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CLAN, COMMUNITY, NATION : Belonging among Rohingya living in makeshift camps
By Daniel Coyle, Abdul-Kadar (ak) Rahim, Mohammed Abdullah Jainul, Bangladesh : IOM
ABOUT THIS SERIES
Aarar Dilor Hota (Voices of our Hearts) is a series of Working Consultations produced by IOM’s CwC team within Site Management & Site Development Unit. The objective of these consultations is to provide and build a better understanding of the thoughts, practices, traditions, culture, values, and perspectives of the Rohingya community as a group of people with differences in how they think, feel, and behave. These works are supported by relevant insights and research on the Rohingya population in Myanmar, Bangladesh and other contexts. The perspectives presented herein do not represent the views of IOM. To find out more, please contact IOM’s CwC Team.
This consultation began as an initial attempt to understand self-organization and collective identity units among the Rohingya population displaced in Bangladesh; both in terms of how they had historically organized themselves and how they are currently reconfiguring value systems and social structures to address their new context within the displacement camps. It has often been cited that little is known about the Rohingya as a cultural group. This series of consultations arises out of an often stated need to better understand “the Rohingya” outside of a political or humanitarian context – ideally from one in which their worldviews and perspectives on issues are better represented. It is worth noting that a description of the political history of the Rohingya often prefaces many discussions about them but there is a noted lack of in-depth engagement in Rohingya’s understanding of their own identities, values, communities and histories outside of the dominant political discourses that continue to shape their lives. It is possible that in failing to understand Rohingya’s historical and contemporary cultural values and social systems, the very thing that differentiate them from other groups living in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, means that humanitarian assistance, political negotiations, and broader discussions surrounding the Rohingya have failed to take into account how the Rohingya identify themselves and how they socially organize. As a result, it is hard to claim that humanitarian action is responsive to Rohingya people’s own senses of being and belonging.
There were no doubt many contextual and political reasons inhibiting engagement in these questions to date, including access restrictions to Rakhine prior to their displacement. However, the respondents involved in this consultation showed a sense of appreciation and openness when asked about their values, social systems, and histories. This consultation in no way makes claim to correcting a larger collective ignorance about the Rohingya, but hopefully contributes small but meaningful gains in understanding more about the Rohingya, as a people, and how we can better engage them in decisions about their lives and futures. In particular, this work sought to better understand how Rohingya were beginning to identify, organize, and situate their lives “within the camps,” which social memberships were most significant to them prior to and after displacement, and whether these social organizations and identities had undergone significant changes as they were displaced.
This consultation provides a very initial exploration into how Rohingya organize themselves within three important social systems, the values that underpin them, and some perspectives on how they have changed since displacement: gusshi (clan), shomaz (community) and koum (ethnic group or nation). Historical research suggests that the formation of tight-knit religious based communal units have a long history within the Arakan littoral and the Muslim communities that live there; with some research arguing that religious based communalism was a prominent way in which communities “survived” through difficult and turbulent periods that threatened the people living within Arakan littoral. British colonial rule heavily influenced historical migration patterns and the establishment of Muslim communities within Arakan. Out of these influences developed a system of tight-knit agrarian communities who organized themselves around gusshi (family-clans) of various izzot (social reputations). Gusshi collectively formed shomaz (“community” and “community representatives”) that were organized units that formed committees of male-representatives comprised of prominent family-clans within a particular local area. Shomaz oversaw a range of important social functions such as the maintenance of social infrastructures (mosques, water systems, schools); the redistribution of wealth to the poor (through religious practices associated with zakat and Qurbani Eid); and the mitigation of conflicts related to land, authorities and inter-clan family disputes.
