The recent literature on Somalia has largely been preoccupied with the latest developments from the capital Mogadishu. Yet the Somalia in the public discourse is not the same as the empirically-nuanced Somalia on the ground. This paper examines how and why the concept of governmentality has become a peculiar mixture of genuine reform and replication of the old institutions and practices. Casting a new light on the type of governance exercised and existed in Mogadishu, the paper explores the cosmological ways in which political power is articulated both visually and physically, revealing how Mogadishu mimics the old military regime of General Mohamed Siad Barre to create a sense of authoritarian rule in the capital. Drawing on a five-month fieldwork research in Somalia between May and September 2015 that combined oral interviews, field ethnographic observations with accumulating primary data, i.e. government decrees and documents, as well as oral poems, television and radio recordings, the paper argues that the lack of real state structures for nearly three decades memorialises the military regime and makes the only reference to – and model for – attempts at state reformation processes, both from the below and from the above. The Siad Barre regime model of state shapes the ways in which the Somali State or states have been built in the past or to be built in the future. Imitation to authoritarianism is seen as the only measure of how the government can broadcast power and consolidate territorial rule. However, what is desirable as a form of state differs from what is practical in terms of state institutions and apparatuses. The question is not, thus, why the Mogadishu government mimics the military regime to broadcast its power, but why does the Siad Barre regime still matter, when it was demised so long ago?

Mohamed Haji Ingiriis

University of Oxford