Ioan Myrddin Lewis, 1930–2014

Mention the name Professor Ioan Lewis when you are in a group of Somalis, or people interested in Somalia, and one is almost bound to get a reaction. The distinguished social anthropologist, who died on 14 March 2014, is a household name in many parts of Somalia, especially the former British protectorate of Somaliland, which declared independence in 1991 but has not been recognized internationally. He is viewed by many as the founding father of Somali studies, an area of academic pursuit almost as difficult and controversial as the country itself. His work continues to inspire, and to generate controversy and debate. I have heard Somalis arguing vigorously about the theories of ‘Professor Lewis’ in the teashops of Mogadishu, Hargeisa, Nairobi and London. I have seen heated discussions on Facebook and Twitter and in internet chatrooms.

Ioan Myrddin Lewis was born in Scotland to a Welsh father and a Scottish mother. His father died when he was young, so he and his mother moved in with her parents who lived in Glasgow. His first area of academic interest had nothing to do with Somalia or the social sciences, as he started off studying chemistry at the University of Glasgow. As an undergraduate, he found out about a scheme whereby students of natural science could convert to human science. He switched both subject and university, moving to Oxford to study social anthropology. There he studied under the pioneering social anthropologist Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, whose works on the Nuer and Azande of South Sudan are ethnographic classics.

Lewis’s interest in Somalia was sparked in the 1950s while he was conducting desk research about communities in the Horn of Africa. His Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho was published by the International African Institute in 1955 as part of its Ethnographic Survey of Africa. He then received a research grant from the Colonial Office and set off with his wife, Ann, for the British Protectorate of Somaliland. They ‘went native’, living among the proud, hardy nomads of the Isaq clan as they herded their camels, sheep and goats through the dry, harsh scrubland. The Lewises had a slightly superior tent, and carried live chickens on their camels to ensure a supply of fresh eggs.

Initially, the Somalis did not welcome Lewis. At the time, they were particularly distrustful of the British, who had handed over to Ethiopia territory they saw as rightfully theirs. The nineteenth-century explorer Richard Burton described the Somalis as a ‘fierce and turbulent race of republicans’; Lewis wrote about their ‘open contempt for other people’.

One young man was especially aggressive towards Lewis, wrapping a cloth around his mouth every time he came near him in order to avoid being ‘contaminated’ by this foreigner. When Lewis met the man again many years later, he was astonished to discover that he had actually inspired him to take up social anthropology and to write a well-received book about the Somali warrior poet Sheikh Abdille Hassan, also known as ‘The Mad Mullah’, who for twenty years fought against colonial forces, including the British.

Lewis eventually won the trust of the Somalis, and developed great affection and respect for these tough people. He returned to Britain in 1960 and completed his doctorate in social anthropology at Oxford University. His fieldwork was written up into what was to become his most well-known book, A Pastoral Democracy. This classic work has been reprinted many times. Lewis was a prolific writer, publishing some thirty books in his lifetime.

Lewis moved to southern Africa, where he taught at the University of Rhodesia. He then returned to the United Kingdom, taking up lectureships at the University of Glasgow and University College London. In 1969, he was offered a post at the London School of Economics and Political Science, becoming a professor at the age of just thirty-nine. He remained there until he retired in 1992.

Lewis was popular with his students, who he electrified with his passion for Somalia. According to the Norwegian academic Jan Haakonsen, ‘I have read so much of his words and heard so...