Abstract

In 1910, a British colonial official travelling through what is now Somalia asked an African companion who the people he saw around him were. “Somalis,” replied the African: “They no good; each man his own sultan.” In most media accounts of the Somalia crisis, the idea individualistic Somalis are “no good,” at least in so far as governing themselves is concerned, has been a recurring theme. This was the ultimate rationale for Operation Restore Hope. In the chaos of clan warfare, it was argued, only an external power could restore order. A gritty picture was painted of maniacal gangsters killing each other (and everyone else) in the streets of Mogadishu, stealing eight-tenths of the food shipped in by relief workers, eradicating all civic order.