Being-Here: Placemaking in a World of Movement

253 Pages·2018·3.231 MB·English

by  Annika Lems

BEING-HERE
EASA Series
Published in Association with the European Association of Social
Anthropologists (EASA)
Series Editor: Aleksandar Boškovic´, University of Belgrade
Social anthropology in Europe is growing, and the variety of work being done
is expanding. This series is intended to present the best of the work produced
by members of the EASA, both in monographs and in edited collections. The
studies in this series describe societies, processes and institutions around the
world and are intended for both scholarly and student readership.
For a full volume listing, please see back matter.
B H
EING- ERE
Placemaking in a World of Movement
Annika Lems
berghahn
N E W Y O R K O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2018 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2018 Annika Lems
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. cataloging record is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78533-849-6 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78533-850-2 ebook
The world is large, but in us it becomes deep
as the bottom of the sea.
—Rainer Maria Rilke

Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Greeting Xamar 1
Part I. Thinking What We Are Doing 27
Chapter 1. Walkers of the Everyday 31
Part II. Emplacement 67
Chapter 2. Placing Somalia 69
Chapter 3. Living One-Eyed 87
Chapter 4. An Accidental Move 102
Chapter 5. Home-Building 112
Chapter 6. Homewards 123
Part III. Displacement 137
Chapter 7. At Home in the Universe 141
Chapter 8. Gendered Dis/Emplacements 161
Chapter 9. Displaced Stories 177
Chapter 10. Placeless Dreams 193
Final Juncture: Concluding Words 210
Bibliography 219
Index 233
Illustrations
0.1. Stray bullet on a stony path 1
PI.1. Civilians driving a military truck through Mogadishu 27
1.1. Self-portrait in front of a broken mirror 55
PII.1. A market in the centre of Mogadishu 67
2.1. Omar Farah in Melbourne, 2017 76
2.2. Remnants of a demolished church in Mogadishu 79
6.1. This is what happens: As soon as the car stops, the
soldiers jump out and they have to go in all directions
to make sure that the place is safe 128
PIII.1. National Somali television studio in Mogadishu 137
PIII.2. Broadcasting archive in Mogadishu 138
7.1. Halima painting the container 146
8.1. This guy used to be the president, Siyaad Barre. A
very rare photo, very rare. The others are members of
the Supreme Revolutionary Council. Some of them
were killed by him later on 169
9.1. I took that photo from a small window, I couldnt go
outside, because there was a lot of fighting. For others
it was business as usual 184
10.1. Driving through Mogadishu 198
10.2. Celebrating Halimas graduation in community
welfare in Melbourne, September 2012, with (from
left to right) her daughter Sahra, her sister Sahra,
Halima, her daughter Sagal and the author 204
11.1. I think this is the police academy or it used to be.
Its near the Parliament in Mogadishu 210
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I would like to express my deep and heartfelt
gratitude to Halima Mohamed, Omar Farah Dhollawa and Mohamed
Ibrahim, whose stories have filled this book with life. There are not
enough words to thank them for their generosity, for their readiness
to let me into their lives and for all the time and effort they invested in
this project. I also want to thank Klaus Neumann and Peter Browne,
my dissertation supervisors at the former Swinburne Institute for
Social Research in Melbourne, who travelled this journey with me
from the very beginning. Their encouragement to explore and chal-
lenge my writing allowed me to open my mind to new possibilities,
and to gain strength and confidence in my ability as a storytelling
academic.
Like any academic work, this book did not grow in solitude.
Rather, the many conversations and discussions I had with col-
leagues, friends and family members also formed my thinking and
have left their imprints on this book. I would like to thank all partici-
pants of Klaus Neumanns residential seminars and Sandy Giffords
writing group for their generous and constructive feedback to some
of my draft chapters. A thank you goes to my friends and colleagues
in Australia, Zoe Robertson, Stefanie Scherr, Josefine Raasch, Robyn
Sampson, Jasmina Kijevcanin, Michaela Callaghan, Katherine
Wilson, Skye Krichauff and Caitlin Nunn. I am particularly indebted
to Sandy Gifford for the time she dedicated to reading and com-
menting on my chapters, but also for her readiness to share some of
her own experiences as an anthropologist with me. Furthermore, I
want to express my gratitude to Sabine Strasser and Kathrin Oester
for their persistent encouragement in pursuing this book project and
to all my colleagues at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the
University of Bern, who formed an invaluable support base both
academically and socially. A heartfelt thank you to Jelena Toic ,