Bernhard Helander’s unfinished study remains the key analysis of post-government Somali power

Evidence

For a brilliantly detailed analysis of all these political manoeuvrings I am indebted to Bernhard Helander’s unpublished ms, ‘Rumours of Rain: Ideas of Centralization, Social Fragmentation and the Nature of Power in Post-Government Somalia’, Uppsala, 1998. Dr Helander, who spoke Somali fluently, and began his researches amongst the Rahanweyn in the 1980s, died of cancer before he could complete this uniquely penetrating study, based on many years of field research in Somalia (including Puntland). — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 923

Categorization

• XREF: Points toward a crucial primary source on the centralization-versus-fragmentation dynamics of post-1991 Somalia, parallel to Lewis’s own framework.