Somalia Misrepresentation

Somalia is a country in East Africa off the east coast of the land. The Somali people are well known as pirates of the sea and attack massive ships that pass by their land seeking money for themselves. Somali pirates have turned the hijacking of ships into a profession which was portrayed in the movie Captain Phillips. The movie Captain Phillips is about a captain who has his boat taken over by Somali pirates and has to try to survive while the US Navy comes to save him and his crew. Somali people are represented as a small village and all of the people were eager to go attack the ship near their waters in desperation for money with weapons violently. Therefore, the movie Captain Phillip being inaccurately represented can negatively affect one’s academic knowledge, and Somalia’s image and economy as a country.

Our academic knowledge is negatively affected by the movie Captain Phillips because it was made in 2012 and highlights the whole idea of pirating and ship jackers who raid ships for a turn in a profit. This has been happening for many years before and the movie only highlights one of the attacks. These Somali people think what they do is justified because these boats are in the waters where they want to fish. In an article by David Axe, it states “In 2008 alone, Somalia’s lawless seamen captured more than 40 large vessels in the Gulf of Aden, a shortcut between Asia and Europe that’s vital to the global economy. Wiping out today’s pirates won’t be easy; they’re smarter, better organized, and, frankly, better loved abroad than the swashbucklers of yesteryear”(Axe). Moreover, this is significant to the academic knowledge of anyone watching Captain Philip because the average person might not be educated that boat jacking is a real thing that is happening around the world and isn’t just a thing that happens in the movies. The pirates are also advancing and have better technology because the movie showed that some of the Somali pirates didn’t have shoes and used small motor boats with a ladder to get on the boats. Individual shipping companies need to use new tactics such as fire hoses to repel these pirates, it has gotten so bad that NATO is involved in sending ships to help defend against these pirates. Christopher Joyner states “While governments have undertaken several tactics to combat Somali piracy, they have not addressed the fundamental problems at the root of Somalia’s instability. The UN security council has adopted at least four prominent resolutions under Chapter VII peace and security provisions condemning Somali piracy, including authorizing sanctions aimed at punishing Somali pirates” (Joyner). In other words, this is significant to the movie Captain Philips negatively affecting academic knowledge because by January 2009 there were at least thirty warships patrolling the area and Captain Philip got captured on April eight so there should have been a ship close in the area and the movie the United States navy was really far from Somalia. Strategies must be found for dealing with these pirates and addressing the causes of the country’s international instability and the presence of the navy may scare away pirates. Somali people are difficult to stabilize and keep under control from attacking ships because geographically they are located near some of the largest trade routes where large ships travel. 

Somalia’s image is negatively affected because it is depicted in the movie Captain Phillips as a village on the coast of Africa that has a small group of terrorists that are eager to go attack boats for a boss. This negatively affects the image of the Somalian people because not all of the people are pirates and they have no other choice but to resort to piracy because of the overfishing of huge companies. Samantha D Farquhar stated “The lack of a developed fishing ground for foreign fishing vessels. These were illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishers and their presence rapidly increased throughout the 1990s leading to Somali waters being overfished and declining catch for local fisherman” (Farquhar). Along with this negativity affecting the people of Somalia, local fishermen caught 32 million tonnes of fish while commercial boats caught 337.2 million tonnes of fish which is about 300 million dollars of seafood that were taken from Somalia. These local fishermen could not compete with the IUU ships and they had to convert to piracy to get money. Piracy captured the world’s attention in the early 2000s which arose out of feuds between Somali fishermen and foreign fishers. Thomas Keating states “Somalia’s political vacuum following the 1991 collapse of the government created an enabling environment for illicit activities…. Somalis did not realize the potential of piracy and were not desperate enough until economic conditions deteriorated sufficiently as a result of illegal trawling and toxic dumping by foreign ships and damage caused by the Indian Ocean Tsunami” (Keating). In other words, this is significant to the Somali image because the world sees them as people who just attack boats for money and have a negative image of them. The Somali people who do attack ships aren’t everyone and mostly people who got affected by the big boats fishing are the ones who go attack the boats out of revenge for what happened to them. “The final and most important catalyst for Somalia’s piracy boom was the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. The tsunami devastated Somalia, with the majority of damage concentrated in the coastal breakaway territory of Puntland where many pirate attacks organize” (Keathing). In other words, the movie Captain Phillips negatively affects the Somali people’s image because it portrays them as greedy pirates that go attack ships and holds them ransom and demands money, the frustration of some people and people dying from natural disasters caused them to have to resort to these means.

Somalia’s economy is linked to the country’s historical development and the struggle for power in Somalia made it difficult for the parties to find enough common ground to compromise and work together. Rossella Marangio states “The reason behind the international failure to eradicate the problem of piracy is that piracy constitutes only one aspect of the wider Somali crisis and is strictly connected to the lack of alternative remunerative activities. The only viable solution to the phenomenon of piracy involves addressing its root causes: human security and development” (Maringio). Furthermore, this affects Somalia’s economy because piracy is a well-known issue for them, and a good source of income since fishing wouldn’t work out. For other ships to reroute and travel around Somalia will cost these boats millions of dollars and a lot of time which delays shipments.  The Captain Phillips movie negatively portrayed the income of these people as pirates and that’s how they make money. Piotr Szafruga states “A positive influence of the change after 1991 may be observed on the example of the cattle market- the biggest branch of the Somali economy- which experienced an increase in both production and export. This fact is especially worth noticing due to the fact that in the 1980s Somalia was the biggest exporter of cattle in the world”.(Szafruga) Somalia is located in the eastern part of Africa and possesses the longest coastline of all of the African states with a warm climate in the north.This demonstrates the negative effect the movie had on Somalia is the portrayal of their economy since they have the largest export of cattle and they make a lot of money off of it. The movie portrays the way that the pirates make money and that’s what’s under the spotlight and gets all of the attention which negatively affects their economy. Since Somalia is close to the equator it is susceptible to many extreme weather conditions, such as periods of extended drought, floods, low rainfall, strong winds, sandstorms, and dust storms. This affects the people who live there and their economy because it makes it hard to make money since a lot of the money goes into repairs due to natural disasters.

In conclusion, In the movie Captain Phillips, the Somali people are in a small village eager to go attack these ships in desperation for money with weapons violently. Therefore, the movie Captain Phillip being inaccurately represented can negatively affect one’s academic knowledge, Somalia’s Image as a country, and its Economy. We should take the time to do the research about the Somali people and base our ideas about them based on multiple verified resources instead of getting an image off a movie. Movies can be deceiving and cause negative portrayal on a group of people which most people will blindly accept without actually verifying the information that is given to them.