A History Tutorial for Somaliland President on the Pre-independence Italian Rule in Somali Territories

“If we accept the distinction Bihi makes between the Italian presence in the South and the British presence in the North before 1941, we would be tempted to call the Italians ‘colonisers’ and the British ‘protectors’.

Hargeisa (PP Comment) — The President of Somaliland Administration Muse Bihi Abdi refers to pre-independence Southern Somalia as the province colonised by Italy. “Somaliland and the Somalia that was colonised by Italy united in 1960” Bihi said on May 18, 2024. Somaliland independence on 26 June 1960 was expedited to facilitate union with the Trust Territory of Somalia on 1 July 1960.

Bihi believes that the status of the former British Somaliland was superior to that of the Italian colonial system in southern Somalia. He failed to mention that, at one point, Italian colonial rule extended across all Somali territories, including a seven-month period in 1941 when Italy colonised the former British Somaliland.

If we accept the distinction Bihi makes between the Italian presence in the South and the British presence in the North before 1941, we would be tempted to call the Italians colonisers and the British protectors. If one compares the Italian legacy in the South and the British legacy in the North, the record shows that London not only violated the Protectorate Agreements with Somali “tribes,” but also put the North at a disadvantage by denying Northerners a pre-independence arrangement similar to the trusteeship that prepared the South for self-rule (dakhiliyah), followed by independence on 1 July 1960. Before 1960, Italy trained Somali civil servants and the first batch of officers for the Somali National Army and sent teachers to the trusteeship territories to fulfil its obligations in line with the mandate of AFIS (Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia).

How Italy, under the fascist leader Benito Mussolini, ruled southern Somalia is documented. The formation of the Somali Youth League in 1943 during the colonial rule of the British Military Administration in the South (1941-1950) raises a question for historians: Why did the British Empire bar Somali subjects in the former British Somaliland Protectorate from agitating for independence?

Share this: