Somalia’s evolving political market place: from famine and humanitarian crisis to permanent precarity

Jaspars, Susanne; Majid, Nisar; Adan, Guhad

Abstract

Somalia has a long history of famine and humanitarian crisis. This article focuses on the years 2008–2020, during which governance and aid practices changed substantially and which include three crisis periods. The article examines whether and how governance analysed as a political marketplace can help explain Somalia's repeated humanitarian crises and the manipulation of response. We argue that between 2008 and 2011 the political marketplace was a violent competitive oligopoly which contributed to famine, but that from 2012 a more collusive, informal political compact resulted in a status quo which avoided violent conflict or famine in 2017 and which functioned to keep external resources coming in. At the same time, this political arrangement benefits from the maintenance of a large group of displaced people in permanent precarity as a source of aid and labour.

Citation

Jaspars, S., Majid, N., & Adan, G. (2023). Somalia’s evolving political market place: from famine and humanitarian crisis to permanent precarity. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 61(3), 343-366. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X23000071

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 3, 2023
• Publication Date: Oct 20, 2023
• Deposit Date: Aug 10, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 22, 2023
• Print ISSN: 0022-278X
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-7777
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 61
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 343-366
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X23000071
• Keywords: Somalia, famine, politics, governance, displacement
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-modern-african-studies/article/somalias-evolving-political-market-place-from-famine-and-humanitarian-crisis-to-permanent-precarity/CF5449011697902A3EF15640C42090F8