A group of women attacked our office this week. There were about ten of them. They came with sticks to bang on the gate. They threw stones into the courtyard that came very close to hitting the women and children who were waiting to see their caseworkers.
I happened to be outside when it started because the electricity had gone off and it had become unbearable in the office. I sat outside to catch the hot wind that's been whipping up dirt since the beginning of July. It was there I heard the screaming and the banging. All of us who were sitting in the waiting area jumped up to see what was happening, then rocks started to rain down into courtyard.
I found out a few minutes later that the gang of women were upset over the results of the election for the new camp committee. Apparently the new governing group, decided by the refugees themselves in a camp-wide election organized and monitored by the United Nations, is of a tribe that these women consider inferior. The new committee are Somali Bantu, also known as
tin jarer or "hard hairs." The women, someone told me, are Darod, the tribe of the previous committee president, and are afraid they'll lose influence and benefits.
I heard all of this from coworkers who speak Somali and English. They could hear the women outside the gate shouting racial insults about the Somali Bantu. I guess they feel they're superior to the Bantu. I wondered how they'd feel if they were resettled in the US or Sweden and had to face prejudice and hatred themselves.
Our guards, two of whom are Bantu, tried to calm the women but had no luck. One of our staff had to run to the police station to get help, as our guards are forbidden from touching women even if they're being violent. During this, the women continued to scream, pound the gate, and throw rocks into the office yard. I made sure the children stayed under the awning.
The police arrived and grabbed a few of the women and took them to the jail. Our agency will, I heard, press charges and if found guilty, the women will serve about six months in prison. Since they're single mothers, they can choose whether or not to bring their children with them to prison for their terms.
After the action died down, I went back to the waiting area to listen to the conversations people were having. Sahra interpreted for me. Some women talked about how it was tribalism that made them refugees in the first place. They questioned why anyone would want it to continue here in Yemen. Some conversations got heated though, and we heard women accuse each other's tribes of being at fault for Somalia's problems.
It's unfathomable to me how such artificial differences as tribe could literally destroy a country and many aspects of its culture, especially considering that Somalis are almost entirely Muslim. In the Qur'an, sura 49, verse 13, it says:
"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may know each other (not that you may despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)."
One of my duties at work is leading peace and reconciliation training. I haven't done anything yet. I have no clue where to start. How can an American white man teach Somali refugees about reconciliation? In the West, conflict mediation is all about focusing on the issues and not the parties involved. How can that work here where, for many people, tribe defines who and what you are? Asking which tribe you belong to you is how many Somalis greet each other for the first time. Though I'm convinced that tribalism is mostly negative, I have no place telling anyone else that. It has to be changed from the inside if there's ever to be peace.
To read more about the Somali clan system:
http://www.freewebs.com/habarjecloonline/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_Bantu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_people
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