Review: "Understanding the Somalia Conflagration"

Current publications about Somalia can be divided into three camps. Scholarly work, rarely accessible to the lay-person with a casual interest, forms a large corpus of the material. There is also a steady stream of emotive human-interest narratives, such as those of the misleading and vindictive Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Then there is poorly-researched, sensationalist nonsense pumped out for public consumption, usually about pirates or terrorists, always written by non-experts - a journalist, aid worker or self-appointed expert working in foreign policy. Search for books on Somalia on Amazon's website and see what comes up: the covers all have men holding guns and wearing keffiyehs and sunglasses, and the title is always printed in military stencil-font and contains the words "failed" "hell" or "pirate". This book manages to remain scholarly and informed, whilst remaining accessible for those who care to read beyond such populist misinformation.

Although a scholarly work, the book should be recommended to the non-academic interested in the region. It is unpretentious, easily-readable and very well organised. It is short, easily-digestible sections sit within an easily-navigable series of thematic chapters spanning the full breadth of topics connected to the conflict. Each chapter is summarised in a dedicated conclusion, further easing navigation. Although much of what the average reader would need to know is contained within its 200 pages, the book is well-positioned within existing scholarship, and provides a good starting point for further study, directing the reader to other texts.

Read from the beginning, the book concisely lays a sturdy foundation for a well-informed understanding of the Somali situation. Chapters one and two summarise the country's recent history and contemporary situation and places them in a global context, including related issues and debates. Chapter three is a capable condensation of the scholarship on the clan system in the Somali territories, and chapter four sketches out the key aspects of Somali Islamism, whilst constantly placing these themes in a global context. Chapters five and six are dedicated to the impact of external policy on the Somali conflicts, considering the US' and regional states' approaches respectively. Chapter seven examines the role of education in ending conflict and restructuring in peacetime, and chapter eight considers the role of the international community. Chapter nine concludes the book, and offers a list of recommendations for the cessation of conflict. There follows the book's endnotes and an extensive bibliography.

The book is generally neutral in its stance, and provides a balanced source of information on the Somali conflicts. However, the author is unabashed about his inevitable disapproval of Ethiopian actions in the country. The book is dedicated to the victims of Somalia's war "and the subsequent Ethiopian occupation". Whilst this justifiably raises questions about the impartiality of the book, the author doesn't let it affect his analysis, although his tone occasionally smacks of resentment: Ethiopian policy is described as "meddling", and there is a sub-chapter entitled "Ethiopia: historic enemy and hostile neighbour of Somalia". Subsequent sections are entitled "Kenya: facilitator and beneficiary of the conflict" and "Djibouti: peace promoter in Somalia". Elmi also writes of the "instruments used by Ethiopia and Kenya to perpetuate Somalia's conflict". However, although ostensibly anti-Ethiopian vitriol, Elmi's content is accurate. Ethiopia has been a source of instability in Somalia for decades, and the author is not reluctant to identify the culprits, within or outside Somalia, responsible for its plight.

Elmi's book stands as one of the most easily-accessible and well laid-out books on Somalia's conflict I have come across. It benefits from having been written by a Somali, rather than a Western academic, and fills a niche between specialised academic works, I. M. Lewis' general history of the Somali, inaccurate bumblings by non-experts and sensationalist, personal narratives. There has long been a need for a reliable, general text on the conflicts in Somalia, and this book serves the purpose well.

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