Deegmn, Politics and War in Somalia 35 1The impacts were devastating for subsistence producers. In the Jubba
River valley, for example, the 'state' (both the colonial and post-independ-
ent) established large commercial agricultural plantations, displacing peas-
ant farmers who shared access to pasture and water with mobile pastoralists.
Secondary and tertiary access rights to resources, however, were eliminated
once commercial plantations were established. Unable to sustain customary
production systems, many peasants and pastoralists became destitute. A large
pool of cheap and disempowered labour emerged to supply the colonial pian-
tation economy. Many continued to be dependent on the state in the period
following independence, even though the state was inimical to the interests
of the rural poor. The only chance for security for many subsistence produc-
ers and destitute people was to gain patronage from the ruling elite.
The break-up of the central state in 1991 has led to a further transforma-
tion of rules and norms for accessing and controlling land and resources.
However, political power, infinitely ordered and meticulously negotiated, still
ultimately determines land and resource rights in Somalia. Strength to claim
and/or maintain rights to access and control land and resources has con-
verged around contractual agreements between different groups. As was
observed in the case of Jubbaland, supremacy and control over land and
resources depends on the power of different clans and sub-clans at particu-
lar times, which is largely a factor of the support clans acquire through agree
ments with other groups. Control of land and resources confers greater polit-
ical power, which clans use to stake greater land and resource rights through
political bargaining with other groups. Conflict in Somalia involving land and
resources, therefore, ebbs and flows as different groups make and unmake
power in a seemingly endless struggle to capture, ultimately, the greatest
prize: control of the state.
For conflict managers and peace makers, it is important to recognise that
there is a strong background to dialogue, negotiation, reciprocal agreement
and resource sharing in Somalia. Elements persist to this day, albeit in recon-
stituted forms in the anarchic period following the break-up of the Somalia
state in 1991. In spite of the ongoing civil war and further disintegration ol
the former 'state' into different political units, this process continues. As De
WaalS7 observes, international intervention undermined many positive
opportunities to rebuild customary political structures in Somalia following
the disintegration of the state. The break-up of the central state may enable
Somalis to forge a new politik incorporating custom. This process must be
encouraged as an integral aspect of conflict management and peace building
through a variety of diplomatic and policy-making channels.
The lessons emerging from this case-study for conflict managers and peace
makers are many. One is that land and resources are clearly important to under-
standing the dynamics of conflict in Somalia. The exact extent of their impor-
tance is impossible to quantify, but land and resources play an important role