ONE SOMALILAND

[Sophist]

ONE SOMALILAND

 

 

By: Sir Gerald Reece

The Late Governor General of the ex-British Somaliland Protectorate from 1948 to-1953

 

Though some of the Somali people are at present governed by Ethiopia and others by Kenya , there is only one Somaliland and Somali nation.

 

In 1952 Lord Rennell wrote this:

 

"For a brief period during the war nearly the whole of Somaliland was under British Administration. . . If we had been interested enough - and Heaven knows there was nothing to interest us except to see justice done to the people - (and if the world had been sensible enough) all the Somalis. .might have remained under one administration - ours or the United Nations. or someone else's - until they had learnt to govern themselves. But the world was not sensible enough and we were not interested enough. and so the only large part of Africa which is radically homogeneous has again been split up. . ."

 

Only about two-thirds of the Somali people now live in the Somali Republic . Of the others. some , who belong mostly to ****** tribes. are in territory that was occupied about seventy years ago by the Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia . and others. who are partly ****** (or ***** ) and partly Hawia tribespeople . in the desert country north of the Kenya Highlands. It is unfortunate that all these people cannot now be united under the government of the Somali Republic . but Ethiopia and Kenya are adamant in their determination not to yield even the smallest portion of the territories concerned. Their attitude is scarcely consistent with the constant demands made by the

 

Organisation of African Unity for the handing back to their original owners of African lands that were occupied by the Portuguese in the past, but colonialism and imperialism seem be tolerated by the O.A.U. provided that European nations are not involved. Indeed every African member state, except Somalia and perhaps Morocco , has a vested interest in maintaining the old "colonial" frontiers.

 

However, since the departure of the British and Italians from the Somalilands there has been a remarkable feeling of unity amongst all the people and a definite upsurge of nationalism. Though tribalism is by no means extinct, a universal awareness of pride derives from their connection with Mogadiscio and with a republic that is gradually taking its place in the affairs of the whole continent and setting a fine - and almost unique example of a successful African democracy.

 

This is all the easier to understand when it is realised that, regardless of artificial frontiers, the Somali nation lives in enclave surrounded by people whose characters and way of life are different - sometimes very different - from their own. Writing about that portion of Somaliland known as the ****** which is governed by Ethiopia, John Drysdale (in "The Somali Dispute", 1964) records that "Somali resistance to Ethiopian culture equals their resistance to Ethiopian nationality", and further that "the million or so Somalis who inhabit the lowland areas the east and south-east of the Ethiopian massif seem to be almost completely untouched by Ethiopian attempts at absorption.

 

In the desert north-east of Kenya proper much the same situation exists. Little is known about the early history of this territory, and indeed not much interest has ever been taken in Negley Farson wrote in "Last Chance in Africa " that "there one half of Kenya about which the other half knows nothing, and seems to care even less. This is Kenya 's Northern Frontier District."

 

We do know, however, that Somali settlement in this area dates back at least to the 17th century, and though no one knows who originally occupied what is still called in Kenya "the N.F.D." the earliest known inhabitants were certainly Somali and Galla people. The Somalis thus have a historical title to occupancy of the area, and the fact that many of those who now live there derive from later waves of Somali migration in no way invalidates their title.

 

The traveller making his way north-eastwards from Nairobi therefore finds that when he has crossed the Tana River , though it is still called Kenya , it is an entirely different world. He has left the Christian or pagan Bantu agriculturalists and the Nilotic pastoralists and is amongst Hamitic nomads who are all Muslims following the Sunni rite. These Somalis live in almost exactly the same way as those in what was formerly British Somaliland , and they share substantially the same creed, the same culture and the same traditions.

 

 

Speaking at Mogadishu on 16th August, 1962 , President AdanAbdulla said that - "We are proud to be exercising the same democratic ideals as we inherited from our forefathers. It is this factor, among others, that gives us, the Somali people, the irresistible urge to live with each other and to look after each other, irrespective of the artificial boundaries that divide us. It is not surprising therefore that Somalis, not only in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya, but in French Somaliland and in Ethiopia have a longing in their hearts to be reunited." Indeed the desire of the majority of the nomadic tribesmen of the N.F.D. to secede from Kenya and to form a union with Somalia was recorded by an impartial British Commission at the end of 1962, but nothing was done about it.

 

This article was taken from Directory of Somalia (1968-69) published by Diprepu Company Limited, for “Diplomatic Bookshelf & Review†London , 1969. For those who want to make further research the article in this booklet can be found on pages 13-15.

[ADNAAN]

A part of this article describes briefly the British colonial negligence of Somaliland in terms of the main infrastructures such as railroads, power stations, agricultural development projects and the lack of any serious attempts on water development or minerals exploration. It also sheds light on the grave historical mistakes committed by SomaliLanders themselves by uniting with the south at a time when people were blinded by unity and misplaced patriotism.

 

Its a very well written article probably by Bashir Goth the owner of the ANN website....so enjoy it.

 

 

AWDAL NEWS EDITORIAL

 

Correcting mutual historical mistakes

 

 

 

The people of Somaliland lived under the Union Jack for 84 years from 1884 to 1960. If the British administration did its part correctly during these long years, Somaliland might have been a little more careful with its destiny and not have committed the historical mistake of rushing into the infamous union with the Italian South.

 

However with the historical mistakes committed by the British colonial administration, Somaliland was destined to complete the circle and commit its own. Now, with Somaliland rectifying its own mistakes and trying to reclaim its lost sovereignty and its place among the world community, the British government has a moral obligation to also revisit its past and show its willingness to right it wrongs to Somalilanders.

 

To start with the British follies, which could all be described as dereliction of duty more than anything else, one would notice that when the British finally left Somaliland on June 26, 1960, they left us with nothing tangible to show for their long stay. In a quick comparison with other African countries which have been colonized by the British in the same period, one could see that the British left us with no colleges such as Makerere College in Uganda (1949), Kings College, Ibadan College in Nigeria (1948), Achimoto College in Ghana (1924), Khartoum University College in Sudan (1951) and the Royal Technical College in Kenya (1956).

 

Somaliland was left with no railroads, no tarmac roads, no power stations, no agricultural development projects and no serious attempts on water development or minerals exploration such as petroleum and gems of which Somaliland is now proven to possess with commercial and sustainable quantities.

 

The capital Hargeisa was no rival to metropolitans like Nairobi, Kampala, Daresalam, Lusaka, Accra, Lagos and others. The only sign of nationhood that the British administration left behind was the port of Berbera which was almost primitive compared to its relatively advanced neighboring ports of Djibouti and Aden.

 

The British administration had even overlooked the introduction of cash crops to give the country a means of subsistence and economic sustainability in the future just as it did in other parts of Africa where it introduced cash crops like cocoa, coffee, tea and etc.

 

Although the main objective of the British colonization of Somaliland was to use it as a source of meat supplies for its garrison in neighboring barren Aden, the British have neglected to develop the export of Somaliland’s only hard currency earner- the livestock. One or two meat processing factories, few hygienic and modern slaughter houses and one or two veterinary schools and research laboratories would have turned Somaliland into the meat house of its traditional markets in Arabia including Aden at the time.

 

It is even astounding how the British, famous for their love of sunny beaches around the world, passed up the opportunity to build recreational resorts on the long shores of Somaliland, let alone erect fish factories and exploit the many varieties of Somaliland’s high quality fish.

 

Despite all this, it is remarkable to note how the Somaliland people relish recalling the good old days of the British rule and talk highly of the few good things they gave to them. These include a good and incorruptible civil administration, a fair judicial system, a few good boarding schools, a small but well trained and well disciplined military and police force, some scholarships, several civil centers in major towns, British style suburban bungalows, the Hargeisa club, which is still intact and functioning, and top of all an inimitable suffix in the name of our country - SomaliLAND.

 

Somaliland for its part has committed grave historical mistakes against itself including allowing the Mad Mulla, an alien Jihadist and a tyrant of modern style Talibanist with a slant of Wahhabism in his doctrine to exhaust the British colonial government’s resources in more than 20 years of an internecine and unwarranted religious war.

 

Mohammed Abdullah Hassan’s Dervish War cost considerable loss of life and wealth to Somalilanders but also distracted the British from developing the infrastructure of the country and improving people’s life. It also prompted the British to brand Somalianders as the Irish of Africa, thus distorting their image and portraying them as a bunch of violent and marauding nomadic tribes in an inhospitable land and brute culture.

 

Rejecting the British advice to delay their independence for a decade to enable them catch up with the South in infrastructural development was also another miscalculation on the side of Somaliland. Their thoughtless argument was that what the British could do in ten years that they couldn't do in 84 years.

 

The British foresaw the disadvantaged position that Somaliland would be in uniting with the Italian South that was not only more populous but was completely different from the north on cultural, political and economic aspects. They tried to forewarn the Somalilanders that they would lose their cultural particularity, their good civil administration and eventually their whole identity if they made a union with the South.

 

With Somaliland masses driven by patriotism and many of the northern politicians mesmerized by the cosmopolitan Italian life-style in Mogadishu with its night clubs, liberal culture, tarmac roads, abundant tropical fruits and cinema houses, it was almost next to impossible to stop the Northerners’ tryst with the union. Even the last salvo of the British to save the Somalilanders by advising them to increase the number of their parliament and ask for a power sharing system of government with the South fell on deaf ears.

 

Likewise, Mohammed Ibrahim Egal’s pleas to the Somalilanders for giving themselves a breathing space before they joined the South was repudiated while Michael Mariano’s NUF party with its visionary call for postponing independence was seen as an act of betrayal.

 

The Northerners’ outright condemnation of their military elites who made an attempted coup in 1961 to reclaim the lost sovereignty of Somaliland had put the final nail on any hopes for independence and even somehow trivialized the northern people’s absolute NO to the referendum of the country’s first constitution.

 

The Italian South-dominated Somali Republic finally cut Somaliland’s umbilical cord with its colonial past, when it severed ties with the British government on the cause of the NFD Somalis in Kenya, thus depriving Somaliland the benefit of getting 150 scholarships a year from Common Wealth countries.

 

It took the Somalilanders 30 lean years of destruction, desolation, isolation, massacres and mass migration to regain their independence from the mouth of a LION as the Somali adage says.

 

The Somaliland President’s visit to the UK in March 2004 is thus a good opportunity for the two sides, the British government and the Somaliland people, to correct their mutual historical mistakes and embrace each other in harmony and forgiveness.

 

It is time that Somaliland has to come back to its place among the Common Wealth nations and reclaim its common history and culture with the English speaking peoples of the world. It is also time for the British government to bring Somaliland from the cold and welcome it to the warm affection of the British crown.

[Suldaanka]

Correcting mutual historical mistakes

Couldn't have come up a better title. Well articulated piece. Thanks ADNAAN.

 

My question is this. Having seen what happened to the first two independent Somali regions (namely Somaliland and Somalia) that "united" under the fake and the none-existense "Somaliweyn" pipe-dream, do you think the other 3 Somali regions (namely Djibouti, Somaligalbeed and NFD) were lucky enough to have stayed just the way they are now?

[SOO MAAL]

Suldaan,

 

I don’t believe that there is such thing as former British Somaliland anymore, and people are free after 80 years of struggle (1880-1960)

 

I don’t mind if Hergeysa-Burco-Barbara Triangle secedes BUT not the expense of other communities of former British Somalia.

 

Well Hergeysa-Burco-Barbara Triangle cannot at the same time demand self-determination for themselves and the right to secede, and wish to oppress the people of Sool, Sanaag, and Cayn Regions. THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE

 

 

In reality, Somalia is nation-state and home to all Somali people, where so-called Somaliland is clan-state and home to people who are preoccupied with clan mentality