Understanding Somalia and Somaliland: Culture, History and Society - Softcover

This book is a 'primer' on Somali culture and recent history. It is a dense book that reads easily. It should be required reading for anybody who deals with Somalia, from diplomats to journalists and from NGO workers to United Nations staff. Because if there is one clear lesson that emerges from Lewis's precise and sweeping assessment, it is that Somalia is a walking and moving exception to many rules about the nation-state and that trying to deal with it in 'usual' fashion not only does not help but on the contrary tends to compound the problems.' --Gerard Prunier, author of Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide and of From Genocide to Continental War: The 'Congolese' Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa

Ioan Lewis details the history and culture of the Somali people, providing a unique window into this little-known culture and its increasingly public predicaments. He provides insight into the complex social, historical, and cultural hinterland that is the Somali heritage and pays close attention to the pervasive influence of traditional nomadism, especially its extremely decentralized nature. Lewis also addresses developments in the Somali political region since the collapse of the Republic in 1991, including the formation and steady development of the democratic state of Somaliland. Though it has grown into a de facto personality, this self-governing outpost of democracy is still officially unrecognized internationally. Lewis concludes with a discussion of the Islamist movement that brought a brief but astonishing period of stability to much of Southern Somalia in late 2006.