1) Somalia is basically a patriarchal society, and marriage is seen as a political and economic contract between clan representatives. According to modern ethnographers, all Somalis are divided into six major confederation of kinship groups called clan-families. Although every Somali belongs to one of the six clan-families, because these groupings are too large and too dispersed to be effective units of political and social action, Somalis identify more immediately with the clans into which each clan-family is sub-divided. Clans are typically the largest exogamous units in Somali society: marriage outside the clan is encouraged because it helps to widen the circle of potential allies that could be called upon in time of need. [Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), pp. 17-19.]

Notwithstanding the patriarchal nature of Somali society, some analysts often make reference to a "special son-to-mother bond" of Somali culture that defies the laws of patriarchy. [David D. Laitin and Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), p. 31.] Furthermore, it can well be said that a person born of, for example, a Darood father and an Isaaq mother and brought up within an Isaaq community may be more attached to and identified with the Isaaq clan.

2) Since it assumed power in 1969, the current Somali regime has effectively used clan politics in order to maintain its hold on to power, by placing members of the presidential Mareehan clan in all key positions in the civil service, armed forces, security services, and state agencies. [ Laitin and Samatar, pp. 92-94.] Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, American private non-governmental organizations which promote international human rights and refugee law, observe that "the monopoly that the relatives and clan members of the President have had over education, health, employment and business opportunities has bred deep-rooted grievances and has had an important political effect in alienating other clans". [ Human Rights Watch and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (New York, July 1989), p. 156.]

Since the emergence of the opposition Somali National Movement (SNM) in 1982, members of the Isaaq clan have been particular targets of political persecution as well as systematic economic and educational discrimination, due to their alleged support for the SNM. [ U.S. General Accounting Office, Somalia: Observations Regarding the Northern Conflict and Resulting Conditions (Washington, May 1989), p. 2.] Although IRBDC has no corroborative documentation, many prominent members of the Somali community in Canada charge that in 1985 President Siad Barre issued unpublished directives to systematically prohibit members of the Isaaq clan from attending universities with the view of "dealing strongly with people associated with the SNM".

3) The Darood clan-family is a vast confederation of kinship groups which is composed of five major component clans: the Mareehan, Majerteen, Ogadeen, Dulbahante, and Warsangali. Because the Darood does not constitute a coherent confederation, political issues related to this clan-family must be analyzed in terms of its component clans.

During the early years of President Siad Barre's rule, the Mareehan clan to which the President belongs had formed a political alliance with the Ogadeen and the Dulbahante clans, establishing a constellation code-named MOD. The MOD was said to have provided the President with a reliable power base that offered external as well as internal security. [ Laitin and Samatar, pp. 92-94.] The Majerteen, which was considered one of the three dominant clans in the pre-1969 civilian governments (with the Isaaq and Hawiye), was not pre-eminent in the Siad Barre regime. As a result, some Majerteen officers formed a clandestine opposition movement, the Somali Salvation Front (SSF) in 1979 which later became to be known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). I.M. Lewis, a distinguished scholar of Somali society, pointed out that because "the SSDF reflected the hubris of the Majerteen whose political ascendance had been eclipsed by Siad Barre's Mareehan power", Somali armed forces and the civil service were purged of Majerteens. [ I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of Somalia: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988), p. 252.]

Since the end of 1970s, the MOD alliance that had helped to keep the Mareehan in power for so long has been disintegrating into the traditional clan rivalries. President Siad Barre has been making all the efforts to perpetuate the positions and power of his Mareehan clan at the expense of all other clans. Until a few years ago members of the Ogadeen clan dominated Somalia's armed forces, but since mid-1984 the President has instituted a policy of reducing the number and influence of senior Ogadeni officers. In February 1986 alone, over 50 Ogadeni officers up to the rank of major were reported dismissed from the Somali army. [ "Somalia: Towards an Ogaden Pact", Africa Confidential, 26 February 1986, pp. 6-7.] With the dismissal and subsequent detention of the Minister of Defence, an Ogadeni, in June 1989, most Ogadeni officers deserted the armed forces and formed an armed opposition movement, the Somali Patriotic Front.