Re: Somalis

"I wasn't really thinking as much of Somalia as the Pirate societies of the Golden Age: in the Caribbean, Barbary and Southeast Asia. But many things apply at least a little to all of them.

In general, Pirate societies are made of outlaws by choice or by necessity (who cannot return to governed land because of something against them). They are not just stateless, but actively kratophobic. And the fact that they are all outlaws usually turns them into tolerant by necessity: they can all be hanged if captured, so you cannot rat out on anyone.

The effects are amplified if there is a port in a land, belonging into the full control of Pirates; instead of just a port where they are tolerated by the local authority. Places like Kingston and Tripoli have been both. Mogadishu isn't: Pirates don't control anywhere on Somali land, although they are completely tolerated because they do defend it and provide for the local economy.

Historically, Pirates have been age-blind, gender-blind and race-blind about who joined them of their free will."

Articles of Bartholomew Roberts:
"6. No boy or woman to be allowed amongst them. If any man shall be found seducing any of the latter sex and carrying her to sea in disguise he shall suffer death."

Oh, and Morocco, Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli were very much states. The captives of Barbary Pirates could be enslaved, sold and recaptured if escaped.