Clans and comrades: exploring the religious and secular contours of socialist Somalia

The traditional secularization theory, a key principle in modernization discussions, has often been seen as a universal model for global societies. However, this model has not only been a challenge to apply in the study of traditional African societies where religion plays a central role in the fabric of society and governance. Bearing this discussion in mind, this study examines an oft-neglected sociological angle in the study of Somalia's nation-building story: the secular formations of the post-independence socialist government and its role in the nation-building and socio-cultural transformations of Somalia from a tribal society to a state. Through a qualitative content analysis of primary and secondary data, this research explores the lived experiences of diasporic Somalis who were living in the newly born nation-state and their understanding of identity and religion in a rapidly changing society. This study suggests that by questioning the religious versus secular binary and adopting more multifaceted conceptualizations of secularism, statecraft, power and religion, alternative approaches to studying secularism in Somalia are not only possible but necessary. It finds that secularism, as a form of governance, established itself as a questioning power. Rather than establishing norms, it set itself to question and deconstruct what was already normative in society regarding identity, traditional social/cultural, and religious practice. The consequence of this paradoxical questioning was religion transformed into an object of politics and the creation of state-sanctioned religious vernacular. Keywords: Islam, Nation-State Building, Religious Imagination, Secularism, Socialism, Somalia.