Anja Simonsen has co-written an article on ‘affective solidarity’ and the search for ransom in the global Somali community
CGC researcher, Anja Simonsen, has co-written an article with Mohamed S. Tarabi on how recent migration trends among the Somali youth and the rise of the migrant smuggling network, in Somali known as Magafe, have rendered traditional practices of solidarity ambiguous.
Simonsen and Tarabi argue that as increasing numbers of young Somali migrants have been taken captive in the deserts of Sudan and Libya in recent years, the Magafe network attempts to convince family members, and the wider Somali community, to pay extortionate ransoms by appealing to affective responses through images and sound recordings of torture. The authors examine how this practice exploits and transforms traditional clan-based solidarity that has historically been a mechanism of care.
The article is published in the Journal of East African Studies and can be found here.