The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we ... - ICAR

Although operating in a very different context,
where the meaning assigned to clan is subject to
a process of change, clanship in the UK involves
similar complexities, and analysis is fraught with
pitfalls. In his study of Somali refugees in London,
Griffiths (2002: 94-125) emphasises the factors
affecting the significance of clan in individual lives
- gender, age, and class among them, to which may
be added personal details such as education, war
experience, previous country of domicile, and so
on. 151 While those from a rural background may be
more tightly linked to clan networks, urbanites may
have had more experience of clan factionalism in
daily life. Whatever their previous experience, every
Somali will not only know their own clan affiliation,
but those of others.
The implications of conflict and support also arise.
Co-clan members have an obligation to help a new
arrival, and clan membership can provide a readymade
network of assistance, both informal and
organised in community centres and associations.
But for some of the older generation, memories of
interclan hostility, fuelled by rumours of the Somali
scene, also prevent co-operation with members
of certain other clans. El Solh (1991) argues that
in Tower Hamlets, other markers of identity have
been subsumed under clanship which has been
reactivated in the refugee community. Griffiths
found that the progression of the Somali war
assumes much greater importance in their lives
than local east London events (2002: 97). But it is
important not to generalise from specific contexts.
Both these researchers were mainly speaking to
Isaaq, who fled during the 1980s from the terror
inflicted by Barre’s Darod-dominated forces, and
made for the London area of longstanding Isaaq
settlement. Contemporary arrivals from the south
travelling via other points in the diaspora have had
a different history in relationship to particular clan
aggression, and although Somalis will travel across
London to meeting points of co-members, the
London boroughs with Somali populations contain
members of various clans.
Some young Somalis have, however, inherited clan
hostility from their parents. Alex McBride (2003)
reports on the gang violence in Woolwich, east
London, which flares up not only between Somalis
and African Caribbeans, but also between Somalis
of different clans. But other Somali youth, especially
those born in the UK or brought here at an early
age, express impatience with this preoccupation of
their elders. A Somali identity, based on religion and
the mother country of their parents, is important
to them, as is the family - but family as in the
extended unit of known relatives, not the more
abstract co-membership of clan. The clan elders,
they say, are out of touch with the reality of young
people’s lives - a decline in authority that Griffiths
(2002: 123-124) connects to the loss of male
status in the home. Yet there is still evidence of the
persistence of the peacemaking role of elders, such
as in settling matters between the rival Woolwich
gangs, so avoiding the British courts (McBride,
2003). This type of action would reinforce the
opinion of some young Somalis that clan loyalties
are relevant only as a reinforcement of mutual
support and solidarity. They dismiss the antagonistic
element in clanship as ‘ignorance’ and ‘nonsense’,
and reject researchers’ emphasis on the relevance
of clan as ‘out of date’. There are also many Somali
refugees in the UK of all ages who resist notions
of clan exclusivity and conflict. As one said to
Nuruddin Farah: “In Somalia…. I am born into a
clan. In Britain, I am a Somali” (2000: 109).
How far clan remains a potent symbol in the
psyche of Somali refugees, and the extent to
which it takes on new meaning in the diaspora,
will depend both on their experience of the UK,
and political developments in Somalia. Successful
settlement in the UK will weaken links to ‘home’,
and encourage identities founded on local
connections rather than natal affiliations. If
recent attempts to re-found a Somali nation state
progress, this may encourage dreams of return,
but to a society where clan is not the determining
factor in public and private careers.
Whatever the objective conditions in the UK
or the Horn of Africa, it will still be impossible
to generalise as to the persistence of a clan
ideology amongst Somalis. As has been repeatedly
emphasised throughout this report, they are not a
homogenous group, and factors of gender,
151. See also Griffiths (1997).
The Somali community in the UK
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