Word: clan
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...hatred seems ironic in a people steeped in the unifying belief that they are all descended from one man: the mythical founder Samaale. From him sprang a vast genealogical tree of clans that form the basis of the social system. Somalis still pride themselves on their ability to recite their clan histories for generations back. But a divisiveness has infected them since ancient times, when rival groups laid claim to the same wells and grazing lands...
...What little political organization the Somalis had collapsed, and the Europeans replaced it with Western centralized governments that brought the nomads their first schools, police and courts. But the colonialists also gave the Somalis a common threat to rally against. The nationalist Somali Youth League gained strength by stressing clan unity and encouraging territorial reunification...
When the country was finally liberated and reunified in 1960, the Youth League seized most of the power. Still, important posts were assigned according to clan. Leaders quickly found themselves overwhelmed, too inexperienced to run a Western democracy, too removed from the old ways to go back. They stood little chance of building a viable economy: natural resources were scarce and the land poor. Corruption, bribery and nepotism infested the bureaucracy and turned the people against a government they felt no longer represented their interests. Citizens were also embittered by continued separation from kinfolk under Kenyan and Ethiopian sovereignty...
Threatened with starvation by drought and clan warfare...
...been consigned to a public housing development by a stern republican government that has overthrown the monarchy. The book is both funny and impudent, but it contains a portrait of Elizabeth that is admiring in spite of itself. Townsend plays up Her Majesty's awkwardness, but of all her clan she adjusts best to her alien circumstances, simply by applying common sense and pluck...