A Modern History of the Somali: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa (Eastern African Studies) [4 ed.] 082141495X, 9780821414958

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A MODERN HISTORY OF SOMALI

THE

EASTERN AFRICAN STUDIES

Revealing Prophets The Second Economy in Tanzania A History of Modem Ethiopia, Edited by DAVID M. ANDERSON T.L. MALIYAMKONO 1855-1991 & DOUGLAS H. JOHNSON & M.S.D. BAGACHWA (2nd edn) BAHRU ZEWDE of Change in Ethiopia East African Expressions Ecology Control & EconomicPioneers Development BA HRU ZEWDE of Christianity in East African History Edited by THOMAS SPEAR HELGE KJEKSHUS Remapping Ethiopia & ISARIA N. KIMAMBO Edited by vv. JAMES, D. DONHAM, Siaya E. KURIMOTO & A. TRIULZI The Poor Are Not Us DAVID WILLIAM COHEN Edited by DAVID M. ANDERSON & E.S. ATIENO ODHIAMBO Southern Marches of Imperial Eth & VIGDIS BROCH-DUE Edited by DONALD L. DONHAM Uganda J\'ow • Changing Uganda & WEND Y Order JAMES Potent Brews Developing Uganda • From Chaos to JUSTIN WILLIS Religion & Politics in East Africa A Modem History of the Somali Edited by HOLGER BERNT HANSEN Swahili Origins (4th edn) & MICHAEL TWADDLE I.M. LEWIS JAMES DE VERE ALLEN Kakungulu & the Creation Being Maasai Islands of Intensive Agriculture in of Uganda 1868-1928 Edited by THOMAS SPEAR East Africa MICHAEL TWADDLE & RICHARD WALLER Edited by MATS WIDGREN Controlling Anger &JOHN E.G. SUTTON Jua Kali Kenya S U Z E T T E H E A L D KENNETH KING Leaf of Allah Control & Crisis in Colonial Kampala Kenya Women Getting By EZEKIEL GEBISSA BRUCE BERMAN SANDRA WALLMAN Dhows & the Colonial Economy Political Power in Pre-Colonial Buganda of Zanzibar 1860-1970 Unhappy Valley R I C H A R D J. R E I D ERIK GILBERT Book One: State & Class Book Two: Violence Alice Lakwena & the Holy Spirits African Womanhood in Colonial & Ethnicity HEIKE BEHREND TABITHA KANOGO BRUCE BERMAN & JOHN LONSDALE Slaves, Spices & Ivory in Zanzibar African Underclass ABDUL SHERIFF Mau Maufrom Below ANDREW BURTON Zanzibar Under Colonial RuleIn Search of a Nation GREET KERSHAW Edited by ABDUL SHERIFF & The Mau Mau War Edited by GREGORY H. MADDOX ED FERGUSON in Perspective & JAMES L. GIBLIN FRANK FUREDI The History & Conservation of Zanzibar A History of the Excluded Stone Town Squatters & the Roots JAMES L. GIBLIN Edited by ABDUL SHERIFF of Mau Mau 1905-63 Black Poachers, White Hunters Pastimes & Politics TABITHA KANOGO LAURA FAIR EDWARD I. STEINHART Economic & Social of Mau Mau 1945-53 Ethnicity & Conflict in Ethnic Federalism the Horn of Africa DAVID TURTON DAVID W. THROUP Edited by K A T S U Y O S H I F U K U I Multi-Party Politics in Kenya& JOHN MARKAKIS Crisis & Decline in Bunyoro DAVID W. THROUP SHANE DOYLE & CHARLES HORNSBY Conflict, Age & Power in North East Africa Emancipation without Abolition i Empire State-Building Edited by EISEI KURIMOTO German East Africa JOANNA LEWIS & SIMON SIMONSE JAN-GEORG DEUTSCH Decolonization & Independence Property Rights & Political Women, Work & Domestic in Kenya 1940-93 Development in Ethiopia & Eritrea Virtue in Uganda 1900-2003 Edited by B.A. OGOT SANDRA FULLERTON JOIREMAN GRACE BANTEBYA KYOMUHENDO < & WILLIAM R. OCHIENG' MARJORIE KENTSTON McINTOSH Revolution & Religion in Ethiopia Eroding the Commons OYVIND M. EIDE DAVID ANDERSON Cultivating Success in Uganda GRACE CARS WELL Brothers at War Penetration & Protest in Tanzania TEKESTE NEGASH & War in Pre-Colonial ISARIA N. KIMAMBO KJETIL TRONVOLL Eastern Africa Custodians of the Land RICHARD REID Edited by GREGORY MADDOX, JAMES From Guerrillas to Government L. GIBLIN & ISARIA N. KIMAMBO DAVID POOL Slavery in the Great Lakes Regio of East Africa Education in the DevelopmentMau Mau & Nationhood Edited by E.S. ATIENO ODHIAMBO Edited by HENRI MEDARD & of Tanzania 1919-1990 & JOHN LONSDALE SHANE DOYLE LENE BUCHERT

A Modern

S

O

M

History

of

A

L

N a t i o n a n d State in the H o r n o f Africa

FOURTH EDITION

LM. LEWIS Emeritus Professor of Anthropology London School of Economics

James Currey OXFORD Ohio University ATHENS

Press

the

I

Electronic edition published in 2016 Ohio University Press www.ohioswallow.com James Currey Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) www.jamescurrey.com Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue Rochester, NY 14620-2731 (US) www.boydellandbrewer.com

© I.M. Lewis 1965, 1980, 1988 & 2002 Fourth edition published 2002 Originally published in The Modern History of Somaliland: From Nation to State Weidenfeld & Nicholson 1965 First edition A Modern History of Somaliland: Nation & State in the Horn ofAfrica Longman 1980 Second edition A Modern History of Somalia: Nation & State in the Horn ofAfrica Westview 1988 Third edition British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available on request ISBN 978-0-85255-483-8 (James Currey Paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available on request ISBN 10: 0-8214-1495-X (Ohio University Press Paper) ISBN 13: 978-0-8214-1495-8 (Ohio University Press Paper)

ISBN 978-1-78204-787-2 (James Currey eISBN) ISBN 978-0-8214-4573-0 (Ohio University Press eISBN)

C O N T E N T S

vii

Preface to the fourth edition Maps Photographs

xiv-xvi xvii~xxxii

Chapter I T h e Physical a n d Social Setting

l

II Before Partition III T h e Imperial Partition:

18 1860-97

I V T h e D e r v i s h F i g h t for F r e e d o m : V

VI

VII

40 1 9 0 0 - 2 0 63

Somali Unification: T h e Italian East African E m p i r e

92

T h e Restoration of Colonial Frontiers: 1940-50

lie

F r o m Trusteeship to I n d e p e n d e n c e : 1950-60

139

V I I I T h e P r o b l e m s of I n d e p e n d e n c e IX X

T h e Somali Revolution: 1969-76

226

Chaos, International Intervention a n d D e v e l o p m e n t s in the N o r t h

Notes Index

205

Nationalism, Ethnicity a n d Revolution in the H o r n of Africa

XI

166

262 311 337

PREFACE

As a social anthropologist (and amateur historian), I have had the unusual experience of studying an African people whose traditional cultural nationalism has fathered more than one contemporary 'nation-state'. In the turbulent context of northeast Africa, however, since formal independence from European rule in 1960, Somali political fortunes have experienced many vicissitudes. The passionate nationalism which brought Somaliland and Somalia together in 1960, and fuelled ambitions to extend the resulting Somali Republic to include the entire nation, unexpectedly burned itself out in the 1980s and 1990s. Then, with a reversal of external and internal pressures, the segmentary divisions within the nation reasserted themselves with an explosive vengeance. This impressive demonstration of the continuing power of more immediate clan and kinship loyalties revealed the enduring tension, in a traditionally politically uncentralized culture, between these lower-level identities and cultural nationalism. The many attempts at different levels in society and at different times to devalue and even extirpate these internal divisions, which always threatened national solidarity, assumed many forms, ranging from denial to political suppression. The most colourful, perhaps, were the public burials (and other measures) instituted by the dictator General Siyad at the height of his powers and in his 'Scientific Socialist' phase. Earlier politicians vn

Preface had resorted to the linguistic sophistry of pretending that they had surpassed clan and tribe by substituting in spoken Somali the English (or Italian) term 'ex' (understood as meaning 'ex-clan') when identifying people. Since Siyad had banned all reference to clans, this even included this circumlocutory usage of 'ex'. On visits to Mogadishu in this period, I thus could not resist wickedly asking my apparatchik Somali friends if one could now safely enquire about a person's 'ex-ex'. They were not amused. So all embracing and insistent were these disclaimers of persisting clan realities, that even foreign academics, who should have known better (although they were usually handicapped by an inadequate understanding of Somali language), were taken in. Consequently, their writings helped to sustain this illusion, which played a significant role in mystifying Somali political realities, and encouraged their misrepresentation in the eurocentrie jargon of'class' and 'class conflict'. Behind this, of course, lay the ethnocentric (Marxist) assumption that clan organization was an early, 'primitive' political form of organization, incompatible with modernity. Some of these writers even arrogantly asserted (without any evidence, of course) that Somalia's European colonizers had imported the clan system as a means of divide and rule! As our oldest sources show, the reality, on the contrary, is that the Somalis invented their own clan system long before, and entirely independently of colonial intervention. Many things can be blamed on those who colonized Somali territory, but not that. Of course, the foreign administrations were forced to take note of these indigenous divisions and even exploit them: this is what the different Somali groups demanded. Each partisan division sought to bend colonial administrators to its particular cause, and the Somalis as a whole proved extremely adept at thus capturing support. Moreover, as the Somalis have so abundantly demonstrated, and as I try to record faithfully in this book, apart from the problematic area of centralized political organization, the clan system is remarkably flexible and compatible with most aspects of modern life and thus in no sense an atavistic force. Those who would impose their distorting eurocentric ideological view of the world on Somali social phenomena, thus depriving them of originality and vitality, are, in my view, engaged in an endeavour akin to racism. Vlll

Preface Of course, clan ties remain profoundly divisive, and combined with a bellicose uncentralized political culture, create formidable obstacles to the formation of stable, hierarchically organized political units. This, I am afraid, is the price of the democratic individualism and freedom that Somalis cherish. As the turbulent politics of the 1990s and 2000s so painfully illustrates, these aspects of Somali political culture pose bitterly intractable problems for those seeking to fashion a viable future state (or states). Somali cultural nationalism, contrary to the earlier idealistic hopes of many Somalis as well as my own, does not alone suffice. If Somali history has any lessons to teach, this is one of them. Today (2002) Somalis sometimes speak about their diminished nationalism, as though Somalia had not collapsed, in a way that recalls patients whose limbs have been amputated but still 'feel' intact. Their phantom-limb view of their dismembered body politic, may I think, result in part from confusion between Somali 'state' and 'nation', since while the former is highly problematic, in terms of shared culture and language the latter remains very real. My connection with this culture and some of its representatives, spans the period from the birth of modern political parties in the early 1950s until the present. I first met members of the Somali nationalist organizations campaigning for independence, before embarking on my doctoral field research in the 1950s and, during fieldwork in Somaliland and Somalia (1955-7) had the privilege of getting to know many of the future political elite. My use of both written and oral material is largely conditioned by that social anthropological field research, amplified by further field trips in 1962, 1964, 1974, and for briefer periods in intervening years up to 1992, when health problems made further visits impossible. My initial research was financed by the Colonial Social Science Research Council, then by the Carnegie Trust, the British Academy and the British Council. The U.N.H.C.R., F.A.O. and various other agencies were responsible for my shorter visits, thus also providing me with an opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the arcane world of aid and development. 1 am grateful to all these bodies and to a succession of Somali governments who generally welcomed and facilitated my work. Although the published results have not always been ix

Preface equally favourably received by those concerned, I have, in the main, been tolerated by most governments since independence in 1960 - and even for a considerable time, and to a surprising degree, by the regime of General Siyad. The general attitude here seems to have been that put to me once by Prime Minister 'Abdarazaq Haji Husseyn (widely regarded as Somalia's most effective premier) who introduced me to his cabinet as 'that chap who writes about us. We don't always like what he says, but the important thing is he writes about us !'* During the military regime in Somalia, as a guest of the National Academy and the Ministry of Higher Education, 1 was surprised and delighted to come across a group of teachers, engaged in the preparation of textbooks in the new Somali script. They were translating passages from an earlier edition of this book. This new edition is a direct response to a request from the book retailer Mr Ismail Ahmed for copies for teaching needs in Somaliland and Somalia, as well as for Somali students in Europe. I am delighted to try to meet this flattering demand which amounts, after all, to a returning of historical material to its roots - the Somali world. I hope, however, that by the time a further edition of this book is called for, the need will have been met by a Somali historian. Many Somali friends have advised and helped me in my attempts to understand their culture and politics down the years. In the preparation of this new edition which, with the limited time allotted to me, has indeed been a 'crash programme', I would like particularly to thank Dr Omar Duhod, Dr Ahmad Yusuf Farah, Mr 'Osman Ahmad Hassan, Mr 'Abdirashid Sed, Mr 'Abdisalan 'Isse Salwe, J a n Haakonsen and Dr Patrick Gilkes. I have not forgotten the early encouragement and enduring support I received from Muse Galal, Muhammad Abshir Muse, Professor Said Samatar, and the remarkable self-trained Somali historian Sheikh J a m a ' Omar 'Ise. My thoughts also turn to departed friends like Anthony Mariano, B. W. Andrzejewski, and Bernhard Helander with whom I have longed to debate the arguments of my new final * For further information on the circumstances of my field research, see I. M. Lewis, 'An anthropologist at large in the 'Cinderella of Empire' in Blood and Bone, the Call of Kinship in Somali Society, New Jersey, 1994, pp. 1 —18; and 'Afterword' in A Pastoral Democracy, new edition, Oxford, 1999, pp. i-xxvi. ** See E. H. Garr, What is History? London, 1964. x

Preface chapter. My wife has loyally read my final chapter and helped to lick it into shape. Working with this recent historical material, readily available from a superabundance of sources, I now more fully understand how E. H. Carr's view of history is shaped by his predicament as a modern historian facing a surfeit of information and the problem of selection.** Having had three previous publishers, this book has had a somewhat nomadic history. In welcoming it to what I hope may be its final home, my tyrannical new publisher, James Currey, has been amazingly enthusiastic and helpful. I am especially pleased that we can now again include illustrations, both those published and acknowledged in the original 1965 edition and new material. In selecting and supplying additional pictures to document recent events I am grateful to Ismail Ahmed, Michael Brophy, 'Abdullahi Dool, Felicity Thomas and the brilliant photographer of the Somali world, Hamish Wilson. Finally, I should warn the reader that I have limited chapter notes to a minimum, seeking only to document or dilate upon a few important points and to call attention to some of the more fruitful and interesting sources. If I have left some sources out this does not necessarily reflect my opinion of them! These end notes are nevertheless fairly extensive, and I have therefore felt that a separate bibliography would not be justified. I have transcribed Somali names generally in their usual anglicized format rather than in the orthography of the Somali script. Somalis will have no difficulty in making the necessary vowel length and other adjustments, and non-Somalis will be able to recognize and pronounce proper names in the format adopted here more easily than would have been the case if I had followed the Somali script strictly. loan Lewis London, 2002

XI

Bbuggan waxa aan u hibaynayaa dadka Sooomaaliyeed, kuwa taariikhdooda sameeya iyo kuwa qoraba, aniga oo galladcelin uga dhigayaa sidii wacnayd ee ay Ugu soo dhaweeyeen dalkooda.Waxa kale oo aan ugu deeqayaa gabadhayda'Joanna',bona yaqaan Dalmara oo ku dhalatay Soomaaliya, haatanna, ku jirta raadraaca taariikhda Afrika.

nternational boundary Approximate boundaries of Somali clan groups

Somali ethnic and clan-family distribution 2002

Somali states and regions 2002

Partition of Mogadishu among warlords 2001 (based on map drawn by Mohamed Rashid and John Drysdale)

T h e Land and the Peoples

1 Family of nomads approaching a dry river bed in the early morning (Somaliland). In the dry seasons the nomads must move frequently from place to place in search of pasture and water. 2 A young herdsman with cattle watering on the Shebelle River in the south of Somalia.

3 Afieldof ripe sorghum in the arable zone between Hargeisa and Borama in the north-west of Somalia. This is the main grain-growing area of the north.

4 A Southern Somali tribal chief with two of his wives and a tribal policeman (Illalo). The round mud and wattle house is the typical house-style of the agricultural regions between the Shebelle and Juba Rivers in the south. 5 On the Dawa Parma River which marks the north-western boundary between Kenya and Ethiopia in the extreme north of the Somali-occupied North Eastern Region of Kenya water is abundantly available. Elsewhere in this semi-desert region water is an extremely scarce commodity.

6 Stock Inspector inoculating camels against Rinderpest. 8 (right) Cattle watering in southern Somalia. At deep wells such as these, the water is raised in skin buckets attached to long drawing ropes. 7 A manually operated ferry carrying people and livestock across the Juba River.

Before Partition

9 Afinelycarved door-frame in Zanzibar style in Mogadishu. 10 A view of Mogadishu as it appeared to the French explorer Charles Guillain in 1847 (from a print in the album illustrating Guillain's voyages). Mogadishu's oldest mosque bears an inscription dated A.D. 1238, while the city's earliest funeral inscription goes back to the eighth century.

11 Camel-operated press used for extracting sesame oil at Mogadishu in 1847 (from the album of Guillain).

12 A view of the town of Geledi (Afgoi) on the Shebelle River as it appeared at the time of Guillain's visit in 1847 (from Guillain's album). The Geledi Sultan was the most powerful Somali chief on the Benadir coast in the nineteenth century.

13 Sir Richard Burton, the most distinguished explorer to travel in Somaliland (from the portrait by Lord Leighton, 1876, in the National Portrait Gallery, London). Burton's brilliant record of his remarkable journey from Zeila to Harar the 'Timbuctu of East Africa', as he described it - in 1854 is the most valuable early source on northern Somali history and culture.

T h e Colonial Partition o f Somaliland

• R IB 14 Exchange of letters dated 8 February and 19 March, 1889, between the Sultan of Obbia, 'Ali Yusuf, and the Italian Consul V. Filonardi assigning the Sultan an annuity of 1200 dollars in return for his acceptance of Italian protection.

15 Troops embarking at Mogadishu in 1925 for the operations against the Sultans of Obbia and Alula whichfinallyincorporated these northern Italian protectorates in the colony of Somalia.

16 The ruins of Sayyid Muhammad 'Abdille Hassan's headquarters in Taleh, in the north-east of Somalia, as they appeared in 1950, thirty years after the aerial bombardment by the British and the collapse of the Dervish movement. 17 The Duke of Abruzzi, who founded the Societa Agricola Italo-Somala which rationalized plantation farming in the colony and revolutionized its economy. The Duke, a direct heir to the Spanish throne, died in 1933 and is buried in the plantation centre named after him (Villagio Duca degli Abruzzi) on the Shebelle River.

Somalia under Military Rule I

18 Ceremony marking the end of the month of Ramadan at Government House, Mogadishu, during the last years of the British Military Administration. Facing the Chief Kadi (standing) is Brigadier-General R. H. Smith, Chief Administrator of Somalia in 1948. Although the British proposals for unifying the Somali territories failed, it was under British military rule that thefirstbeginnings of modern Somali advancement were achieved. 19 Party of Somalia Gendarmerie collecting water from a well near Mogadishu. This British-officered armed police force played a crucial role in helping to foster the growth of anti-tribal sentiments in Somalia.