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Paper short abstract

Somalis have a long history of assisting each other during crisis, such as drought, floods, or Covid-19. Examining the transformations and repertoires of mobilization of such assistance, we argue that it is underpinned by social connectedness, embedded in translocal and transnational practices.

Paper long abstract

Due to the absent or weak role of the state to respond to emergencies, Somalis engage in emergency assistance when crisis strike, such as droughts, floods, and terrorist attacks. In this exploratory article, on we examine the origin, structure, and operation of such emergency assistance as well as the Somali terminology and mobilization repertoires used. We present three related arguments. First, that Somalis have a long history of emergency assistance, underpinned by social connected and embeddedness, revolving around kinship and clan structures. Second, owing to increased translocalism, transnationalism and ‘transnational embeddedness’, such assistance has transformed, in scale, operation and efficiency, in the last three decades. Third, we propose that practices and repertoires of mobilization and assistance have started to shift towards cross-clan and Somalinimo affiliation as well as mediation by social media, as diaspora (and to some degree urban) youth become more engaged as the older generations retire.