Transitional justice and postconflict reconstruction in Somalia: The role of the African Union and pointers provided by it

Abstract

Postcolonial Somalia is riddled with contradictions. While some of the contradictions relate to the disjuncture between the state and traditional social dispositions, a significant part could be attributed to Somalia's encounters with externalities. The encounters have often produced defining consequences, some of which conjure violence and paradoxes, manifested in various forms with considerable impact on state and society. And so, since its formal state organs "collapsed" in 1991, Somalia has been subject to sequences of episodes with outcomes that have confined it to a state of conflict and conflicting paradigms. It follows, therefore, that an imagination of a future Somalia requires a transcendent approach sufficient to enforce an emancipatory postconflict order. This article argues that for such a vision to be realized, a reconstruction agenda built around an integrated transitional justice framework ought to be set out. But as the article further claims, such a framework must be constituted with caution, especially given that the effects of the Somali condition are so vast that an orthodox transitional justice approach would be inadequate. What ought to be pursued, it is argued, is a transformational framework capable of reaching out and tapping into the strength and heritage of Somali social institutions. In the African Union's evolving transitional justice framework, this article argues, there appears to emerge the formulation of an integrated nonhierarchical model that could offer a valuable template for Somalia.