| Summary/Abstract |
Despite the growing body of academic literature that seeks to explain the evolution of Al-Shabaab, the movement remains one of the least understood on the continent. This article explores the relationship between the militant movement and the twentieth-century anti-colonial Somali insurgency movement of the Dervishes, examining the extent to which Al-Shabaab imitates the Dervishes. It argues that Al-Shabaab is not unique when considered as a contemporary re-incarnation of the Dervishes. Approaching Al-Shabaab as a heterogeneous insurgency movement established and sustained by emulation, the article compares Al-Shabaab to the Dervishes in terms of their leadership characteristics, war strategies and ideological foundations. In doing so, it uses interviews and focus group discussions carried out in Mogadishu and Afgooye (Somalia) as well as a variety of under-explored sources such as visual data. It concludes that Al-Shabaab draws directly and indirectly from the Dervishes in crucial ways, but that there are also differences between the two movements in terms of mobilization and utilizing political and cultural dynamics.
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