# Somalia: Economy Without State (2003) by Peter D. Little: trade and livestock after 1991

> Peter D. Little's Somalia: Economy Without State (2003): its research in the Lower Jubba borderlands, its chapters on livestock, trade and money, its argument and its reviews.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/books/somalia-economy-without-state-little/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## The book

**Somalia: Economy Without State** is by **Peter D. Little**, an American anthropologist. It was published in 2003 by James Currey in Oxford (xviii and 206 pages) and by Indiana University Press in Bloomington, in the African Issues series ([African Studies Review listing](https://cambridge.org/core/journals/african-studies-review/article/abs/peter-d-little-somalia-economy-without-state-oxford-james-curreybloomington-indiana-university-press-2003-xviii-206-pp-photographs-bibliography-index-5495-cloth-2295-paper/710588D76D4286B55FEE6FE11363F0CC); [Schweitzer Fachinformationen](https://www.schweitzer-online.de/en/buch/Little/Somalia/9780253216489/A1358355/)).

## What it argues

Little looks at how Somalia's economy kept working after the government collapsed in 1991. He describes a "second" or informal economy based on trade across borders and smuggling, centred on markets for livestock and farm produce, and argues that Somalis adapted to the absence of a state with great resourcefulness. He asks whether statelessness necessarily means anarchy, and whether trade, money and investment can continue without a government ([Schweitzer Fachinformationen](https://www.schweitzer-online.de/en/buch/Little/Somalia/9780253216489/A1358355/)).

The reviewer Tobias Hagmann, in African Affairs, wrote that Little brings together historical, ecological, social and political events in his account of the pastoral economy of the Lower Jubba region ([World of Books, quoting African Affairs](https://wob.com/en-us/books/peter-d-little-person/somalia/9780852558652)). The region is described on [Lower Juba](/en/regions/lower-juba/).

## Chapters

1. Introduction to a Stateless Economy
2. Land of Livestock
3. The Destruction of Rural-Urban Relations
4. Tough Choices
5. Boom Times in a Bust State
6. Life Goes On
7. Conclusions: Somalia in a Wider Context
- Epilogue: In the Aftermath of September 11th

The epilogue places Somalia's economy in the context of the campaign against international terrorism after September 2001 ([Schweitzer Fachinformationen](https://www.schweitzer-online.de/en/buch/Little/Somalia/9780253216489/A1358355/)). See [Livestock exports](/en/economy/livestock-exports/) and [Hawala and money transfer companies](/en/economy/hawala-and-money-transfer-companies/).

## How it was received

- Choice called it thorough, clearly written and well organised, and "highly recommended", and named it an Outstanding Academic Title ([Awesome Books, quoting Choice](https://wholesale.awesomebooks.com/book/9780253216489/somalia-economy-without-state-african-issues)).
- It was reviewed by Anna Lindley in the Journal of Refugee Studies in 2004, and in African Studies Review ([Journal of Refugee Studies](https://dbpia.nl.go.kr/jrs/article/17/4/484/1512607)).

## Where to read it

- Lending copy: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/somaliaeconomywi0000litt)
- In a library: [WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Somalia+Economy+Without+State+Little)

## Related pages

- [Getting Somalia Wrong? (2012), Mary Harper](/en/books/getting-somalia-wrong-harper/)
- [Books about Somalis, 1991 to 2005](/en/history/books-about-somalis-1991-2005/)

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