Monday Nov, 18, 2024 {HMC} The contests are viewed on thousands of smartphone screens across Somalia and beyond, and usually feature two rivals who look like typical fresh-faced Generation Z influencers.
Side-by-side on the screen, each of these digital gladiators performs to whip up their supporters, who respond with a blizzard of cute emojis and paid-for digital tributes.
The game might use the live battle feature of the voguish TikTok app, but the sentiments expressed by these 21st century adversaries stem from some of Somalia’s oldest, but also most divisive traditions.
Using music, speeches, poetry and jibes, each player takes it in turn to extol the virtues of their own clan, and at times to mock or denigrate that of their opponent.
The winner is the player whose performance garners the most digital gifts, and the loser suffers the public humiliation of having to admit the supremacy of another clan.
Such live online contests, which are known as “clan debates”, “clan wars”, or The Big Tribal Game, can attract tens of thousands of spectators in Somalia itself, but also around the world in the large Somali diaspora.
Source Hiiraan Online
