COLLO... :,<.,r;: cc r i -J I.- .. P*!,!, REVISED, UPDATED, AND EXPANDED EDITION lì. A MODERN HISTORY OF SOMALIA Natlon and State in thè Horn of Africa I. M. LEWIS, Westview Press ^'5?x BOULDER & LONDON >^'*. \ K:%: jv^i -/ / o/ • /.-Ay v>; CONTENTS Preface to che 1988 Editìon vii Preface to thè First Edition ix Chapter I The Physica! and Social Setting 1 II Ecfore Partition 18 This Westview softcover editìon il printed un aud-frue pnper and bound in softcovecs thac III The Imperiai Partition: 1860-97 40 curry thè bighe» rating of thè National Aurxìation of State Textbook Adminìstracors, in tons» Iration wich thè Association of American Publiihcrs and thè Hook Manu faci uters' IV The Dervish Fight for Freedom: 1900-20 63 Inscitutf. V Somali Unificatìon: The Italian East*Afrìcan Empire Ali rights reserved. No pare of chis publkarion may be reproduced oc transmitted in any 92 forni or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, rccording, or any in for m uri un Storage and retrieva! System, wichout pcrmìssion in wticing from thè publisher. VI The Restoration of Colonial Frontiere: 1940-50 116 Copyright © 1965, 1980, 1988 by I. M. Lewis VII From Trusteeship to Independence: 1950-60 139 Vili The Problems of Independence Fine published in thè United States of America in 1988 by Wesrvicw Press, Inc.; Frederick 166 Prjegcr, Publisher, 5500 Cenerai Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301 A. IX The Somali Revolution: 1969-76 205 First edìtion published in 1980 by Longman Group Limited; chapters 1 through 8 published X Nationalism, Ethnicity and Revolution in thè in 1965 by Weidenfeld ;»nd Nkolson Horn of Africa 226 Maps Library of Congress CaraJoging-in-PublicatÌon Data 267 Lewis, I. M. Notes A motlvrn hìstory of Somalia. 270 Includw index. Index I. Somalia—History. 1, Tirle. II, Series. 289 DT403.L.Ì95 1988 967'.73 87-21589 ISBN 0-K13 3-7402-2 Printed and bound in che United States of America _^ The paper ustd in this publication meets thè requirements of che American (poj National Standard for Permanence of Paper fot Printed Library Materials Z39.48- 1984. 654321 PREFACE TO THE 1988 EDITION As BIOGRAPHERS of Third World cultures, anthropologists have often endeavoured to piece together such historical evidence as they could find to provide a historical settìng for their accounts of contemporary society and culture, Such amateur excursions into history have frequently occurred not only in thè historicaUy oriented Continental and American anthropological traditions but also in thè British social anthropological tradition despite its ostensibly ahistorical, Durkheimian bias." In thè absence, usually, of much documentary evidence, such anthropological histories have, perforce, concentrated on orai sources, thus virrually inventing that imporcant modem specialisation - orai history." No special apology, therefore, is needed to introduce this history of an African ethnic group, based on orai and documentary sources and written by an anthropologist who can claim no special historical expertise. What is more remarkable abour thè present exerdse is that it involves an anthropologist writing about an ethnic group which has become a modern nation-state (or more accurately two states: thè Somali Republic and thè Republic of Jibuti) and whose connexion with this culture and its representatives spans thè period from thè birth of modern Somali politicai parties in thè early 1950s to thè present. I first met members of thè Somali natìonalist organisations campaigning for independence before embarking on my doctoral field research in thè 1950s and, durìng fieldwork in Somalia (1955-1957), had thè privilege of getcing to know many of thè future politicai elite. 1 thus developed thè strong sympathetic interest in Somali nationalist asptratìons which is reflected in this book. "Cf. I. M. Lcwis (ed.), History and Sodai Antkropology, London, 1968; "The future of thè past in British social anchropology', Vienna Contribultoas to Elbnology and Antbropology, Band 2, 1985. "S«, e.g., J. Vansìna, Orai Traditìon: a attdy iti bistorii a l mttbodology, Chicago, 1965. vii PREFACE TO 1988 EDITION PREFACE TO My attempts to document and understand subsequent Somali THE FIRST EDITION polìtica! developments bave, naturally, not always been received equally favourably by ali those concerned. Somali policicìans, lìke thcir colleagues elsewhere, are more apprecìative of adulation than of analysìs. However, I have in thè main been more or less tolcrated by most Somali governments since independence in I960. THIS STUDY OF Somali nationalism in thè Horn of Africa traces Here thè generai attitude seems to have been that expressed to thè unfolding of a process rare in thè recent history of thè con- me once by Prime Minìster 'Abd ar-Razaq Haji Husseyn when tinent - thè transformation (albeìt stili incomplete) of a traditional he ìntroduced me to bis cabinet as 'that chap who writes about Afriean nation into a modern state. This phcnomenon ìs rendcred us. We don'c always like what he says, but thè importane thing ali thè more strìking by its juxtaposhìon with a rivai tradition o£ ìs that he writes about us!' Ahhough I have visited Somalia politicai sovereignty in neighbouring Ethìopia, a state built on frequently since thè military coup of October 1969, I would be conqucst and comprising many difTerent nàtions» peoples and less than honest if I concealed thè fact that my relations were tribes. Although in pre-colonial Africa, both nation-states (like hiippier with thè preceding civilian governments. However, as I Somalia) and pluralist, multi-natìonal states (like Ethiopia) were think my Somali friends appreciate, I have given what support equally common, European colonization and decolonization I could to those wider Somali interests which ttanscend particular altered decisively thè balance in favour of thè lattet type. Today, governments - thus endeavouring to discharge part of thè debt with thè exception of thè Somali Democtatic Republic, Botswana which I think anthropologists owe to those they scudy. and Lesotelo, sub-Saharan Africa's traditional nations and tribes The welcome growth in Somali Studies over this period and are not autonomous, but encapsulated in multi-national states especially from thè late 1970s (after Somalia's breach with thè fonned haphazardly and wìthout regatd to ethnic boundaries in • Soviet Union) also reflects these politicai developments. The tenth thè European partition of thè continent. Indeed, thè "rnap of anniversary of thè 'revolution' in 1979 provided thè occasion for Africa* today is virtually identica! with that under European a government-sponsored internatìonal symposium in Mogadishu colonization at thè turn of century. It is this ptevailing cultura! on 'Somalia and thè World1. This, in turn, led to thè formation hetetogeneity, with thè growth of ethrùc friction and conflict of che Somali Studies International Assodation, which holds triennial since independence, which makes Afriean states so fragile and so congresses (Mogadishu, 1980; Hamburg, 1985; Rome, 1986). vehemently attached to thè territorial fromiets which alone This multidisciplinary, multìnational enterprise - in which Somali establish their identity, If this accounts for what amounts to a scholars play an increasìngly promìnent role - is a far cry from kind of £rontier-fetishism, it also cxplains thè pervasive pre- thè smalì, largely expatriate cottage ìndustry which was ali chete occupation with *nation-building\è very understandable was when I began my studies. struggle to achieve a culturally homogeneous unìty which would transform these colonial artefacts ìnto viable nation-states. This I. M, Lewis December 1987 aspitation is not, as some theorists of nationalism daim, a mete imitation of European nationalism - nineteenth-century or otherwise - but rather harks back to thè pre-colonial era when Africa consisted of a misture of authentic nation-states (like Buganda) and of multi-national states (lìke Ethiopia). The con- temporary prevalence of thè latter pluralist type, reminiscent in many respects of thè Habsburg empire, should not be allowed to IX Vili TO THE FIRST ED1TION PREFACE PREFACE TO THE FIRST ED1TION distort our vision of thè past and its connexion with thè present, aspirations thè remaining three Somali communities then under The growth of modera Somali nationalism whìch is our primaty foreìgn mie in thè French territory of Jibuti, in Harar Province of concern here, and its conflìct with Ethiopian (or Amhara) Ethiopia (mainly thè Ogaden), and in thè northern province of nationalism, has to be seca against this wider background if its Kenya (then stili British). Other African nationalists in theìr special features are to be fully underst'ood. Here thè contras! wìth Habsburg-style states sought to transform their fragile sribal Ethiopia ls criticai. Despite its ancient Chrìstian legacy, its mosaìcs ìnto cohesive natìons. For thè Somalìs, in contras't, thè Semitic languages and its long-standing if intermittent conneadons problem was - through self-determìnation for thè three remaining with Europe, Ethiopia is essentially a traditional, pluralist African Somali colonìes - to extend thè frontìers of thè state to embrace conquest state. It owes its exalted status in African eyes to a thè whole nation, a process with familiar parallels in Europe. In uniquc, if fortuitous, combination of virtues. Having defeatcd a traditional African terms, as we have emphasized, this aspiration European atmy (thè Italians at Adowa in 1896), it nof only sur- was as legitìmate