TikTok ‘clan battles’ over music and poetry stoking tensions in Somalia

Many in Somali society are concerned that online bravado can cross the line into hate speech, worsening clan-based rivalries

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The contests are viewed on thousands of smartphone screens across Somalia and beyond, and usually feature two rivals who look like typical fresh-faced Generation Z influencers.
Side-by-side on the screen, each of these digital gladiators performs to whip up their supporters, who respond with a blizzard of cute emojis and paid-for digital tributes.
The game might use the live battle feature of the voguish TikTok app, but the sentiments expressed by these 21st century adversaries stem from some of Somalia’s oldest, but also most divisive traditions.
Using music, speeches, poetry and jibes, each player takes it in turn to extol the virtues of their own clan, and at times to mock or denigrate that of their opponent.
The winner is the player whose performance garners the most digital gifts, and the loser suffers the public humiliation of having to admit the supremacy of another clan.
Such live online contests, which are known as “clan debates”, “clan wars”, or The Big Tribal Game, can attract tens of thousands of spectators in Somalia itself, but also around the world in the large Somali diaspora.
To the spectators, the contests are harmless fun and a chance for Somali youth to take pride in their culture and traditions.
Yet in a country that from the 1990s has been torn apart by civil war often waged by clan-based militia, the sight of clans raising grievances and trading taunts about ancestors or battles is worrying.
Many in Somali society are concerned that the heated bravado can at times cross a line into hate speech and is worsening clan-based tensions.
The contests’ popularity among the diaspora is also a demonstration of how the online world is allowing clan rivalries to be taken up by a new generation, whose own parents have often fled Somalia’s conflicts.
Mukhtar Hassan Olad fled Mogadishu to Sweden in 2003 at a time when the capital and much of the country were carved out into fiefdoms and ruled by various clan-based factions.
By some estimates, Somalia’s civil war has killed as many as half a million people and displaced nearly four million more.
The 43-year-old told The Telegraph that the TikTok contests bring back bad memories.
“Back when I left Somalia, it was the guns terrorising the community, but now it’s the smartphone,” he said.
“Every time I see these debates on TikTok, I get reminded of the past atrocities that I and many like me were lucky enough to survive.”
“Instead of using TikTok to empower and educate Somalis, they’d rather fuel clan hatred. The same clan hatred that ripped their country apart.”
For those dealing with the aftermath of Somalia’s conflicts, they also fear that the online contests and aggressive comments on social media could have real world repercussions.
Clan conflicts forced Abdirashid Osman Mohamed to leave his home in the Lower Shabelle region and he currently lives in a camp in the Garasbaaley district of Mogadishu.
He said that during the violence that forced him to leave, online vitriol was often stirred up against his clan.
“First they start off by insulting the clan, then they say things like we don’t belong here.
“I was born and raised in this land. How can someone all the way in Europe say my clan and family don’t belong here and then rally their clan against us.”
When large-scale clan-based violence erupted in the Somaliland region in 2023, the European and American diaspora took part on both sides by providing funding, technical support and propaganda through their smartphones.
Clans are still a key arbiter of many aspects of Somali life and identity, and they have played a significant role in politics.
At the same time, growing use of the internet and mobile phones is leading to new online culture and keeping alive links with the diaspora. According to World Bank figures, in 2022 nearly 30 per cent of Somalis were online.
Dr Jethro Norman, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said: “The Big Tribal Game thrives on the spectacle of confrontation, pitting individuals against each other in a public forum where they trade insults tied to clan identity.
“This dynamic appeals to viewers by giving them a sense of participation in ongoing rivalries, while reinforcing their own clan identities and grievances.”
Social media now gives Somali clan conflicts a global footprint, he said.
“While regulations in countries like the US and in the EU aim to curb hate speech or incitement of violence, they are often broad and may not be well-suited to the nuanced clan-based content that emerges in Somali contexts,” he said.
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