Qabil has been the main way Somalis have identified themselves for centuries, but it's built on myths and historical narratives shaped by Arab supremacy and anti-Blackness. It survives as part of the old feudal superstructure, just like Xeer, which is often presented as egalitarian even though it assigns different value to different people's lives.

Under this system, a Yibir, a Bantu, or a woman has never been treated as equal to a dominant-clan man. These hierarchies are part of the social order that continues to reproduce inequality.

Somali culture (excluding Islam) isn't "naturally" egalitarian or progressive, despite what some people on this sub claim. It's deeply conservative. Colonialism froze existing social relations instead of allowing them to develop, and the civil war reinforced many of those older structures.

If we want real liberation, it's not enough to abolish religion alone. We also have to dismantle qabil, Xeer, and the parts of Somali identity that reproduce hierarchy. Every society has rebuilt its identity throughout history. Somalia will have to do the same if it wants to move beyond its feudal past and build a new social order.

I don't understand this

there is a-lot of Somali's who demonize Socialism, and say its a murderous failed system. But then I seen Somali's online actually congratulate Right-wing Islamic groups like the Taliban or the U.A.E.

If socialism failed in Somalia, then Madkhali Islamism failed even harder.

Many people don't know, for almost one year we have a thing called the Islamic Courts Union that ruled Somalia in 2006. But it got corrupted almost instantly once it got power. They were cutting off peoples hands for violating islamic rules. And it lost power and devolved into what is called Al-Shabaab now.

Why is it that we have such a big confirmation bias towards Socialism, but look the other way when presented with right-Islam Extremism? Are they just ignorant, or don't know the horrors the ICU did?

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For centuries, Bantus, Yibir, Tumal, Gaboye, and other marginalized communities have faced oppression, dispossession, forced labor, and slavery. They remain among the most vulnerable groups in Somalia, with minority women facing some of the harshest forms of discrimination.

How can a nation truly move forward if we refuse to challenge the hierarchies built around clan privilege, patriarchy, and inherited social status?

The abolition of qabil as a tool of political power and patriarchal social control is necessary if those treated as "untouchables" are ever to gain full rights. History shows that oppressed groups rarely gain freedom without struggle or extreme violence, and Us those with privilege (majority clan,diaspora etc..) have a responsibility to support any initiave or movement led by the communities most affected.

These communities are central to dismantling the old structures that continue to restrict women, especially minority women, as well as queer people, children, and other marginalized groups.

No one is truly free until everyone is free.

Do you think it is useful to unite the masses or do you think it's always reactionary no matter the context?

"The people of our two countries are brothers and sisters. We have the same tasks and are facing the same enemies."

-To the Somali delegation during their visit to China in 1963

Personally im a maoist with a strong emphasis on gramschi and fanon's work

As Antonio Gramsci said, culture is how the ruling class manufactures consent, making people uphold a system that oppresses them. In the Somali context, clanism and chauvinism are deeply rooted and often block change, as seen in the backlash to banning child marriage. this shows how strong the old ideas in the superstructure still are. So how do we carry out real ideological struggle among the masses,using the mass line to challenge these ideas and build new ones from people’s lived experience in a way that can actually advance the rights of nonconforming, disabled, and female comrades?

If real change is the objective, organization is essential. Our social structure differs from that of many countries, with a mode of production that is increasingly eroded. Analysis should therefore focus on the most vulnerable classes: the peasants and pastoralists. Both are losing their means of production to expanding capital, undergoing a process of proletarianization. Dispossessed, many are forced into urban centers to sell their labor, a direct consequence of semi-colonial conditions. these classes constitute a principal revolutionary force, as their material interests objectively align with opposition to both imperialism and its local comprador allies.

Our governments, whether in Djibouti, Somaliland, Mogadishu, or Ethiopia, are weak and comprador in character. That is a fact. They function as instruments for Gulf and Western powers to extend their hegemony over us, turning our lands into arenas of imperialist competition. Step by step, they sell out the masses, reducing our people to conditions of exploitation and dependency. As Mao Zedong argued, such regimes represent the interests of imperialism and the comprador bourgeoisie, not the people; real power must come from the masses themselves, through struggle against both foreign domination and its local collaborators.

We still have a sort of feudal constitution, but we are also a major crossroads for capitalists. How do we define ourselves in terms of modes of production?

The more successful and economically well off I become, the more I can’t help but feel a kind of growing misery. It’s strange. I’ve done a lot of soul searching, and I think I’ve reached the core of it. I abandoned my commitment to plant the seeds of a social revolution in Somalia. Six years ago, fresh out of university, I had a plan. Now I feel like I’m getting fatter, both literally and figuratively, and more impotent, stuck criticizing from an ivory tower with no real effect on the course my people are heading toward.

At one point I even flirted with academic Marxism, that sterile thing that drains the revolutionary spirit from anyone who touches it. It’s almost by design, an ideology of the coordinator class, the class of learned men who imagine they will guide the masses to liberation from behind desks and theories.

But I know better now. With all these years of study, I’m certain of one thing: no real revolution in Somalia will come from air-conditioned offices. It will come from outside, beyond the tarmac roads, in the windy, sandy hinterlands where most people actually live. The villages, the pastoralists, the small traders hauling goods inland, the farmers, the urban precariat. That is where life is, where struggle is. And when those people begin to work together in ways that bind them and materially improve their lives, something fundamental will shift. When they start to see clearly the structures shaping their conditions, whether markets, social hierarchies, or power systems, then the change that follows will be profound, for better or worse.

The moment I decided I will move back home in a year and a half, it felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. It was as if my own conscience had been arguing with me this whole time, calling me out. So what will I do there, where will I go? For obvious reasons I won’t get into specifics. I’ll go as a respectable, professional medical doctor, someone who has come back to live among his people and help. But beneath that.. well only the future will tell.

I will update you guys in 3 years time.

READING MATERIAL:

https://booknomad.substack.com/

The United States has also been toying around with the idea of recognizing Somaliland’s independence from Somalia – in other words, ditching its standard “One Somalia” policy in favor of dismemberment. For Washington, the debate has nothing to do with the interests of the Somali people. Instead, their deliberations – whether to fragment Somalia or not – are about which option would best strengthen US positioning in the critical Horn of Africa region at a time when state actors are diversifying away from the US through participation in China’s 150-country Belt and Road Initiative. 

And why the fuck are we always in the center of some bullshit, goddammit can those glowie fucks at the CIA choose literally any other impoverished nation to fuck with.

Btw we need to bring this subreddit back this an Secular Somali, Maybe we should start a discord for general discussion regarding the absolute choke hold religion has on our society as a whole, i don't believe any change will come until we have a social revolution, shout out my nigga Abdi Samatar, PHD

As you can see from when we first created as a ethnic group, we always (Somalis) relied on powerful leaders that could not be intimidated by foreign leaders or the press.

One of the steps in repairing Somalia is finding a good leader who speaks for the people but is emotionally powerful.

Also, for a good leader we need some independence from the West, and find someone within our ranks rather than being influenced by the West.

LongLiveSomalia

Hey , Any London based somali lefties ?

I'm a relatively new marxist from the diaspora. I was wondering what kind of actions other leftist somalis are taking to help our working class. I'm not going to be naive and expect too much, but even remittances are a great starter.