The State and its Fragments: Debates on Kinship and the State in Somalia

This article has two primary objectives: a) to intr oduce the debate about kinship systems and socio-political identity and or ganization in Somalia. I do this by reviewing an exchange at a British tribunal between two prominent academics in Somali studies: Abdi I. Samatar and I. M. Lewis; b) to reflect on what is at stake in this debate by pointing at some of the potential consequences of the current U.N.-led state-building project in Somalia, which has embraced one side of this debate .