Discourse on Moral Womanhood in Somali Popular Songs, 1960–1990

Bibliographic Data

ID8976183
AuthorsLidwien Kapteijns (Wellesley College, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume50
Issue1
Pages101-122
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of African History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8537 • E-ISSN: 1469-5138
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021853708003927
OpenAlexW2161326349
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited6

This article is a study of Somali popular songs of the period 1960–90, which opened with the establishment of the Somali national state and ended with its collapse. It focuses on these songs as a discursive site in which a particular dilemma of the new Somali state clearly comes into focus, namely the desire to be ‘modern’, while at the same time turning to ‘tradition’ (i.e. a particular construction of Somali cultural authenticity and traditional religious morality) to mark and anchor a new Somali collective self-understanding and communal identity. The discursive push-and-pull of ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’ evident in the songs expresses itself specifically in debates about moral womanhood – that is to say, about what ‘good’ women should be like. Since the collapse of the state in 1991, Somali discourses about common public identity and gender norms have undergone dramatic change, with the sites of popular culture multiplying, especially outside of Somalia, and accessible through the internet. Although an interpretation of Islam that distances itself from Somali ‘tradition’ has been gaining importance as a source of legitimization, as is evident both in the struggle over the state in Somalia and in everyday life in Somalia and the diaspora, this is not a major concern in the Somali popular songs from the period after 1991. It was born auspiciously this flag raised above us We will not differentiate among any Somalis Since none of us are closer to it than the others, Let us be equal in front of our flag (Waa samo ku dhalayoo calanka noo saaran Soomaali oo dhan, kala sooci mayno Uma kala sokeynno, ha loo sinnaado) Somali popular song, articulating the hope of Somali unity and equality, sung by Faduumo Abdillaahi ‘Maandeeq’ in the early 1960s

Aesthetics · Diaspora · Identity (music · Media studies · Modernity · Morality · Political science · Sociology · Somali · State (computer science · Diverse Musicological Studies · Gender Studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Philosophy