The search for Somali leadership and the potentials of Somaliland

Community organization and mobilization relate to the aspects on whether the community is able to organize to exploit diverse resources cultural, social, economic and political in the host environment. The Somali Diaspora can pursue a hybrid strategy combining its own cultural and traditional, cultural values with an open learning attitude towards the host environment. In addition, Diaspora organization and mobilization depend on three locational orientations. The first is the host country, where Diaspora has settled. The second is the homeland from which most of Diaspora’s values, norms and cultural background. The third is the transnational network that Diaspora might be able to organize and mobilize.

This study focusing on Somali Diaspora cases in the UAE and Denmark draws use of the social movement framework. First the Somali Diaspora needs political opportunities, particularly the institutional citizenship support to pursue proper community mobilization. Second, Somali Diaspora mobilization requires mobilizing structures and practices in the form of networks and associations people create and join to articulate and express their wishes. Such associations and networks could be host country oriented as well as associations based on kinship trans-national oriented relations. Third, Somali Diaspora need framing ideas to define Somalis as a distinct group in the process of structuring community cohesion. In this process, the community might create “master frames” that construct the identity of the community. According to Sokefeld (2006), such frames not just aim to establish and sustain community but also refer to concrete, significant events “reflecting collective memoires, grievances, identity and history” (ibid.) shaping and consolidating community consciousness.