move from one place to another in search of better grazing and water, women are responsible for arranging the transport, and for dismantling the aqal to load on to camels. When they reach their destination women again erect the aqal, check the animals and feed the family. It is women's responsibility to weave the mats of the aqal, shape the frames, and undertake all the crafts required for its construction, from its coverings to the smallest pin.
The aqal is a round hut made from grass and trees. Pastoral women make everything needed for it and the household items inside using raw materials from the surrounding environment. The frame of the aqal differs according to different localities but has common features and is usually made from roots of the galool tree (a type of acacia with very long horizontal roots), and consists of eight to 12 strong, crescent-shaped supports called dhigo, as the foundation. A further 15 to 25 lool (shaped the same but longer and softer) are spread over the frame and tied down to strengthen it. If the aqal is big then a large supporting pole, known as udub dhexaad, is placed in the middle of the house. The women then cover the frame with harar. There are about 15 types of covers made from grass and sisal. The size of each mat and the time taken to make it varies according to the size of the aqal. The longest type of mat (dhudhun) is about 9.5 metres in length and 4 metres wide and takes an average of 10 days to finish. The shortest, 7 metres long and 3 metres wide, takes seven days to complete.
The aqal frame can be the hardest component to find and prepare as the materials need to be of the right length and strength, and cut from the tree when still green. Men may help with cutting the galool roots but it is the elderly women of the household who prepare and bend them. Bending takes several days: the cut root is fixed into the ground at one end, arched over until it is in the desired shape and then fixed into the ground at the other end. Left arched and fixed for several days the green wood gradually dries out and a permanently arched and strong frame should result. Once a suitable site has been found, erecting the aqal takes half a day.
Pastoral women produce household containers for milk and water, and other food utensils from leather, palm leaves and sisal. Examples include qarbed and sibraar, both made from the hides of goats or sheep to transport water and milk. The milk containers dhiil, haan, doobi, are made by weaving and sewing palm leaves and are used to store milk from a few hours to days or sometimes weeks. Fresh milk, soured, sheep's, goats' and camels' milk will all be kept in different containers. Sheep and goats' milk, used for ghee production, stays fresh for only a short while. Camels' milk lasts much longer; it may be fermented, soured and even dried.
Women have always managed the milk trade. They send their containers of milk to a middlewoman in the town. Her container will have her 'mark' on it, the same as branded on her family camels. Tied onto the side of the container is a string of knots, the number and size indicating to the middlewoman what goods she wants in exchange for her milk.
Women make protective padding for transporting animals from by-products of aqal manufacture (old clothes, used leather, sacks, and so on). Women also produce items for cleaning out livestock quarters, like digo xaadh and dhiriq. The first is a flat piece of wood to clean out the animal den, while the second consists of branches tied together with small sisal ropes to collect and remove manure.
Yeesha are hide-ropes used by nomadic women to tie the frame of the aqal to the camel when they need to transport it. Mareeg are light tethering ropes made by women to keep small goats and sheep from running away and to protect their mothers from suckling before milking time. Women plait all these ropes from sisal and bark fibre (xig iyo maydhax) and sometimes travel long distances in their search for raw materials. In the days when there were still many wild animals, they faced danger of being attacked.
In summary, women's role in livestock production and in maintaining the household (both the human beings in it and the fabric of the dwellings) has always been crucial to the survival of the pastoral system. It includes important contributions to animal production and to the technical aspects of nomadic movement, as well as food production and domestic responsibilities. Decision-making beyond the level of the nuclear family is regarded as the domain of men, all of whom over the age of 16 are eligible to participate. The kinds of decisions that need to be addressed at this level include: dealing with newcomers coming to share resources with the host clan associated with the territory; resolving conflicts and settling disputes; payment of diya blood money; when and if to go to war. Recent research by the Somaliland Women's Research and Action Group (SOWRAG) concludes that 'there are indications that women were consulted privately on the matters under discussion. But in order not to undermine men's decision-making powers, women's "invisible" role ... was never publicly acknowledged.' (Amina Warsame 2001)
Excerpted from Somalia – The Untold Story by Judith Gardner, Judy El Bushra. Copyright © 2004 Judith Gardner and Judy El Bushra, and CIIR. Excerpted by permission of Pluto Press CIIR.
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Paperback. Condition: New. Somalia came to the world's attention in 1992 when television and newspapers began to report on the terrifyingly violent war and the famine that resulted. Half a million Somalis died that year, and over a million fled the country. Cameras followed US troops as they landed on the beaches at Mogadishu to lead what became an ill-fated UN intervention to end hunger and restore peace.In this book, Somali women write and talk about the war, their experiences and the unacceptable choices they often faced. They explain clearly, in their own words, the changes, challenges - and sometimes the opportunities - that war brought, and how they coped with them. Key themes include the slaughter and loss of men, who were the prime target for killings; rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war; changing roles in the family and within the pastoralist economy; women mobilising for peace; and leading social recovery in a war-torn society. This book is not only an important record of women's experience of war, but also provides researchers and students of gender and conflict with rare first hand accounts highlighting the impact of war on gender relations, and women's struggle for equal political rights in a situation of state collapse. Seller Inventory # LU-9780745322087
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