Drawing on a wealth of ethnographic detail, Stephanie Bjork offers the first study on the messy role of clan or tribe in the Somali diaspora, and the only study on the subject to include women's perspectives. Somalis Abroad illuminates the ways clan is contested alongside ideas of autonomy and gender equality, challenged by affinities towards others with similar migration experiences, transformed because of geographical separation from family members, and leveraged by individuals for cultural capital. Challenging prevailing views in the field, Bjork argues that clan-informed practices influence everything from asylum decisions to managing money. The practices also become a pattern that structures important relationships via constant--and unwitting--effort.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Somali people in home countries and worldwide, telling their untold stories. Weaving between cultural and religious limitations, LGBT Somalis balance celebrating their sexualities or gender identities while keeping in mind the harsh realities that family, community, or local laws might be against them. This collection of stories defies both the headlines in western nations and the complete denial of LGBT identities by the mainstream Somali communities.

This book is about Somali mothers and daughters who came to Britain in the 1990s to escape civil war. Many had never left Somalia before, followed nomadic traditions, did not speak English, were bereaved and were suffering from PTSD. Their stories begin with war and genocide in the north, followed by harrowing journeys via refugee camps, then their arrival and survival in London. Joanna Lewis exposes how they rapidly recovered, mobilising their networks, social capital and professional skills. Crucial to the recovery of the now breakaway state of (former British) Somaliland, these women bore a huge burden, but inspired the next generation, with many today caught between London and a humanitarian impulse to return home. Lewis reveals three histories. Firstly, the women’s personal history, helping us to understand resilience as an individual, lived historical process that is both positive and negative, and both inter- and intra-generational. Secondly, a collective history of refugees as rebuilders, offering insight into the dynamism of the Somali diaspora. Finally, the forgotten history and hidden legacies of Britain’s colonial past, which have played a key role in shaping this dramatic, sometimes upsetting, but always inspiring story: the power of women to heal the scars of war.

Contemporary scholarship characterizes Somalia as a nation in search of statehood. The approach presupposes a homogenous cohesive nation and society- with considerable traditional democratic pastoralism. This book portrays a complex nation with multiple heterogeneous characteristics. This alternative approach reflects the socio-political and the historical formations, invention and possible reinvention of the society. The book aims beyond the nation state-centric analysis. Issues discussed include: A* Conceptual socio-political transnational frame of development and statehoodA* Analytical frames resting on diverse cases of emerging transnational civic connectionsA* Prospects for regional educational developmentA* Countering transnational precarity (employment and residence uncertainties), political mobilization and extremismA* Transnational efforts at state formation, power and justice

Written by leading scholars from around the world, the articles in this volume range from sin, Sufism and terrorism to theology in the 19th and 20th centuries, Vatican I and II and the virgin birth.

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. Somalia Recent Economic and Political Developments Yearbook