Socialist Somalia: Rhetoric and Reality

The claims of several African military regimes, including Somalia, to be ‘building socialism’ are too often taken at face value. This book provides a scholarly, independent-minded account of the changes in Somalia since General Siyaad Barre seized power in 1969. While recognising certain advances in literacy, the position of women, and initial confrontation with both clannism and Islamic reaction, the author argues that during both the years of external alignment with the Soviet Union and subsequently with toe USA, the Somali state has remained petty bourgeois, unable to expand the forces of production, and has descended into a deep authoritarian coma.
The central concern of this study is to evaluate whether a military state on the periphery can successfully pursue a socialist strategy way out of underdevelopment. Dr. Samatar examines the process of dependent integration into the modern world system that Somalia underwent, and goes beyond explanations of modern Somali politics that rely primarily on the factor of clannism. The 20-year economic, social, and political record of the Barre regime is analysed against a background of policies that the author argues any Somali government must follow if the cycle of underdevelopment, war, and recurrent famine is to be broken.
The book raises pivotal questions of democratization, national accumulation, and the imperatives of collective self-reliance that face Somalia and the rest of Africa.