SRC administrative reorganizations failed to erase nomadic lineage loyalties

Evidence

The nomads, indeed, remained as a refractory challenge despite energetic measures designed to bring them more securely into the fold. In 1974, the eight provinces into which the state had previously been divided were reconstituted as fifteen new regions, comprising seventy-eight districts, where necessary renamed to exclude tribal (or clan) names. Emphasis was placed on the settlement (digmo) as the basic unit of association and identification in a further effort to extirpate lingering lineage loyalties. And even among the nomads efforts were made to encourage people to regard the orientation centre at a regularly frequented water point as the hub of social and political activities. Marriages, which had traditionally involved rival (and often potentially hostile) lineages, were now to be conducted at a local orientation centre, with its resident community replacing the kin of bride and groom. It would be unrealistic to expect these measures to have made much immediate impact amongst the nomads. There was thus, inevitably, a considerable gap between theory and practice in the political life of the nomadic majority of the population. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 523

Categorization

• XREF: The clan-override effort echoes Lewis’s persistent theme of the resilience of lineage structures — ties to his earlier argument that sciencific socialism was a veneer over clan realities. — connects to: Clan divisions persisted despite cultural unity and imperiled the new Republic; Transferring civil servants on clan grounds only strengthens tribalism; Collapse of state institutions strengthened lineage elders and clan identity — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 666 (+1 more)

Related

• Transferring civil servants on clan grounds only strengthens tribalism (similarity 0.91)
• Weak formal institutions strengthened Somali lineage elders and clanship (similarity 0.82)
• Collapse of state institutions strengthened lineage elders and clan identity (similarity 0.81)
• Somalia’s government weakened clan and religious authorities to build the modern state (similarity 0.81)
• Clan divisions persisted despite cultural unity and imperiled the new Republic (similarity 0.80)
• Abolishing client-tenant status fragmented Digil and Rahanweyn clan solidarity. (similarity 0.79)
• The Somali clan system is flexible and compatible with modern life, not atavistic (similarity 0.78)
• Somali nationalism drew strength from a democratic pastoral political tradition (similarity 0.78)
• Somalis invented their clan system before colonial rule, not because of it (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Weak formal institutions strengthened Somali lineage elders and clanship #corroborates (0.75)
• Collapse of state institutions strengthened lineage elders and clan identity #corroborates (0.60) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 666