The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture

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CHAPTER 1 1 The Political Symbolism of Dress Oh my god what is the world coming to?! Sen. Barack Obama has shocked the world by daring to dress in traditional African clothes, and wear a Turban too! To many this will look ‘Muslim’ and of course we all know that’s officially A Bad Thing. How can he be President now . . . ? —pickledpolitics.com, February 25, 2008 In September 2006—five months before he announced his candidacy for PresidentoftheUnitedStates—SenatorBarackObamawentonadiplomatic tourofAfrica.OnestopincludedthecityofDireDawainsoutheasternEthiopia , which had recently been hit by a flash flood that “killed more than 600 peopleanddisplacedtensofthousands.”1U.S.navalengineersworkingunder the Combined Joint Task Force, an anti-terrorism group, had erected tents to shelter people affected by the flood, including many Somalis.2 The most notable stop on Obama’s tour, however, was Kenya—the birthplace of his fatherandastrategiclocationintheU.S.-led“WaronTerrorism.”Inhonorof his visit to the northeast province of Wajir (an area near Somalia with a high concentration of Somalis), elders dressed him in a traditional Somali outfit consisting of several pieces of white fabric—one piece wrapped around his lower body (like a sarong), a second piece wrapped in an X across his chest, and a third piece wrapped around his head as a turban. A photographer capturedObamawearingthisensembleoverhisownkhakisandpoloshirt .This wrapped style of dress dates back to the nineteenth century and conveys a strong sense of Somali nomadic identity, connected with Islamic and antifacing page The Horn of Africa; Somali territory historically included present-day Somalia, northeastern Kenya, southern Djibouti, and southeastern Ethiopia. 2 The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture colonialsymbolism.Otherdignitariesvisitingtheregion—includingseveral Kenyan presidents and a representative of the British monarchy—have been dressed in the same, now ceremonial, style.3 During Obama’s campaign for U.S. president, this photograph of him in Somali dress—which had been displayed on the East Africa–based media websitewww.geeskaafrika.comformonths—washeldupbysomeas“proof” thatObamawasindeedMuslim(despitehisstatementstothecontrary)anda “non-citizen”withconnectionstoterroristorganizations.Obama’scampaign manager, David Plouffe, accused rivals working for the campaign of then Senator Hillary Clinton of releasing the photograph, calling it a “disturbing pattern” of dirty tricks and “the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’veseenfromeitherpartyinthiselection.”4Regardlessofthestorybehind it (which most Americans were probably not aware of) this photograph was widely circulated through television and the Internet, becoming an important visual symbol in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Clearly, many Americans were willing to believe that Barack Hussein Obamawashidingthetruthabouthisreligiousbackground,butwhydidthey read the outfit in the photograph as Muslim? Alec Rawls, author of the blog Error Theory argued, “There really isn’t much excuse for reporters not knowing that this is symbolically Muslim attire.” The key piece of information, accordingtoRawls ,wastheturban—agarmentwornbymembersofAl-Qaeda in anti-Americanpropagandavideos.Ignoring thefactthatturbansare worn by hundreds of thousands of men around the world (including non-Muslim Sikhs and Hindus), this perspective reduces the turban to a symbol of “Muslim ” and by extension “terrorist” identity.5 The complicated history behind this outfit and the intentions of the Somali elders who dressed Obama were barely considered; American viewers merely looked at the turban and read their own meanings into it. Why so much fuss about a piece of clothing? This high-profile case is one clear example of a process that occurs constantly even in everyday life—the politicizing of dress, the body, and appearance. In The Empire of Things, Fred Myers observed that “cultural objects externalize values and meanings embedded in social processes, making them available, visible, or negotiable for furtheractionbysubjects.”6Usingdress,identitieslike“Somali”and“American ” can be embodied and played out, making these abstract concepts available for critique and refinement. A nation cannot be seen or felt, but it can be expressedthroughthebody;shouldn’tacandidateforpresidentoftheUnited The Political Symbolism of Dress 3 States look “American”? Even ordinary people are often expected to fit the mold.7 Hair-straightening was a nearly universal practice among African Americans until the civil rights movement. Conversely, whites with dreadlocks have often endured criticism for deviating from the norm.8 Whether or not a person intends for his or her own dress to be viewed as a political symbol, the perspective of the viewer is also important—sometimes more important—in the creation of meaning surrounding an item of dress. The SomalimenwhodressedObamahadonesetofmeaningsinmind(todignify him as an honorary nomad and warrior), but many non-Somali viewers had a completely different interpretation. An Introduction to the Somali People Thisbookisaboutacomplicatedsetofissuesinvolvingpolitics,refugees,globalization , gender, and Islam as a global political/religious system that both unitesandseparates...