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Construction of Somali Identity and its Implication on Kenya’s Nationhood | 27th April, 2023

Ali A. Mazrui while acknowledging the role of nationalism in ending territorial colonialism in Africa, and nationhood as an ambition rather than reality for the bulk of African States, also revealed ethnic- consciousness as the greatest enemy of African nationhood. This research argues the Somali question in Kenya as unresolved and revisits the same. Somalis’ hyphenated identity is problematic and has implications on Kenya’s Statehood.

On the one hand, Somalia has perceived postcolonial politics in the NFD as “internal colonisation’ of Somalis by Kenya. On the other hand, Somalia’s claim to NFD was interpreted by Kenyan authorities as an affront to Kenya’s territorial integrity. These perceptions were commingled with Somalis unique identity and the controversy surrounding their citizenship. Hence this study will interrogate the Somali identity within the Kenyan State. The study will find out how the Somalis as an ethnic group were constructed by the British colonialists and the successive independent Kenyan States.

Moreover, the research will examine how the idea of “the Somali” has been constructed in literary texts such as Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa (1937), Elspeth Huxley’s The Flame Trees of Thika (1959) and Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Petals of Blood (1977). Nurrudin Farah’s Maps (1978) and Hiding in Plain Sight (2014) will also be critiqued insofar as their construction of the Somali identity is concerned.

Furthermore, the study will investigate how the literary representation of the Somali compares with more recent constructs in contemporary writings by younger writers represented by Abenea Ndago’s Voices (2017), and Nadifa Mohamed’s Black Mamba Boy (2010) and The Orchard of Lost Souls (2013). In addition, the research hopes to prove whether the current global and national perceptions that links the Somali to shifta (bandits), pirates, terrorists and sly businessmen is a colonial legacy as is the very invention of the Somali as a foreigner. The research stands to reveal how Kenyan literary texts respond to these myths and racial stereotypes about the Somali by way of either mitigating or worsening them.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
IFRA Nairobi (March 28, 2023). Construction of Somali Identity and its Implication on Kenya’s Nationhood | 27th April, 2023. IFRA Nairobi. Retrieved April 20, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/pw3f