Strengths in Somali families

Hawa Ibrahim A. Koshen, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Marriage and Family Review

Publication Date

8-27-2007

Abstract

Somalis populate an area on the Horn of Africa which includes the country of Somalia and parts of Djibouti, Kenya and Ethiopia. They share the same language, religion and culture. The majority of Somalis are pastoralists, although urbanization is a growing modern phenomenon. They belong to stratified clan or tribal structures and follow time-honored traditions based on Islamic practices and customary law, called xeer. The civil war, which began in 1988, pitted the state against certain clans and then degenerated into inter-clan fighting, followed by intra-clan fighting. Throughout the conflict the population was subjected to atrocities: slaughter and rape was widespread, property and livestock were pillaged, infrastructure was ruined. The turmoil sent shock waves through the society, causing tremendous changes which stretched traditional coping strategies to the limit. © Copyright (c) by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

ISBN

9780000000000

ISSN

0149-4929

Publisher

Informa UK Limited

Volume

41

Issue

1-2

First Page

71

Last Page

99

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Family challenges, Family stability, Family strengths, Peace, Social progress, Somali families

Scopus ID

84920497202

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

Link to Full Text

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