1st Edition
Constructive Resistance in Somali History The Wind Before the Rain
1. Introduction: Resistance by Caregiving Professionals
2. Setting The Scene
3. Care, Constructive Resistance and Socialization
4. Uffo’s Past Socialization: Somali Values, National Sentiments and Regime Critical Narratives
5. Uffo’s Relationships of Care
6. Uffo’s Constructive Resistance
7. Student Protests: ‘They Arrested Our Teachers’
8. Political Poetry: ‘Don’t Be Afraid and Don’t Despair’
9. Professionals in Early Resistance: Theoretical Insights
10. Concluding Remarks
Biography
Ebba Tellander completed her PhD at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Norway, and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands. Her research has appeared in Foreign Policy Analysis and Citizenship Studies, with forthcoming work in Mobilization. She is affiliated with the Civic Innovation group at ISS and collaborates with Oslo Metropolitan University and researchers at PRIO, among others. She has also co-created an animation and TV programme based on her work.
"Focusing on professionals rather than politicians as agents of social change, Tellander impressively combines oral testimonies, popular poetry, and rich cultural analysis to reconstruct the dramatic story of the 1981 Uffo protests which helped launch Somaliland on its path to independence a decade later. A compelling contribution to the comparative literature on non-violent resistance in the global south!"
Lee Cassanelli, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
"Constructive Resistance in Somali History deepens our understanding of agency and resistance through the stories of young professionals and students who challenged authoritarianism in Somalia. With theoretical rigour and meticulous research, Ebba Tellander reminds us that collective care is a necessary dimension of the political.”
Safia Aidid, Assistant Professor of History and African Studies, University of Toronto, Canada.
"Ebba Tellander provides a detailed, original, and elegantly told account of the Uffo protests in 1980s Hargeisa, Somaliland. Drawing on multiple interviews, the author ties the historiographical account to central theories of protest and resistance and to Somali poetry, offering a comprehensive analysis of how protest arose at this key moment in Somaliland's history."
Laura Hammond, Professor of Development Studies at SOAS, University of London, UK
