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In
Acord
Newsletter
Issue 2: June 2001 Article 5: 'Nobody was spared': Investigating conflict and gender in Somalia By: Tobias Hagman, Research Officer, ACORD Somalia and Abridashid Lord, Communications officer, ACORD Somalia As part of ACORD’s current research project on gender-sensitive programme designing and planning in conflict-affected areas (sponsored by DFID), ACORD Somalia has been researching the effects of the Somali conflict on gender relations. The collection of oral testimonies has proven to be a useful research method, giving a shocking insight into how men and women have experienced and coped with the civil war in Somalia. ACORD recognises that conflict is a structural cause and effect of poverty, marginalisation and social injustice. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Somalia where ten years of civil war have left deep scars and have dramatically changed inter- and intra-community relations as well as relations between men and women.As the changing nature of gender relations has important implications for designing rehabilitation and development programmes in Somalia, it is essential that we know more about these changing roles and responsibilities in conflict-affected areas such as Somalia, southern Sudan and Angola. ACORD-Somalia has tackled this issue in collaboration with the regional RAPP staff (ACORD Sudan) who provided support to staff during the research. After a one week training session in basic research methods including oral testimony techniques and social exclusion analysis, a research team of four local staff was formed. The researchers firstly organised a series of community meetings in the three districts of Brava, Sablaale and Kurtunwarey, about 200km south of Mogadishu, in a bid to take the community on board in the research process. The team met district authorities, clan elders and other community structures of the three districts, and presented their research methods and objectives. The community leaders were enthusiastic and expressed their support for the research. Gaining community support was a crucial step in the research process as the careful identification of interviewees was essential for successfully collecting oral testimonies. Variables such as gender, clan affiliation, age, occupation and the person's geographical location were also taken into account to obtain a representative and balanced sample of the local population. Twenty-three persons were eventually identified and asked to provide oral testimony on how they experienced and viewed the conflict and what impact they felt it had had on gender relations. The interviewees were exceptionally willing to provide testimonies and related the events vividly. The testimonies revealed a shocking degree of suffering and trauma and showed how the local communities had struggled to survive during the past decade. Many of those who had been interviewed had been subjected to beatings, raping and looting and had lost close relatives during the war. Many villages situated in ACORD’s programme area had been occupied by rival militias and factions during the first half of the 1990s, the height of inter-clan fighting in Somalia. The atrocities committed by the different militias and the ensuing revenge killings and lootings between clans and subclans poisoned community relations on the grassroots level and installed a culture of violence that continues to pay its toll today. As a woman from Sablaale put it: "People who were equal yesterday - brothers or colleagues in work or neighbours - threaten and intimidate each other today". The testimonies illustrate how the region's various clan groups were affected differently by the conflict due to their lifestyle, geographical situation, military strength and other factors. One of the interviewees insisted that "nobody was spared by the conflict" though most agreed that men and women were affected differently by the war. While women were raped, beaten and their family belongings robbed, men were often killed. The war has dramatically changed relations between clans, communities and families and gender roles have been completely reversed since the beginning of the conflict. The testimonies demonstrate that women have become the main bread-winners, taking care not only of their children and husbands but also of livestock and farming. "Ninety percent of household basic needs are met by women. They have increasingly become breadwinners during the past ten years and are the backbone of the family", observed a participant at a social exclusion analysis workshop held in Sablaale. Women bear the burden of generating income for their families, taking care of their children, cattle and farms, often without any support from their husbands and relatives. Particularly widows and divorced women have to struggle for the upkeep of their children and extended family who depend on them. This contrasts with the pre-war situation when women were mainly engaged in domestic work. As an elder from the coastal town Brava remarked: "Before the conflict, 90% of women relied on the income of their husbands. They used to take care of children and do other domestic work. What has happened now is that 80% of men are idle, have nothing to do while women sell qat, run hotels and sell cereals in the market. The men cannot fulfil their obligations and roles, neither can they provide subsistence to their families". Many men are frustrated with this situation and suffer from a loss of self-esteem, feeling that they cannot live up to their traditional roles. A 50-year old Somali man openly admitted that "now we [obey] our women. They sell tomatoes, maize etc. while the men are supported by their wives". For further information contact:Tobias Hagmann, Research Officer, Mobile. ++254 72 71 98 45, tobias_hagmann@yahoo.com or Abdirashid Lord, Communication Officer, Tel. ++254 574 365/7 acordsom@africaonline.co.ke Mail: ACORD Somalia, PO Box 21722, Nairobi, Kenya |
