Ethnic Prejudice and Discrimination of the Somali Minority Groups : The Image Of The Other As An Enemy

• Main Author: Warsame, Abdihakim Barre
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen 2020
• Subjects: Enemy Images; Challenges; Minorities; Majorities; Clans; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-174834

This study aims to investigate how the mechanisms of discrimination, othering, prejudice and enemy imaging work in conflict and non-conflict zones. The study further explored if the informants stories differ when in conflict zones. Enemy images theories were used as the theoretical base to investigate how the Somali majorities construct the enemy image of the Somali minorities (The Somali Bantusand the occupational groups). The aim and research questions are answered through a comparative case study that focuses on interviewing two Somali minority groups (occupational groups and the Bantu Somalis) who have the experience and lived both in Somalia (conflict context) and Somaliland (non conflict context). The result sof the study show that the majority of Somali clans use the delimitation between “them and us” a set of values that separate the two groups and characterize the minority groups as slaves and people of low social, economic, and political status. The majority groups perceive the minority groups as a threat to their assets and corevalues. This is what has been described as "our" and "their" essence, and the final aim, which is to legitimize violence, is clear in the data. While on the other hand, the majority groups referred to themselves as superior. The results indicated that there were no differences and only similarities in the narratives of the minority groups living in both conflict and non-conflict zones. This was an interesting discovery which was against the known and expected ideal. This thesis also suggests other ways of looking at the concept of enemy images suggesting further areas of research where deemed necessary.