Table Of ContentM E D I A ,
D I A S P O R A
A N D
T H E S O M A L I
C O N F L I C T
I d i l O s m a n
Media, Diaspora and the Somali Conflict
“Idil Osman examines the role of Somali diaspora media in maintaining the link
between those who have been displaced to the far corners of the world by 25
years of war and state failure in Somalia and those who remain or who return
there. Her account is striking for both its hard-hitting analysis and its gentle
compassion. The author has been a participant observer in diaspora media for
more than a decade. She uses her experience as a journalist and scholar to shine a
light on her own community through displacement, conflict, and political recon-
struction. The result is a fantastically wellinformed analysis that never forgets that
it is concerned with real lives and real stories about people who, despite having
suffered greatly, are above all resilient and creative.”
—Dr Laura Hammond, School of Oriental and African Studies, UK
“This book offers important insights into the complex, fluid, and often contested
relationships between diasporic populations, homeland ‘remainees’ and external
networks. Their use of and access to diverse forms of media play a key role in shap-
ing the societies that are central to those networks. The Somali case is both appo-
site for such a study, while also offering rich and contextually specific material in its
own right. Idil Osman’s exploration of these themes provides a welcome addition
to an area of increasing interest to academics and policy-makers alike.”
—Dr Michael Walls, Co-Director of MSc Development Administration and
Planning, Senior Lecturer, UCL, UK
“This book systematically examines the role of media and diaspora in the context
of conflict. Surpassing the limits of previous studies on media and diaspora, the
book goes beyond diaspora’s identity maintenance and examines how transna-
tional media become involved in conflict – both in reinforcing tensions and in
advancing peace initiatives. By focussing on the Somali diaspora and its media
space, the author offers a multidimensional and provocative analysis of the trou-
bled and promising space of diaspora and transnational communication.”
—Myria Georgiou, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
“The powerful role of the Somali media in inciting, inflaming and perpetuat-
ing conflict is a vexed and often neglected subject. Idil Osman tackles it head
on, with rigour, courage and humanity. She examines the influential and often
destructive part played by diaspora media, but also explores how the explosion of
Somali media outlets has given limited space to marginalised groups and has the
potential, at least, to open avenues for a more constructive sharing of ideas and
information. The book is an valuable contribution to Somali studies.”
—Mary Harper, Africa Editor, BBC News and author of Getting Somalia
Wrong? Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State, UK
Idil Osman
Media, Diaspora
and the Somali
Conflict
Idil Osman
Department of Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
London, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-57791-3 ISBN 978-3-319-57792-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57792-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940373
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
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Cover credit: Pojbic
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to my siblings and the engine of our family, my
mother. I am my mother’s daughter.
A
cknowledgements
This book has grown out of my Ph.D. and I’m grateful to my doctoral
supervisor, Prof. Simon Cottle, at Cardiff University whose subtle but
persistent motivation has enabled me to keep pushing forward and for
his tremendous insight, which he shared generously.
Professor Helen Wood at the University of Leicester, for her generous
time, support and advice, which has been especially helpful at the begin-
ning stages of this book.
Dr. Laura Hammond, Mary Harper, Peter Chonka and Dr. Michael
Walls for their support and much appreciated constructive feedback.
My dear friends Dr. Dafina Paca and Zenaida Morrison; thanks for
listening, the encouragement and often-needed banter.
Finally, to the Somali diaspora who have kindly invited me into their
homes and social and work spaces and shared their frustrations, opinions,
hopes and aspirations abundantly. I am indebted to you all.
vii
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
2 Contextualising the Somali Conflict 7
3 The Somali Migration: Diaspora Coming into Being 35
4 Conceptualising Conflict Re-creation 53
5 Transnationalising Conflict: Somali Diasporic Media in
Action 81
6 Mediatising Conflict: Reason and Reckoning 107
7 Consuming Conflict: Somali Diaspora Audience 119
8 Conclusion: Looking Forward, Looking Back 137
Bibliography 147
Index 155
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
During the summer of 2013, I spent some months in Mogadishu pro-
ducing TV programmes as part of a UN-sponsored anti-piracy media
campaign. Whilst there, my aunt was killed in a suicide bomb attack
targeted at a restaurant where she was a shareholder. She came from
London, along with five of her six children, to oversee the restaurant and
to enable her children to spend some time with their relatives in their
country of origin. The explosion occurred around midday and caused
the deaths of more than 15 people and scores more were injured. My
aunt was rushed to the hospital by distant relatives who happened to be
nearby and she died of severe blood loss in hospital. In less than an hour,
a mass funeral was organised for all the deceased. They dug the graves
for my aunt and the others that had died and final prayers were said over
them. She left behind six children between 6 and 19 years of age. Two
of her teenage children, aged 15 and 17, were forced to dig their moth-
er’s grave whilst everyone around them kept shouting for them to stop
crying. “Everyone dies”, they said, “and soon you will too.” Of course,
there is a religious element to this as it is the way of Muslims to bury
the dead as soon as possible. Still, the agony and shock on those chil-
dren’s faces was indescribable. What struck me among all the mayhem
that was happening was how mechanical the proceedings felt. People
had become so accustomed to death and killings that the compassion
one feels towards the deceased and the loved ones they left behind had
disappeared. Back at the hotel, I went online to see the reports of the
explosion on the Somali web sites. Almost all of them had mentioned
© The Author(s) 2017 1
I. Osman, Media, Diaspora and the Somali Conflict,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57792-0_1
2 I. OSMAN
the explosion in passing, dedicating only a few column inches to describe
how and where the explosion occurred and the number of casualties.
The restaurant where the explosion occurred was back up and running
the following day with makeshift plastic coverings hung over the areas
where the damage was. People were eating, drinking and making conver-
sations as if nothing had happened less than 24 h ago.
It is professional and personal experiences like these that have moti-
vated me to write this book. I spent more than 12 years as a journalist,
mostly covering stories from the Somali conflict and diaspora communi-
ties. Over the years I’ve witnessed the country enter into different stages
of conflict and turmoil. I observed the unwavering engagement and sup-
port from the Somali diaspora towards their brothers and sisters in the
homeland. I’ve seen an insurmountable growth in diasporic media out-
lets eager to have a stake in the affairs of their country.
I have also seen how a never-ending conflict, which introduces new
actors and old actors with new jackets too vested in maintaining the
status quo, can desensitise and draw in its diasporas. I became curious
about the role diasporas were playing, wanting to understand the com-
plex nature of their engagement with their conflict homeland; a role that
seemed to be simultaneously empathetic and susceptible to tremendous
levels of humanitarian support as well as divisive, filled with enmity and
driving conflict dynamics to the fore.
Engagements such as these are emblematic of historically forming
patterns that shape contemporary social dispositions. The media almost
always plays a pivotal part. I therefore wanted to bring the focus on
the media as we study the Somali conflict. The research that this book
is based on takes a socio-historic approach to illuminate how changing
social processes over time can inform present activities. The conventional
approach to rebuilding conflict societies has thus far focused on rebuild-
ing political settlements, the use of short-term peacekeeping missions
and a rush to producing elections in the hope that it will result in a legit-
imate government. But more than 40% of all post conflict situations have
reverted to conflict within a decade (Collier et al. 2008) suggesting that
these conventional methods aren’t very effective. We need a long-term
approach that connects historically evolving patterns to contemporary
factors of conflict. The socio-historic approach assumes that social pro-
cesses containing structures are self-contained entities with lives of their
own that to a large extent determine both the behaviour and conscious-
ness of individual human beings in their orbit (Schwartz 1955).
