1928 British neglected the devolopment projects of its Colony

In contrast to the Italian colony, British Somaliland stayed a neglected backwater. Daunted by the diversion of substantial development funds to the suppression of the dervish insurrection and by the "wild" character of the anarchic Somali pastoralists, Britain used its colony as little more than a supplier of meat products to Aden. This policy had a tragic effect on the future unity and stability of independent Somalia. When the two former colonies merged to form the Somali Republic in 1960, the north lagged far behind the south in economic infrastructure and skilled labor. As a result, southerners gradually came to dominate the new state's economic and political life--a hegemony that bred a sense of betrayal and bitterness among northerners.

1940 - Italians occupy British Somaliland.

British Military Administration

1941-49 British military occupation and administration of the Italian protectorate.

Following Italy's defeat, the British established military administrations in what had been British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, and Ethiopian Somaliland. Thus, all Somali-inhabited territories--with the exception of French Somaliland and Kenya's Northern Frontier District (NFD)--were for the second time brought under a single tenure. No integrated administrative structure for the Somali areas was established, however, and under intense pressure from Haile Selassie, Britain agreed to return the Ogaden to Ethiopian jurisdiction. A military governor, aided by a handful of military officers, took over the work of the colonial civil service. In what had been Italian Somaliland, a similar military administration, headed by a military commander, was established.

The principal concern of the British administration during World War II and subsequently was to reestablish order. Accordingly, the Somaliland Camel Corps (local levies raised during the dervish disturbances) was reorganized and later disbanded. This effort resulted in the creation of five battalions known as the Somaliland Scouts, (Ilalos), which absorbed former irregular units (see The Warrior Tradition and Development of a Modern Army , ch. 5). The British disbanded the Italian security units in the south and raised a new army, the Somalia Gendarmerie, commanded by British officers, to police the occupied territory.

Originally, many of the rank and file of the gendarmerie were askaris from Kenya and Uganda who had served under British officers. The gendarmerie was gradually transformed into an indigenous force through the infusion of local recruits who were trained in a new police academy created by the British military administration. Somalia was full of Italian military stragglers, so the security services of the northern and southern protectorates collaborated in rounding them up. The greater security challenge for the British during World War II and immediately after was to disarm the Somalis who had taken advantage of the windfall in arms brought about by the war. Also, Ethiopia had organized Somali bandits to infest the British side so as to discourage continued British occupation of the Ogaden. Ethiopia also armed clan militias and encouraged them to cross into the British zone and cause bloodshed.

Despite its distracting security problems, the British military forces that administered the two Somali protectorates from 1941 to 1949 effected greater social and political changes than had their predecessors. Britain's wartime requirement that the protectorate be self-supporting was modified after 1945, and the appropriation of new funds for the north created a burst of development. To signal the start of a new policy of increased attention to control of the interior, the capital was transferred from Berbera, a hot coastal town, to Hargeysa, whose location on the inland plateau offered the incidental benefit of a more hospitable climate. Although the civil service remained inadequate to staff the expanding administration, efforts were made to establish health and veterinary services, to improve agriculture in the Gabiley-Boorama agricultural corridor northwest of Hargeysa, to increase the water supply to pastoralists by digging more bore wells, and to introduce secular elementary schools where previously only Quranic schools had existed. The judiciary was reorganized as a dual court system combining elements from the Somali heer (traditional jurisprudence), Islamic sharia or religious law, and British common law.

In Italian Somaliland, the British improved working conditions for Somali agricultural laborers, doubled the size of the elementary school system, and allowed Somalis to staff the lower stratum of the civil service and gendarmerie. Additionally, military administrators opened the political process for Somalis, replacing Italian-appointed chiefs with clan-elected bodies, as well as district and regional councils whose purpose was to advise the military administration.

Military officials could not govern without the Italian civilians who constituted the experienced civil service. The British military also recognized that Italian technocrats would be needed to keep the economy going. Only Italians deemed to be security risks were interned or excluded from the new system. In early 1943, Italians were permitted to organize political associations. A host of Italian organizations of varying ideologies sprang up to challenge British rule, to compete politically with Somalis and Arabs (the latter being politically significant only in the urban areas, particularly the towns of Mogadishu, Merca, and Baraawe), and to agitate, sometimes violently, for the return of the colony to Italian rule. Faced with growing Italian political pressure, inimical to continued British tenure and to Somali aspirations for independence, the Somalis and the British came to see each other as allies. The situation prompted British colonial officials to encourage the Somalis to organize politically; the result was the first modern Somali political party, the Somali Youth Club (SYC), established in Mogadishu in 1943.

To empower the new party, the British allowed the better educated police and civil servants to join it, thus relaxing Britain's traditional policy of separating the civil service from leadership, if not membership, in political parties. The SYC expanded rapidly and boasted 25,000 card-carrying members by 1946. In 1947 it renamed itself the Somali Youth League (SYL) and began to open offices not only in the two British-run Somalilands but also in Ethiopia's Ogaden and in the NFD of Kenya. The SYL's stated objectives were to unify all Somali territories, including the NFD and the Ogaden; to create opportunities for universal modern education; to develop the Somali language by a standard national orthography; to safeguard Somali interests; and to oppose the restoration of Italian rule. SYL policy banned clannishness so that the thirteen founding members, although representing four of Somalia's six major clans, refused to disclose their ethnic identities. A second political body sprang up, originally calling itself the Patriotic Benefit Union but later renaming itself the Hisbia Digil Mirifle (HDM), representing the two interriverine clans of Digil and Mirifle. The HDM allegedly cooperated with the Italians and accepted significant Italian financial backing in its struggle against the SYL. Although the SYL enjoyed considerable popular support from northerners, the principal parties in British Somaliland were the Somali National League (SNL), mainly associated with the Isaaq clan-family, and the United Somali Party (USP), which had the support of the Dir (Gadabursi and Issa) and Daarood (Dulbahante and Warsangali) clan-families.

1948 Withdrawal of Britain from Ogaden and the reintegration of the region into Ethiopia.

1955 Annexation of the west part of Somaliland and Reserved Area to Ethiopia.

In British Somaliland the civilian colonial administration attempted to expand educational opportunities in the protectorate. The number of Somalis qualifying for administrative posts remained negligible, however. The protectorate had experienced little economic or infrastructural development apart from the digging of more bore wells and the establishment of agricultural and veterinary services to benefit animal and plant husbandry. Comprehensive geological surveys failed to uncover exploitable mineral resources.

Politically, although the SYL opened branches in the north and the SNL continued to expand its membership, neither party could mobilize grass-roots support. This changed in 1954, when the last British liaison officers withdrew from the Reserved Areas--parts of the Ogaden and the Haud in which the British were given temporary administrative rights, in accordance with a 1942 military convention between Britain and Ethiopian emperor in exile Haile Selassie. This move conformed with Britain's agreement with Ethiopia confirming the latter's title deeds to the Haud under the 1897 treaty that granted Ethiopia full jurisdiction over the region. The British colonial administrators of the area were, however, embarrassed by what they saw as Britain's betrayal of the trust put in it by Somali clans who were to be protected against Ethiopian raids.

The Somalis responded with dismay to the ceding of the Haud to Ethiopia. A new party named the National United Front (NUF), supported by the SNL and the SYL, arose under the leadership of a Somali civil servant, Michael Mariano, a prominent veteran of the SYL's formative years. Remarkably, for the militantly Muslim country, the man selected to lead the nationalist struggle for the return of the Haud, was a Christian. NUF representatives visited London and the UN seeking to have the Haud issue brought before the world community, in particular the International Court of Justice. Britain attempted unsuccessfully to purchase the Haud from Ethiopia. Ethiopia responded with a counterprotest laying claim to all Somali territories, including the British and Italian Somalilands, as part of historical Ethiopia--territories, Haile Selassie claimed, seized by the European powers during a period of Ethiopian weakness. The Europeans were reluctant to press new territorial demands on Haile Selassie and did little to help the Somalis recover the Haud.

Political protests forced Britain in 1956 to introduce representative government in its protectorate and to accept the eventual unification of British Somaliland with southern Somalia. Accordingly, in 1957 a Legislative Council was established, composed of six members appointed by the governor to represent the principal clan-families. The council was expanded the following year to consist of twelve elected members, two appointees, and fifteen senior elders and notables chosen as ex officio members. The electoral procedure in the north followed that in the south, with elections in urban areas conducted by secret ballot and in the countryside by acclamation in clan assemblies. In 1960 the first elections contested along party lines resulted in a victory for the SNL and its affiliate the USP, the two winning between them all but one of the thirty-three seats in the new Legislative Assembly. The remaining seat was won by Mariano, the NUF's defeat clearly attributable to his Christian affiliation, which his political opponents had made a prominent campaign issue. Following the election, Mahammad Ibrahim Igaal was chosen as prime minister to lead a four-man government.

Popular demand compelled the leaders of the two territories to proceed with plans for immediate unification. The British government acquiesced to the force of Somali nationalist public opinion and agreed to terminate its rule of Somaliland in 1960 in time for the protectorate to merge with the trust territory on the independence date already fixed by the UN commission. In April 1960, leaders of the two territories met in Mogadishu and agreed to form a unitary state. An elected president was to be head of state. Full executive powers would be held by a prime minister answerable to an elected National Assembly of 123 members representing the two territories. Accordingly, British Somaliland received its independence on June 26, 1960, and united with the trust territory to establish the Somali Republic on July 1, 1960. The legislature appointed Usmaan president; he in turn appointed Shermaarke the first prime minister. Shermaarke formed a coalition government dominated by the SYL but supported by the two clan-based northern parties, the SNL and the USC. Usmaan's appointment as president was ratified a year later in a national referendum.

1960

President: Aden Abdullah Osman

Prime Minister: Abdirashid Ali Shermarke

Deputy Prime Minister: Abdi Hassan Boni

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abdullahi Issa Mohamud

Minister of Internal Affairs: Abdirazak Haji Hussein

Minister of Defence: Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal

Minister of Justice: Mohamud Ahmed Mohamed Adan

Minister of Information: Ali Mohamed Hirave

Minister of Education: Ali Garid Giama

Minister of Health and Labour: Sheikh Ali Jimaale

Minister of Finance: Abdulqadir Mohamed Aden

Minister of Public Works and Communications: Abdi Nur Mohamed Hussein

Minister of Industry and Trade: Sheikh Abdullahi Mohamud

Minister of Agriculture: Ahmed Haji Duale

Minister of General Affairs: Osman Mohamud Ibrahim

President of National Assembly: Giama Abdullahi Galib

1961

President: Aden Abdullah Osman

Prime Minister: Abdirashid Ali Shermarke

Deputy Prime Minister: Abdi Hassan Boni

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abdullahi Issa Mohamud

Minister of Internal Affairs: Abdirazak Haji Hussein

Minister of Defence: Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal

Minister of Justice: Mohamud Ahmed Mohamed Aden

Minister of Information: Ali Mohamed Hirave

Minister of Education: Ali Garid Giama

Minister of Health and Labour: Sheikh Ali Jimaale

Minister of Finance: Abdulqadir Mohamed Aden

Minister of Public Works and Communications: Abdi Nur Mohamed Hussein

Minister of Industry and Trade: Sheikh Abdullahi Mohamud

Minister of Agriculture: Ahmed Haji Duale

Minister of General Affairs: Osman Mohamud Ibrahim

President of National Assembly: Giama Abdullahi Galib

1962

President: Aden Abdullah Osman

Prime Minister: Abdirashid Ali Shermarke

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Abdullahi Issa Mohamud

Minister of Internal Affairs: Abdirazak Haji Hussein

Minister of Defence: Sheikh Ali Ismail

Minister of Justice: Ahmed Galle Hassan

Minister of Information: Ali Mohamed Hirave

Minister of Education: Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal

Minister of Health and Labour: Mohamud Ahmed Mohamed Aden

Minister of Finance: Abdulqadir Mohamed Aden

Minister of Public Works and Communications:Abdi Nur Mohamed Hussein

Minister of Industry and Trade: Sheikh Abdullahi Mohamud

Minister of Agriculture: Ali Garad Giama

President of National Assembly: Giama Abdullahi Qalib

Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal:

Hon. Mohamed was born in Odweina on August 15, 1928. He completed his primary, intermediate, and secondary education in former British Somaliland and then went to Britain for further studies where he stayed from 1950-54.

On June 26, 1960, when the country gained independence, Egal became the Prime Minister of Somaliland.

After the Union and the formation of the Somali Republic, he was nominated Minister for Defence in the Cabinet of Abdirashid Ali Shermake. After one year, Egal was nominated Minister for Education in the same Government.

In October 1962 Egal led a delegation to London to negotiate the NFD problem with British leaders. His delegation persuaded and obtained from the British Government a referendum in the Northern Frontier District (NFD). In the same period, he led another delegation to Kenya to organize the referendum which found 83% in favour of joining with the Somali Republic.

In October 1966, he joined the Somali Youth League party. Finally, he became the third Prime Minister of Somali Republic in 1967.

The Igaal Government

The new president nominated as prime minister Mahammad Ibrahim Igaal, who raised cabinet membership from thirteen to fifteen members and included representatives of every major clanfamily , as well as some members of the rival SNC. In August 1967, the National Assembly confirmed his appointment without serious opposition. Although the new prime minister had supported Shermaarke in the presidential election, he was a northerner and had led a 1962 defection of the northern SNL assembly members from the government. He had also been closely involved in the founding of the SNC but, with many other northern members of that group, had rejoined the SYL after the 1964 elections.

A more important difference between Shermaarke and Igaal, other than their past affiliations, was the new prime minister's moderate position on pan-Somali issues and his desire for improved relations with other African countries. In these areas, he was allied with the "modernists" in the government, parliament, and administration who favored redirecting the nation's energies from confrontation with its neighbors to combating social and economic ills. Although many of his domestic policies seemed more in line with those of the previous administration, Igaal continued to hold the confidence of both Shermaarke and the National Assembly during the eighteen months preceding the March 1969 national elections.

Igaal's policy of regional détente resulted in improved relations with Ethiopia and Kenya. The prime minister did not relinquish Somalia's territorial claims, but he hoped to create an atmosphere in which the issue could be peacefully negotiated. In September 1968, Somalia and Ethiopia agreed to establish commercial air and telecommunication links. The termination of the state of emergency in the border regions, which had been declared by Ethiopia in February 1964, permitted the resumption of free access by Somali pastoralists to their traditional grazing lands and the reopening of the road across Ethiopian territory between Mogadishu and Hargeysa. With foreign affairs a less consuming issue, the government's energy and the country's meager resources could now be applied more effectively to the challenges of internal development. However, the relaxation of tensions had an unanticipated effect. The conflict with its neighbors had promoted Somalia's internal political cohesion and solidified public opinion at all levels on at least one issue. As tension from that source subsided, old cleavages based on clan rivalries became more prominent.

The March 1969 elections were the first to combine voting for municipal and National Assembly posts. Sixty-four parties contested the elections. Only the SYL, however, presented candidates in every election district, in many cases without opposition. Eight other parties presented lists of candidates for national offices in most districts. Of the remaining fifty-five parties, only twenty-four gained representation in the assembly, but all of these were disbanded almost immediately when their fifty members joined the SYL.

Both the plethora of parties and the defection to the majority party were typical of Somali parliamentary elections. To register for elective office, a candidate merely needed either the support of 500 voters or the sponsorship of his clan, expressed through a vote of its traditional assembly. After registering, the office seeker then attempted to become the official candidate of a political party. Failing this, he would remain on the ballot as an individual contestant. Voting was by party list, which could make a candidate a one-person party. (This practice explained not only the proliferation of small parties but also the transient nature of party support.) Many candidates affiliated with a major party only long enough to use its symbol in the election campaign and, if elected, abandoned it for the winning side as soon as the National Assembly met. Thus, by the end of May 1969 the SYL parliamentary cohort had swelled from 73 to 109.

In addition, the eleven SNC members had formed a coalition with the SYL, which held 120 of the 123 seats in the National Assembly. A few of these 120 left the SYL after the composition of Igaal's cabinet became clear and after the announcement of his program, both of which were bound to displease some who had joined only to be on the winning side. Offered a huge list of candidates, the almost 900,000 voters in 1969 took delight in defeating incumbents. Of the incumbent deputies, 77 out of 123 were not returned (including 8 out of 18 members of the previous cabinet), but these figures did not unequivocally demonstrate dissatisfaction with the government. Statistically, they were nearly identical with the results of the 1964 election, and, given the profusion of parties and the system of proportional representation, a clear sense of public opinion could not be obtained solely on the basis of the election results. The fact that a single party--the SYL--dominated the field implied neither stability nor solidarity. Anthropologist I.M. Lewis has noted that the SYL government was a very heterogeneous group with diverging personal and lineage interests.

Candidates who had lost seats in the assembly and those who had supported them were frustrated and angry. A number of charges were made of government election fraud, at least some firmly founded. Discontent was exacerbated when the Supreme Court, under its newly appointed president, declined to accept jurisdiction over election petitions, although it had accepted such jurisdiction on an earlier occasion.

Neither the president nor the prime minister seemed particularly concerned about official corruption and nepotism. Although these practices were conceivably normal in a society based on kinship, some were bitter over their prevalence in the National Assembly, where it seemed that deputies ignored their constituents in trading votes for personal gain.

Among those most dissatisfied with the government were intellectuals and members of the armed forces and police. (General Mahammad Abshir, the chief of police, had resigned just before the elections after refusing to permit police vehicles to transport SYL voters to the polls.) Of these dissatisfied groups, the most significant element was the military, which since 1961 had remained outside politics. It had done so partly because the government had not called upon it for support and partly because, unlike most other African armed forces, the Somali National Army had a genuine external mission in which it was supported by all Somalis--that of protecting the borders with Ethiopia and Kenya.

1968

President: Abdirashid Ali Shermake

Prime Minister: Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal

Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office: Ali Mohamed Hirave

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Haji Farah Ali Omar

Minister of Finance: Abdullahi Jirreh Dualeh

Minister of Rural Development: Hassan Haji Omar Amei

Minister of Mineral Resources and Fisheries: Ismail Dualeh Warsame

Minister of Interior: Yassin Nur Hassan

Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs: Aden Shireh Jama

Minister of Defence: Haji Yusuf Iman Guled

Minister of Information: Ali Mohamed Ossable

Minister of Education: Aden Isak Ahmed

Minister of Health and Labour: Mohamed Sheikh Mohamed Dahir

Minister of National and Co-ordination: Abdullahi Mohamed Qablan

Minister of Public Works: Ali Alio Mohamed

Minister of Industry and Commerce: Mohamed Ali Daar

Minister of Transport and Communications: Hared Farah Nur

Minister of Agriculture: Ali Omar Sheygo

President of National Assembly: Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein

1969

President: Abdirashid Ali Shermake

Prime Minister: Mohamed Haji Ibrahim Egal

Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office: Ali Mohamed Hirave

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Haji Farah Ali Omar

Minister of Finance: Abdullahi Jirreh Dualeh

Minister of Rural Development: Hassan Haji Omar Amei

Minister of Mineral Resources and Fisheries: Ismail Dualeh Warsame

Minister of Interior: Yassin Nur Hassan

Minister of Justice and Religious Affairs: Aden Shireh Jama

Minister of Defence: Haji Yusuf Iman Guled

Minister of Information: Ali Mohamed Ossable

Minister of Education: Aden Isak Ahmed

Minister of Health and Labour: Mohamed Sheikh Mohamed Dahir

Minister of National and Co-ordination: Abdullahi Mohamed Qablan

Minister of Public Works: Ali Alio Mohamed

Minister of Industry and Commerce: Mohamed Ali Daar

Minister of Transport and Communications: Hared Farah Nur

Minister of Agriculture: Ali Omar Sheygo

President of National Assembly: Sheikh Mukhtar Mohamed Hussein

1969

The military regime

1991

5/5/1993 Mohamed Ibrahim Egal is elected as President of Somaliland by the "Guurti" (assembly of elders) at the Boroma Conference. This meeting ends a year of fighting in the Northwest due following the collapse of the SNM and ensuing clan rivalries. The accord provides an institutional framework for the new authority of Somaliland.

12/3/1997 President Egal of Somaliland is reinstated for an additional term of two years. A new constitution is adopted giving him major leverage in all decisions.