Somali Diaspora and the

Adoption of Digital Technology

Abdisalam Issa-Salwe
East Africa University

Topic list
 Somali websites
 Classification of Somali Websites
 Common features
 Naming conventions
 Community/political web type
 Somali mailing lists
 Cultural Unity vs. Political Differences
 Community/political web type
 Social Media
 Facebook
 WhatsApp
 Conclusion: Cultural Homogeneity and Political
Division

Somali websites
 Currently, there are more than nine hundred
Somali websites.
 Websites are employed for:
 Propaganda (as information war),
 Community information,
 Preservation and revival of Somali culture
and literature, and/or
 Islamic teaching.

3
Classification of Somali Websites
1. Community/political:
 By focussing on the community views, concerns
and interest, the community/political web type
behaves as a community and political front. They
make up the majority of Somali websites using
news online as their major feature. These web
types have their own domain name.
2. Cultural/literary:
 This web type devotes its activity on the Somali
culture and literature. They generally make up part
of other domains, particularly, the community/
political web type. However, where they have their
own domain they are entirely devoted to the
preservation and dissemination of Somali
literature and culture.

Classification of Somali Websites (cont…)

3. Professional/business:
 This web devote mainly on professional or other
specific activities such as business. They are
usually web fronts for existing business or
professional bodies.
4. Online Newspaper:
 This web type is structured in the form of an
online newspaper where they publish news in the
form of text or audio. The majority of this web
group is web front of existing newspapers which
exist inside or outside Somalia. Therefore, their
web activity is mainly an extension of their
activities.

Classification of Somali Websites (cont…)

5. Religious:
 This group is dedicated entirely to the Islamic
teaching and information.
6. Personal:
 This web type has the most striking similarity with
the political/community web type as personal web
pages are known to present material in self-
presentation form. Many community/political web
types start as personal web types.
7. Radio/TV:
 The Radio/TV web type group has some
similarities with the online news web group.
Generally, they are incorporated into the other
web types.

6
Somali web increase/decrease: Sept 2006
to Dec 2018
Somali Website (Jan 2018 Update)
Increase/
Websites 01/09/2006 01/01/2018 Percentage
Decrease
Com/pol 296 345 49 17%
Rad/TV 39 43 4 10%
Cul/lit 17 25 8 47%
Rel 31 54 23 74%
Pro/bus 96 122 26 27%
Per 166 145 -21 -13%
On-News 26 43 17 65%
Total 671 777

Somali Website (Jan 2018 Update)

On-News
4%

Per
25%

Com/pol
44%

Pro/bus
14%

Rel
Cul/lit Rad/TV
5%
2% 6%

Naming Conventions
1. General:
 General naming include those names
which are not identified by a particular
political group, region or clan.
 They generally use common names
such, as for
example, SomaliNet, SomaliTalk or
Somalia Online.

9
Naming Conventions (cont…)
2. Organisational and professional:
 This type of naming is used by
professional websites such as business or
institutes, i.e.. Amoud University,
Dahabshiil, Somali Women's Association
or Somali Cultural Association.
 Names which are given to community
Radio/TV groups come under this
category.

10

Naming Conventions (cont…)

3. Geographical, regional or clan:
 This kind of web naming usually
correspondents to website's political or
regional affiliation.
 Such groups are, for example,
SomalilandForum, Arlaadinet, AllPuntland
or Dayniile.

11

Naming Conventions (cont…)

4. Literary/cultural:
 This kind of web naming describes literary or
cultural indications, e.g. MandeqNet or
Hoyga Suugaanta.
 It is commonly named in the honour of
cultural, literary or well-known literary
personality, e.g. Golkhatumo, Muuse Galaal
or Hadraawi.

12
Naming Conventions (cont…)

5. Religious:
 This type of naming usually describes
Islamic place or historic events.
6. Personal:
 This kind of naming indicates personal
meaning.
 This naming type is used by individuals (e.g.
students).

13

The Internet and the Diaspora

 In some cases, the web technologies may
enable Somali Diaspora to take the conflict
outside their homeland.
 On the other hand, they also help the
Diaspora to take part in the local
development, such as schools.

14

Somali mailing lists

 I have used as case studies three Somali
mailing lists:
1. Puntland/Jubbaland mailing lists,
2. the Somali Forum (SomaliForum), and
3. Pan-Somali Council for Peace and
Democracy (Israaca).
4. The first group is a lineage-based group
while the latter two are national level group
lists.

15
Somali mailing lists (cont…)
 The facility with the mailing list technology
enables Somali Diaspora to meet and
discuss.
 It helps them to keep in touch.
 It brings a new dimension to traditional
methods of communication.
 It enables them to keep in touch with a
political situation at home
 It makes them possible to involve in the local
controversies.

16

Somali mailing lists (cont…)

 Mailing lists are used for different
purposes.
1. National level where groups of national
interest meet virtually,
2. Professional types where professional
people communicate, and
3. Lists where groups meet below the national
level

17

Somali mailing lists (cont…)

 All three mailings lists are/ were regulated
mailing lists.
 Regulated topics are those discussions which
are regulated and have moderators to guide.
 Discussions are related to matters which require
a join action to be agreed by the members.
 Generally, these types of discussions have/had
moderators.
 The result of the discussions is combined and
sent to the members to agree a joint action.

18
Formalising the mailing activity
 Beside for discuss and exchange news and
information about their homeland from around
the world, mailings lists are also formed to:
 finding missing relatives,
 meeting old friends and making new ones,
 helping and contributing to home development,
 helping their local political leaders
 pooling skills of professionals, and
 promoting the interests of own region or area in
Somalia.

19

Formalising the mailing activity (cont…)

 The majority of mailing lists form rules and
regulations to formalise their objectives
and tasks; for example, the preamble of
one of Somali mailing list says:
“… we founded this forum to enable members
to share the task of development of the
homeland and to unite their political
views, and economic interest…” (Gole
constitution).

20

Formalising the mailing activity (cont…)

 The reason for the formalisation of the

mailing is to enforce regulations.
 For example, when a member breaches the
rule, his/her case is taken to the discipline
committee.
 The disciplinary committee may arbitrate also
between members.

21
Mailing list membership

 To ensure and verify membership, a set of

safety checks are put in place.
 For example, prospective members are
required to send a request of membership to
a member of the list who should ensure the
identity of the prospective member.
 This activity is primarily to prevent ‘infiltration’
and prove that the prospective person is ‘truly’
a member of the community.

22

Mailing list membership (cont…)

 To make their task formal, they also
nominate steering committees.
 These steering committees are further
divided into sub-committees, i.e.:
executive, technical, disciplinary, and finance
committees.
 In many cases members elect the committee
from time to time (i.e. once every year)

23

Mailing list membership (cont…)

 Collaboration is directed into two ways:
1. to share resources and knowledge, and
2. to unite the group with their region (alias clan)
against the ‘enemy’.
 The prospective member is required to provide
details such as name, place of
residence, profession and education.
 These details are used for a database to pool
the skills and professionals of the homeland so
they could help in the development.
 Members are classified according to their
profession.

24
Cultural Unity vs. Political Differences

 Community/political web types’ activities may

be seen to represent the epitome of the
turbulent Somali nation.
 Culture and Literature web types reveal a view
of sharing as the majority of them share culture
and literary content.

25

Cultural Unity vs. Political Differences (cont…)

 The cultural/literary web group is used in

two ways:
 to preserve the Somali literature and culture
following the collapse of the Somali state.
With the breakdown of the state
institutions, the preservation of Somali literary
and cultural material became an important
priority for many Somalis including some
Community/political groups.
 to use as a political means to express a
separate identity.

26

Cultural Unity vs. Political Differences (cont…)

 Cultural/literature websites try to be
consciousness of not mixing politics with the
cultural argument, especially those divisive
issues which are characteristic of Somali
segmentary society.
 Nevertheless, cultural issues have never been
excluded from spilling into political controversies
to further the cause of Somali nationalists

27
Community/political web type (cont…)

The Somali community/political web type

can be grouped into three sub-
categories:
 The first sub-group:
 They behave as a front of one of the
different political units (sub-groups) created
following the breakdown of what used to be
the Somali republic.

28

Community/political web type (cont…)

 The second sub-group:

 They are those websites whose political
orientations seem to represent some kind of
national or supra-clanic view or interest.
 Contrary to the first group, they generally use
common names such as, for example, i.e.
Wardheernews, SomaliTalk.

29

Community/political web type (cont…)

 The third sub-group:

 They can be defined as the minority or
movements’ websites.
 This group use the community/political web
entirely different that the other groups.
 Some of these sites tend to use the web as a
means for expressing their community
concerns which sometimes are shown as
minority interest.

30
Social Media

 Empowered by Web 2.0

 “One to many” communication changing into
“many to many” communication
 Everyone becomes online “broadcaster”
 Politics 2.0
 The idea that social media and e-participation allow
voters to follow, support and influence politics and
political campaigns like never before

Facebook
 Facebook's more than one billion
users make it a cultural,
economic and social
phenomenon.
 Whether it's good or bad is
debatable, but the site's impact is
unquestionable

33
Facebook (cont…)
 The importance of the online
social media site to journalism,
business, communication and
social relationships is hard to
overstate, with users across the
world devoting countless hours to
the site and Facebook becoming
an increasingly important way of
obtaining information not only
about friends and family but also
about world events.

34

Facebook (cont…)
 A “social networking” site
 Framework for information
 Complex control of who can see what
 Users have a “profile” with a picture* and
other personal details as they wish,
including “limited profile”
 Based on “Networks”
 Facebook creates a newsfeed based on
what your “friends” are doing

Facebook? (cont…)

 Started in Harvard University Feb 2004

 Later added academic addresses (.edu, .ac.uk etc)
making “networks” for “colleges”
 Regional and Employer networks also exist
 “Regional” anyone can join, but can’t change too often
 “Employer” requires email address in the right domain
 Opened to anyone with email in Sep 2006
Facebook features
 The Wall
 Messages INBOX (and threads)
 Pokes
 Groups
 Events
 Photos & Videos (with tagging)
 Posted items (text and URLs)
 Shared items
 Applications

Facebook (cont…)

 Social networking website connecting

people across the street, country and
world
 Focuses on building and relating social
relations among people who share
common interests, activities and
experiences

History
Who uses Facebook?

WhatsApp
 WhatsApp Inc. was
founded in 2009 by Brian
Acton and Jan Koum, both
veterans of Yahoo.
 A cross – platform instant
messaging application that
allows iPhone, BlackBerry,
Android, Windows Phones
and Nokia smartphones.
 Users to exchange text,
image, video and audio
message for free.
41

WhatsApp (cont…)
 WhatsApp, a play on the casual greeting "what's
up?", is an adfree mobile messaging app that
allows users to exchange text and media
messages through their Internet data plan or
through Wi-Fi.

42
 WhatsApp (cont…)

 Users do not have to pay for SMS.

 Once you start using WhatsApp to connect with
your
 Friends, you'll wonder how you ever lived
 Without it!

43

WhatsApp (cont…)

 Especially popular with end users who do not

have unlimited text messaging.
 Group chat options.
 Technically speaking, WhatsApp users a
customized version of the open standard
 Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
(XMPP).

44

Cultural homogeneity and Political Division (cont…)

 Even though writing has never been a significant
communication medium in Somali society, the use
of Somali writing on the Internet seems to reflect
what the great Somali novelist,
 Nuruddin Farah, terms as a leap from oral
tradition to technological sense "without going
through the middle stage of writing word"
(Farah, 1987: 7).
 This visionary observation illustrates the oral
characteristics of the Internet which in a sense the
Internet has turned us to an ‘oral culture’.
45
Cultural homogeneity and Political Division
(cont…)
 While the Internet creates a sense of belonging
and a sense of sharing for Somali groups, it is
also an agent for 'fragmentation', Somali
websites tend to depict cherished cultural
homogeneity and shared heritage of Islam, they
also portray the political and social division of
their consciousness.
 Traditional Somali social setting is the basis of the
main identity of Somali society.

46

Cultural homogeneity and Political Division (cont…)

 A group is held together by what is a special
about it, and this ‘specialiness’ consists of
information that members have in common with
each other and do share with members of the
other group (Meyrowitz 1985: 56).
 Every group develops its own reality based on
its own separate experience.

47

Cultural homogeneity and Political Division (cont…)

 This perception of different reality has

consequences that mitigate against an
organised society on a nation-wide basis
(ibid).
 Website anarchy helps to explain how the
social crisis deepened.

48
Conclusion
 The Internet’s multifaceted means have
provided Somali Diaspora with a way of
presenting their anguish and the
prominence of oral patrimony.
 But each site represents part of the total
sum of this violent history: strengthening
sense of community, sense of group
belonging in a new dimension (virtual
world), strengthening group identity, and the
effect of ethnocentrism.

49

Conclusion (cont…)
 While Internet creates a sense of
belonging and a sense of sharing for
Somali groups, it is also an agent for the
'fragmentation' of Somali society.
 Somali websites tend to depict cherished
cultural homogeneity and shared heritage
of Islam, they also portray the political and
social division of their consciousness.
 Traditional Somali social engineering is
the basis of the main identity of these site
groupings.
50

Conclusion
 The anarchic Somali websites activities
epitomise the turbulent, darkest sides as
well as the best sides of the history of the
Somali nation.

51
Reference
 Issa-Salwe, Abdisalam M., Electronic Communication and an Oral
Culture: The Dynamics of Social Web Environment Case Study, LAP
Lambert Academic Publishing. 2010 (ISBN 13: 978-3838349350)
 Issa-Salwe, Abdisalam M., Oral Culture and Computer Mediated
Communication: Social Dynamics of Mailing Lists, LAP Lambert
Academic Publishing. 2010 (ISBN 13: 978-3838346007)
 Meyrowitz, Joshua (1985): No Sense of Place: The Impact of
Electronic Media on Social Behaviour, New York: Oxford University
Press.
 Nuruddin Farah, Maps, 1987, Pantheon Books
 Newman, S. (1998): Here, There and Nowhere at All:
Distribution, Negotiation and Virtuality in Postmodern Ethnography
and Engineering, Knowledge and Society, 6, 235-267.
 Lyons, Terrence (2004): Diasporas and Homeland Conflict, Institute
for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, [WWW Document] URL
www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/davenport/
dcawcp/paper/mar0304.doc, [0/04/2004].
 Cultural Orientation Net (August 2004): Somalis, [WWW
Document], URL
shttp://www.culturalorientation.net/somali/sintro.html, [12/11/2004].
52