During harsh winters, porcupines try to huddle together to generate heat. But when they come too close, they inevitably prick each other and jump back into isolation. Ahmed Samatar used this analogy yesterday to explain the difficulty of human relationships in regards to politics in Africa.
In a lecture entitled "The State and Leadership in Africa," Samatar, a professor of International Studies and Political Science at Macalester College, discussed issues of democracy and society in relation to the present-day situation in Somalia.
"I see democracy as a project in which men and women get engaged out of necessity," Samatar said. This necessity, according to Samatar, influences people in two ways -- on one level, it makes them become more intimate in their relations with one another, but at the same time, they have to remain distant.
"Democracy, therefore, is a form of negotiating that duality of identity," he said, noting that democracy is an attempt to balance between existing in a community and existing as an individual.
In this way, the analogy of the porcupines is particularly relevant. Society has to balance between suffering from the cold as individuals and pricking itself as a community.
If society becomes too fragmented, Samatar said, it cannot survive, but added that if it becomes too personal, it will regress into a form of totalitarianism.
Within the state, it is the responsibility of the leadership to reinforce this idea of community and "belongingness" that lies at the base of the democratic society, Samatar said.
Somalia faces precisely this problem currently, according to Samatar.
He said that Somalia has a relatively homogenous population -- over 90 percent of the population is Sunni Muslims and is united by a nearly universal language. Yet, the problem of community is still at the heart of the issue, he said.
The problem is exacerbated by the ineffective leadership in Somalia, which Samatar divided into three groups: "crippled nationalists," "scavenging warlords" and "Potempkin regionalists" -- who lead with false fronts and create divisions within Somalia.
Yet, Samatar concluded his remarks on an optimistic note -- offering Islam, in a nonfundamentalist or power-driven form, as a possible solution.
Samatar argued if a "recuperative pragmatist" interpretation of Islam is used, it could act as the unifying force for Somalia.
The talk, which took place in Irvine Auditorium, was sponsored by the Penn African Studies Center.
