Abstract

This article has two primary objectives:

a) to introduce the debate about kinship systems and socio-political identity and organization 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.

Keywords:

Somalia, kinship system, Somali political identity, clanism, state-building, genealogy, colonialism, and anthropology,

Mogadishu University,

ISOS,