ARAS Vol.33 No.2 December 2012 29 “It is Chaotic But Not Chaos” Civil society, Local Governance and the Construction of Political Order In and Around Mogadishu Nikola Pijovic Roskilde Universitet, Roskilde, Denmark Abstract This article examines what constitutes civil society and local governance in a ‘stateless’ environment, and how political order has been constructed at the local level in and around the Somali capital of Mogadishu. It firstly develops a theoretical framework for understanding what constitutes civil society and civic participation in ‘stateless’ south Somalia, and then argues that, contrary to popular views that south Somalia is completely anarchic, there have been local governance initiatives which provide security and order for local communities. Some of these initiatives include Sharia courts, and the article examines their origins and why they have been popular with local communities. In the past 20 years the lack of centralised political authority in Somalia has given rise to a perception of the country as a completely anarchic and ‘Mad Max-like’ environment. However, what this article argues is that, given a closer look at south Somalia, it is possible to discern locally-based initiatives for managing risk and developing order, and simply because some of these initiatives are not popular with international aid donors does not mean that they are not popular with locals. Introduction Recent events in and around the Horn of Africa have again brought the political situation in Somalia to the forefront of media attention. The 2011 famine in the region has affected more than 11 million people and, although the worst predictions in terms of possible famine related deaths have been avoided, the food scarcity situation in large parts of south Somalia remains worrying. 1 Kenya and Ethiopia’s crossing of the Somali border in late 2011 and early 2012 to fight al-Shabaab militias, who were (and to a large extent still) are in control of most of south Somalia, has highlighted the dire security situation in the region. Add to this the 1 For possible famine death estimates see “Somalia famine: UN warns of 750,000 deaths,” BBC, 5 September 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14785304 (accessed 25 March 2012); for the current situation see “One year after famine declaration: Countless lives saved, but situation for children still grave in the Horn of Africa,” Unicef United States Fund, 20 July 2012, http://www.unicefusa. org/news/releases/one-year-after-famine.html (accessed 3 September 2012) .