Our Call

In the midst of an environment marked by disassembled state formations, fragmented national consciousness and widespread underdevelopment, the existential space to which Somalis desire to assert themselves within could not be more contested. And hence, it has become more of an imperative to reassert ourselves critically within such discursive terrains which have sought to impose normative value to particularised constructions of being, arising out of an ideological project of distorting the social experience on destructive, clannist lines. Thus, Gobanimo seeks to articulate a space of self-determination free of parochial discourses which reproduce narratives of intractable crisis in a political arena reducible to an irrational conflict between clans. In this vein we aim to foster an approach which is historically conscious and materially grounded, and which can shed light on the complex political processes and dynamics conditioning the political terrain of the Somali people. 

Our call for ‘Gobanimo’ is thus a collective journey towards reaffirming the essential pride that each human being rightfully holds in understanding their position in this globalised world. Through an interdisciplinary engagement of key transformations in the political, economic and social realms, foregrounding a critical assessment of today’s impasse within the world-historical context of the present, our collective standing in this complex negotiation with political modernity becomes clear. The unravelling of this story is thus the core intellectual impetus for Gobanimo. Much like the Gob from which the term arises offering shade to all who seek it, guiding them towards sustenance and renewal, Gobanimo is an endeavour that embraces the collective Somali people without distinction or discrimination, seeking to (re)imbue the Somali nation with the life-affirming context and sovereignty long withheld by forces both internal and external. 

Gobanimo’s mission is therefore a work of correction, a deliberate reimagining of what is possible for a society not defined by racialising discourses that reduce every crisis to an internal cultural failing. Such naturalising narratives of permanent disarray displaces the Somali subject from history, obscuring the cumulative violence of structural transformations experienced by a society peripherally incorporated into the capitalist world-system, with profound consequences for both material production and subjectivity. This project is not only disruptive but generative in that there is a desire towards actively redrawing boundaries of intelligibility, producing a new discourse that safeguards the historicity of the present conjecture. In doing so, reasserting the conditions of our shared humanity.