Abdi Ismail Samatar

Development geography and the third-world state

Soon after the third-world state was declared impotent, contradictory evidence pointing to the importance of state leadership in development in the Asian miracles came to the fore. This article, through a critical review of the literature, pushes this argument further and claims that geographers have much to contribute to the analysis of the state and its role in development. An appropriate framework for this kind of work is a marriage of radical political economy and certain strands of neo-Weberianism. We suggest that this conceptual union allows for broad theorizing of the capitalist state in the periphery while minding the institutional details of third-world states in particular regions and countries. This approach can help explain the differential performances of various third-world states within the confines of the world system. Thailand and Botswana are used as comparative cases to demonstrate the utility of this framework.

Ethiopian federalism: autonomy versus control in the Somali region

This study examines the relationship between Ethiopias federal and regional authorities since the Tigray led regime came to power in 1991. The redivision of Ethiopia into ethnic regions was aimed to effect two changes: to abolish certain ethnic domination of the state; and to enable various communities to govern their local affairs. Using material from the Somali Region, this article evaluates whether ethnic‐based regional authorities have sufficient autonomy from the centre to be accountable to local populations. The ability of local people to elect their leaders is central to undoing past ethnic injustices. Although communities have gained from the new order, however, the federal ruling party tightly controls regional political authorities. Federal domination of regional governance is partly the result of the ineptness of local elite. This arrangement creates formal ethnic regions without significantly altering power relations in Ethiopia. Consequently, the spirit of the 1991 change is lost as local communities lack leeway while a new ethnic group reigns supreme at the federal level.

The dialectics of piracy in Somalia: The rich versus the poor

Abstract Somali piracy has been poorly understood and consequently the international strategy designed to curtail it has not worked. Because of this mismatch some of the pirates have extended their exploits deep into the Indian Ocean. This article provides an analysis which shows that several pirate types driven by different logics have operated along the Somali coast and all but one of these pirates emerged as a result of the Somali states disintegration. In contrast, pirates in other Third World regions operate under established states. Therefore, we argue that piracy is not only a matter of robbery on the high seas, but that political economy and conflict over resources have been fundamental to the rise of piracy in the region. The article offers a more refined assessment of the piracy in the region, as well as a critical appraisal of the moral economy of Somali pirates which yields an alternative method of understanding and curbing the problem.

Structural adjustment as development strategy? Bananas, boom, and poverty in Somalia

AbstractThe World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have become the most powerful macroeconomic development strategists in the Third World. Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) is the code term for their main strategy. One of SAPs objectives is to induce a business climate attractive to investors in Africa. Such investments are supposed to enhance productivity and economic development. This study evaluates Somalias banana industry and associated foreign investment in the 1980s. The analysis shows that foreign investment modernized banana production and increased exports, but did not improve the starvation wages of plantation workers. Moreover, since nearly 75 percent of the earnings from exports leave the country, such investment does not enhance Somalias capital accumulation fund.

The Material Roots of the Suspended African State: Arguments from Somalia

In this historical conjuncture of profound socio-economic disorders, the condition of the peoples of the so-called periphery is as desperate as it has ever been. Understanding the making and nature of their predicament is certainly one of the most basic conundrums in development studies in general, and the study of Africa in particular. A useful way of looking at the continents dilemma is to focus on two broad factors: structural constraints and subjective conditions. The first speaks to the complex of historical circumstances, habits, and rules bequeathed by the past – ‘the grid of inheritance’, to borrow from E. P. Thompson – and the overbearing logic of the contemporary global systems of production, exchange, and information. The second signifies political choices that are made as the battle with the past, the present, and for the future continues.

Social Classes and Economic Restructuring in Pastoral Africa: Somali Notes

Recent scholarship on pastoral societies in Africa indicates that qualitative changes are taking place in their economies (Picard 1980; Galaty and Salzman 1981; Swift 1982; Toulmin 1984; Sutter, 1987; Behnke 1984; Little 1985; Rigby 1985; Kelley 1987; Munei 1987). Although this literature shows that these changes are largely induced by urban groups, such as merchants and state bureaucrats who invade the pastoral range, it nevertheless fails to theorize systematically the nature of the transformation. As recent contributions of Berry (1989), Okoth-Ogendo (1989), and Blaikie (1989) indicate, changes in land tenure in rural Africa are part and parcel of larger social and economic processes operating in African economies, which lead to the reorganization of property relations and the restructuring of rights of access to resources. In spite of the warnings by these authors, even the more theoretically informed literature does not follow through with the implications of conceptual insights regarding the nature of pastoral transformation. Fundamentally, the contours of pastoral transformation very much depend on the structure and internal coherence of the pastoral sector and the type and the tendency of the capital impinging on it. This article is a contribution to the debate over the nature of African pastoral transformation and the social forces operating in that process.

Somali Reconstruction and Local Initiative: Amoud University

Abstract No one could have predicted Somalias disintegration into “clan” fiefdoms. The country was thought to be one of the most homogenous nation-states in Africa. Many observers stridently insist that clan structures are necessary for Somalias rehabilitation. All international sponsored reconciliation conferences premised on the centrality of the clan failed. I argue that Somalias shared cultural values were necessary, but an insufficient basis for national cohesion. Public institutions are key to sustaining shared values and foraging an inclusive identity. Local initiatives like Amoud University, a community-owned institution, is the forerunner of a new type of Somali institution that caters to common, rather than sectarian, interests. If initial steps are sustained, this local initiative could mark the birth of a new Somalia.

National institutions for development: The case of Botswana

Introduction * Need for a Replacement for Africa in Crisis * Homogenizing Complexity * Twenty Years on from Africa in Crisis * Whats Happened to the Crisis since Africa in Crisis was Published? * Arguments Old and New * Signs of Success * Running Out of Time? * How Can Our Book Contribute? * Part I: Human Ecology * Land-based Livelihoods * What are Rural Livelihoods? * Unfolding Livelihoods in West Africa * Two Cases * Fishing Livelihoods: Successful Diversification, or Sinking into Poverty? * Diverse People and Livelihoods * Fisheries as a Growing Livelihood Opportunity * The Attraction of the Fisheries Sector * Effects on Livelihood Security and Sustainability * Coping Strategies at Micro and Macro Levels * Urban Livelihoods * Framing Urban Livelihoods * Making a Living * Maintaining Social Networks and Urban Communities * Mounting Collective Action * The Challenge of HIV/AIDS * HIV/AIDS and its Potentially Devastating Impacts * Positive Anomalies * Avoiding the Trap * Food Security * Food Security: The Definitional Quandary * Vulnerability Discourse, Monitoring Practice and Food Aid * Description of Famine Early Warning Systems in Africa * Critical Assessment of Early Warning Systems in Africa * Recommendations for Best Practice * Part II: Institutional Change * The Global Economic Context *The Promise of Globalization and Achievements * The Failed Promise of Growth * Explaining the Poor Performance: Has Africa Adjusted? * Africa Maladjusted: The Low-growth Path * Legal Frameworks * The Roots of African Poverty and Vulnerability * Can African Governments Use Law to Restructure Dysfunctional Institutions? * How Africans Designed Laws * Legislative Theory and the Use of Law for Institutional Transformation * Gathering the Facts * The Politics of Decentralization * Fetters on Decentralization * Means of Resistance: Powers Transfer and Institutional Choice * National Institutions for Development: The Case of Botswana * Theorizing the Botswana State * Elite Unity, Underdevelopment and State Autonomy * Conscious Leadership and Class Unity: The Foundation of State Capacity * Identity and National Governance * The Colonial State and Legally Inscribed Identities * Post-colonial Dilemmas * Political Identity: A Methodological Consideration * Regional Economic and Political Institutions * The Southern African Development Community (SADC): A Historical Overview * Regional Transformations in the 1990s: Implications for SADC * Institutions for Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking * Human Rights and Conflict Management in Africa: Five Propositions * Enhancing Understanding * Part III: Conclusions * Agenda for Action * What African Civil Society can Do * What African Governments can Do * What Donors and International Organizations can Do * What Non-governmental Organizations can DoAfrican farmers and pastoralists have been meeting their everyday needs in diverse ways for many centuries. While this process has increasingly been recognized since the late colonial period, a major development since the publication of Lloyd Timberlake’s Africa in Crisis (Timberlake, 1985) has been the emergence of support to ‘livelihood security’ and the incorporation of ‘sustainable rural livelihoods’ in the rationales and thinking of government-led projects and the many international development agencies working in Africa. Researchers too have focused renewed attention on how diverse rural societies enhance their welfare and development options in many corners of the continent.

The early morning phone call: Somali refugees' remittances

Much of the scholarship authored by expatriates on Somalia over the last two decades lacks serious theoretical engagement with the political-economic issues and provides no systematic field data that reflect the historical underpinnings of everyday life. Dr Lindley’s book is partially a departure from such consultancy-driven production in at least one way: The early morning phone call, which is the first book-length assessment of the internal and external dynamics of Somali remittance/ refugees, has unique and rich ethnographic field data on remittance. The book has six chapters whose content is a mixture of broad theoretical discussion on migration– development literature sprinkled with somewhat detailed personal stories of remitters as well as recipients. Field data for the book’s argument come from field sites in Hargeisa, Nairobi and London. Chapter 1 provides a thoughtful presentation and critique of the migration– conflict–development literature. Here Lindley is able to show the limitations of this scholarship using real-world experiences of individual refugees, remitters, recipients, and the structures of power that circumscribe refugee livelihoods. Chapter 2 is an attempt to provide a historical/cultural context for the book’s argument. It broadly covers three themes: first, it is a condensed effort to lay bare aspects of Somalia’s social, political and historical context that pertain to mobility and remittance, while the second theme provides a good description of the money transfer business. The final section is focused on the state and development debates and shows the author’s preference for Somali regionalism rather than nationalism. Overall, the chapter has some useful materials, but lacks the kind of critical theoretical edge present in Chapter 1. Chapter 3 is an articulation of remittance flows and the role of the household in Hargeisa. It also maps the role of remittance in development and politics. Despite the value of this description there is a dearth of conceptual ideas dealing with politics and development and that makes the chapter tedious to read. An excellent opportunity to tease out insightful ways of seeing these relationships seems wasted here. Chapter 4 examines the challenges Somali refugees face in Kenya and the remittance dynamics from Nairobi’s Eastleigh Township where Somalis have become a vital economic force. The chapter has much useful information, some of it heart wrenching, but the author allows the reader to plunge into the details without providing a theoretical guide that enables him/her to make sense of the stories. A belated effort is made, at the end of the chapter, to pull the threads together but that effort comes too late. Chapter 5 delves into the ‘North– South divide’ and is a narrative of Somalis’ migration to the UK, the harrowing journeys many endured, and the factors that induce individuals to remit despite towering economic difficulties. The treatment of affective bonds as a central force in remittance is well noted and is a key contribution to Western understanding of the seemingly irrational Somali behaviour. There are other

Chinese–African encounters in high-tech sectors: Comparative investigation of Chinese workplace regimes in Ethiopia

Studies on China–Africa co†operation have revealed increasing diversification of Chinas on†the†ground practices in Africa. However, engaged research has yet to examine the situated experiences of Chinese and African individuals whose activities shape and are shaped by Chinese multinationals, especially those in the growing yet underexplored high†tech sectors. To address this gap, this article investigates the workplace regimes of two Chinese companies in Ethiopia. Using a mixed†method approach, it articulates the contradictory nature of Chinese investment and its diverse manifestations in work relations between Chinese expatriates and local Ethiopians. Our findings suggest that Chinese and Ethiopian employees are proactive yet constrained agents in exploiting work opportunities for their own economic interests and professional development.