ABSTRACT
Somalia is portrayed in the media and academic literature alike as a prime example of a failed or collapsed state. And yet the country was previously perceived as one of Africa's few states with a single culture, language and religion. Indeed this perception was reinforced as successive postcolonial governments pursued the idea of reuniting as 'Greater Somalia' those areas that contained Somali ethnic groups. This nationalist project was a major source of geopolitical conflict in the colonial, Cold War, and contemporary periods.
