Shattered Somalia

Nick R. Post#6 Shattered Somalia by Robert Draper, September 2009 National Geographic
This article looks at Mogadishu and the civil war that is going on inside Somalia. It starts off with an historical approach to Somalia and how it used to be controlled by a clan system. There were five major clans that controlled Somalia in the nineteenth century before Europeans came to the country. There was mostly peace provided the occasional clan feuding and cattle raids. In the 60's a dictator known as Barre came into power and brought stability to the region through a brutal dictatorship. Currently there is a shaky government trying to control the land called the TFG. This government is a moderate Islamic democracy. They are struggling for control over Somalis with the extremist Islamic groups al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam. The article goes on to explain that al Shabaab is the biggest employer in town offering young men a job in their organization for $150 a month. This is quite a large amount of money considering that the average person makes $2 a day in order to feed his family. Pirates raid ships and block ports controlling the entry of food aid coming into the country and al Shabaab during harvest time comes in and claims farmers crops for themselves.

I think this article is a good example of social control in a number of different ways. It shows a number of different groups struggling for power over one nation. It also shows the struggle of the little guy to the affect that he has a decision to make in regards to joining the terrorist groups to feed his family or choose to make a meager living and barely survive. The control of food is the key to power right know in Somalia. With many people dying of starvation and the pirates or al Shabaab controlling the food supply and ports it is very enticing for people to join up with them. I think this article has mainly to do with the idea of religious control by a government. By this i mean that he extremist groups do not want democracy and are fueled by violence. The UN is doing some to help but tragically not enough. There are seems to be a power struggle in Africa. The struggle over control is the pivotal issue tearing apart that continent.