Electronic Communication and an Oral Culture

Dr Abdisalam''s work is a unique study of the extraordinarily enthusiastic adoption of Computer Mediated Technology which has virtually transformed overnight this nation celebrated for its oral poetry. His conclusions are based on his intensive field research inside and outside Somalia, at home and amongst the scattered diaspora. Despite the fact that in Somalia itself only a very few people have direct access to the internet, the seemingly endless Somali civil is expressed in a vigorous media war with web groups offering a novel way of creating collective self-representation. This innovating researcher shows, as the Somalia state fragments, a hectic rush for communities to rediscover themselves. The endless political conflict inside Somalia has coincided with a veritable boom in internet technology. Here, Somalis demonstrate their skills in adapting technologies to their current local needs and preoccupations. This is an important finding in that it demonstrates the shallowness of many Western ethnocentric assumptions about technological change. By: I. M. Lewis FBA, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, LSE, University of London, UK.