Table of Contents

Note on Transliteration

Introduction
Chapter 1. Speaking the Unspeakable: Somali Poets and Novelists on Civil War Violence
Chapter 2. Historical Background to the Violence of State Collapse
Chapter 3. Clan Cleansing in Mogadishu and Beyond
Chapter 4. The Why and How of Clan Cleansing: Political Objectives and Discursive Means

Timeline of Major Events
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Name Index
Subject Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

Clan Cleansing in Somalia deals with the transformative violence that helped cause the collapse of the Somali state in 1991. Kapteijns argues that public acknowledgment of the clan cleansing of this period is indispensable to social and moral repair and to the critical memory work required from Somalis on all sides of this conflict.

About the Author

Lidwien Kapteijns is Kendall Hodder Professor of History at Wellesley College.

Reviews

"The best book about recent events in Somalia is undoubtedly Clan Cleansing in Somalia, by Lidwien Kapteijns, a must-read for anyone wanting to unravel the complicated nature of our civil war."—Nuruddin Farah, New York Times

"This book is not only an authoritative research project in Somali studies, but a serious source to be consulted on Somalia's future social repair and reconciliation."—World Peace Foundation

"A brilliant book that reopens some of the central questions of Somali history and politics in a compelling manner."—Journal of African History

"Kapteijn's use of Somali-language sources—contemporary poetry, oral interviews, news reports, and radio recordings—is very effective in providing a ground-level view of the violence both at the time of the 'cleansing' and in the survivors' subsequent reflections upon it. This is a most welcome contribution to a literature on the civil war, which has until now been dominated by the analyses of foreign experts and Somali diaspora scholars."—Lee Cassanelli, University of Pennsylvania