All photos taken in Somalia by Daniel J Gerstle. All rights reserved. If you'd like to publish one, please contact me at djgerstle@yahoo.com.

Somali Warsengeli Live in Political Uncertainty

Closer Look  |  Daniel J Gerstle, Aug-Sep 2009

www.Helo-Magazine.com 

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Somalia's challenges began long before the central government fell in 1991. Rugged and largely unfarmable in its north half, the landscape presents every day barriers to the survival of a people. For centuries, Somalis followed nomadic tradition, leading camel and goat herds from ephemeral grasslands to waddi springs. Ultimately, drought after drought forced many to settle in villages where traditional blood-line clan councils make decisions. Government, "the state", was superimposed during the colonial era over these councils, so today in many parts of Somalia where the government has failed, fled, or is under-funded, there is little "anarchy": the clan council rules.

"Maakhir" is the name of the northern Somalia region in Eastern Sanag, a disputed region between Somaliland and the northeastern Somali state of Puntland. The Warsengeli clan, strongest here, resisted being dragged into the low-level war between Somaliland and Puntland by shaping a quasi-autonomous area from Lasqooray on the Aden Gulf to the village of Xingalool, on the north slopes of the Sool Plateau. In this photo essay, The Somali Warsengeli permit a glimpse into their life without government.

Xingalool's mayor, or council chairman, is glad that the spillover of conflict to his town has been minimal. His greater concern has long been the relentless drought conditions which have killed much of the community's livestock, leading to hunger.

The daughter of one of Xingalool's central shop-owners tells of how the failure of livestock in the drought forces many poor nomads to flood the town begging for supplies which shop-owners feel obligated to share, thus running their businesses into the ground.

An elderly woman explains to humanitarian aid workers how her family's lives have fallen apart while the government(s) and foreign agencies look on from the outside.

Somali clan councils are all male, all Muslim, with at least one Islamic sheikh or scholar to give advice where clan and Islamic law have differences. The councils' distinctions are made by bloodline representation, as far as how many people per clan, sub-clan, family, or lower caste. The council is meant to be a parliament of the most mutually respected or powerful men of the region - separate from government - which meets to decide how to resolve disputes and divide collective debts and gains. Only recently, largely due to government reform and the influence of UNICEF and UNIFEM, some clans have appointed women to sit and provide advice on council decision-making. 

As camel herds (or cattle in the south) dwindle, herders shift to greater numbers of goat and sheep. Survival relies on long journeys between grasslands and water sources.

With or without government, political movements like the Islamic Courts Union and the Islamic Radical Youth circulate to look for recruits. But in places like Xingalool where there is great political uncertainty and threat to survival, the movements are somewhat successful in recruiting the support of young men who have had very difficult lives and look to political Islam for answers.

Young men who do not wish to get involved in political Islam and are still too young for the elders council may spend seasons herding, pursue migrant labor, or serve as contract guards.

Somalis believe in the prohibition of intoxicants such as alcohol or marijuana, but the narcotic chew crop "khat" procured from Ethiopia and Kenya is a huge exception. Many are addicted.

When people have mental disabilities, like this man in Qoton who was badly hurt when his boat overturned during the 2004 tsunami, there is little government assistance. Some families send their disabled relatives to a clinic, but the vast majority of mentally disabled are imprisoned with accused criminals. Here, without any social services or jail, the neighbors have chained him.

The Somali Warsengeli survive with the help of global advocates like Fatima Jibrell (right), who helped Asha Gelle (left), the first Women's Minister of Puntland, create the beginnings of a family social service structure based in nearby Garowe, Puntland. Though it hasn't reached remote areas like Xingalool yet, it is meant to.

Bossaso, the rapidly growing, dusty port town of Somalia's northeastern state of Puntland is a second home to many Somali Warsengeli who often end up there in search of work after losing livestock or small businesses to drought. The city is becoming a reliable hub, but remains unstable and disconnected from overseas trade outside the Aden Gulf.

HELO

www.Helo-Magazine.com

Awsane, Sanag, Somalia, All Rights Reserved, Daniel J Gerstle. 

Photo Essays & Exhibits

People of the Tigris Valley in Turkey and Iraq, HELO: The Crisis Story Magazine, Oct-Nov 2009.

Somali Warsengeli Live in Political Uncertainty," HELO: The Crisis Story Magazine, Aug-Sep 2009. 

Frontline Families in Russia’s North Caucasus, A Photo Exhibition and Essay by Daniel J Gerstle,” University of Texas Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Austin, Planned April-May 2008.

Chechnya’s Survivor Generation: A Photo Essay,” Chechnya Advocacy Network Online, December 2006.

Frontline Families in the Azerbaijan-Armenian Conflict, A Photo Exhibition and Essay by Daniel J Gerstle,” Harriman Institute, Columbia, New York, February-March 2005.

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Deep Divide,” Eurasianet, Open Society Institute, New York. July 2004.