Deegann, Politics and War in Somalia 339
Jilaal season. Farmers in the Jubbaland keep some form of livestock and
hence wish to protect their crop residues for use during the Jilaal season.
Conflict between the groups is frequent. During the Gu or rainy season, water
and forage is available over a wider area and during this time pastoralists
clash to control grazing resources in areas separating different clans.
The ecology of the Jubbaland region is highly conducive to agriculture,
including areas along the river and on the coastal plain. The flood plains of
the Jubba River provide very fertile soils for crop production throughout the
year. Commercial plantations border the river. These plantations produce
mainly bananas for export to overseas markets. The minority Habar Gedir
and their Marehan supporters control the commercial plantations. These two
sub-clans possess the military capacity to protect their interests in commer-
cial farming from rival clans such as the Ogaden and their Majertein allies.
The farm labourers on commercial plantations are Bantu and related groups
who historically inhabited and cultivated these areas, but who are unable to
defend themselves militarily from the incoming Habar Gedir sub-clans and
their Marehan allies.
Peasants also cultivate small plots along the river or in areas where there
is adequate rainfall to sustain cultivation. They cultivate a variety of crops,
including sorghum, Indian corn, sesame, beans, squashes and manioc, as
well as fruits and sugar cane. Subsistence farmers native to the Jubba River
valley have experienced waves of land alienation and obstruction of custom-
ary patterns of resource use. The independent government of Somalia in the
1960s introduced purportedly modern methods of agriculture in order to pro-
duce food on a large scale. The introduction of large-scale irrigation resulted
in the displacement of subsistence farmers, thus obliging them to become
part of the new schemes as labourers or farm workers.
The land rights of subsistence farmers were widely alienated under the
former Barre government, which attempted to irrigate these lands to produce
food crops as well as increase the export of lucrative cash crops. As part of
this policy, the Barre govemment settled pastoralists along the Jubba River.
The Barre government wanted to meet national food requiremenis and to
earn foreign currency. Jubbaland was key to meeting these strategic objec-
tives. Thus the exploitation of Jubbaland's agricultural potential meant the
imposition of new tenure rights that disadvantaged local inhabitants who
were minimally consulted.
Many pastoralists were settled along the Jubba River, for example. In the
process, the original landowners were displaced either physically or through the
imposition of new tenure arrangements. The areas where pastoralists were set-
tled were saturated; thus the denial of land and resource rights for some groups
was ine~itable.~~ It was impractical and ecologically disastrous to settle pas-
toralists in farming areas, because the settled pastoralists had little knowledge
of farming practices. Nor were they familiar with the ecological conditions