Somali pastoral families supported unrelated clan outsiders through sustained hardship

Evidence

Abdulle Osman worked as a livestock herder for other families in the region. One day a lion attacked him while he was tending the flock and mangled one of his legs, crippling him so that he could not now fulfill his herding duties. The family that he worked for continued to support him and his son. When the family moved to a new grazing area, the crippled man was left alone in the old settlement. But the family continued to supply him with milk, which the young boy delivered to his father, making these milk delivery trips several times before his father finally recovered and rejoined the family. The kindness of this unrelated family left an indelible mark on the younger Osman’s memory. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 131

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the social-capital literature on trust and generosity within stateless Somali pastoral society — relates to Milgrom’s law-merchant material and the general theme of reputation systems.