The Bantu - Jareer Somali Unearthing Apartheid In The Horn Of Africa [Paperback]

Somalia is generally thought of as a homogenous society, with a common Arabic ancestry, a shared culture of nomadism and one Somali mother tongue. This study challenges this myth. Using the Jareer/Bantu as a case study, the book shows how the Negroid physical features of this ethnic group has become the basis for ethnic marginalization, stigma, social exclusion and apartheid in Somalia. The book is another contribution to the recent deconstruction of the perceived Somali homogeneity and self-same assertions. It argues that the Somalis, just like most societies, employ multiple levels of social and ethnic distinctions, one of which is the Jareer versus Jileec divide. Dr. Eno successfully portrays another Somalia, in which a mythical homogeneity masks the oppression and social exclusion suffered by some ethnic groups in the country ------------------------------------------------------------ An important and empirically compelling book.. It is bound to usher a new era in which Somali scholarship must confront how to close the gap between the theoretically assumed homogenous and empirically diverse Somalia. Dr Eno's work is easily the most comprehensive and current examination of the social and cultural diversity of the Somali society, and particularly hitherto unacknowledged racialized aspects of Somalia. -- Abdi M. Kusow Professor of Sociology, Oakland University, USA The story is told of a Somali parliamentary delegation in the U.S. during the turbulent years of the 1960s. An American journalist asked one of the Somali lawmakers what he thought of the civil rights movement in America. 'No comment,' the lawmaker said, 'for we have a similar problem in Somalia.' The problem the lawmaker was referring to is the Bantu-Jareer question in Somali history.. In The Bantu-Jareer Somalis: Unearthing Apartheid in the Horn of Africa, Dr. Mohamed Eno traces the etymology of the sort of saga that frames and informs the Somali lawmaker's response.. By analyzing the ló–