The Somali community in the UK: What we know and how we ... - ICAR

A she-camel is a mother
To him who owns it
Whereas a he-camel is the artery
Onto which hangs life itself…. 16
The curious shape of Somalia’s official borders
and the existence of some three million Somalis
in eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya are due
to the fragmentation of Somaliland during the
‘scramble for Africa’ by European powers. The
area’s geopolitical location made it attractive both
for strategic and commercial purposes, especially
after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. By the
end of the nineteenth century, France had annexed
Djibouti, and British colonial Kenya claimed Somali
territory along its border. Ethiopia also encroached
on Somali terrain, taking the Haud and the Ogaden
in the 1890s, and condemning Somalia to pan-
Somali reclamation struggles over the following
century. The remaining land was then divided. In
1905 Italy appropriated the larger central-southern
section, with its capital Mogadishu, while in 1886
Britain took control of the smaller northern
protectorate, managing the country from the main
city of Hargeisa.
The regime of Siad Barre 1969-1990
Armed resistance to these occupations had
been crushed by the 1920s, and it was left to
Somali political parties to organise around the
reunification of an independent Somalia. In 1960 a
nationalist coalition swept to power in northern
elections. The UK conceded independence to
the protectorate, Italy relinquished control of
the south, and a united Somali Republic came
into being. However, this democratic unity was
short lived. Distracted by the attempt to regain
Kenyan and Ethiopian lands, the government under
successive leaders grew corrupt and inefficient.
In 1969 the president was assassinated, the army
staged a coup d’état, and Major General Mohamed
Siad Barre became the head of state. Over the next
decade, the military established themselves as the
core of the ruling Somali Revolutionary Socialist
Party (SRSP), with Barre as president.
True to the theoretical principles of scientific
socialism which he espoused, Barre introduced
some democratic reforms. Health and education
programmes were backed by developments in
infrastructure. In 1972, orthography of the Somali
language was devised for the first time, followed
by a nationwide literacy campaign. The status of
minorities became an issue, as did women’s rights.
But the regime became increasingly repressive.
As dictators are wont to do, Barre became ever
more suspicious of those around him, and, aided by
Soviet-supported state security, violently intolerant
of opposition. When eight Muslim clerics opposed
his reforms on women and the introduction of
the Roman script, he had them executed. These
summary killings were by no means exceptional.
Murder, rape, and torture became commonplace.
Some of his most vicious campaigns were waged
against the former British protectorate of the
north, home of the Somali National Movement
(SNM), which was founded by Somali students in
the UK in 1988. In the same year, the SNM attacked
Barre’s army bases in the north. This precipitated
a civil war which displaced over a million people
and cost the lives of thousands. Hargeisa and
other northern towns were heavily bombed, and
hundreds of thousands fled to Ethiopia, or overseas
to Western Europe, North America, the Gulf, and
the Indian subcontinent.
Barre’s policies also led to economic disaster.
From 1960 to the mid-1970s, the economy was
in a stable state. Overall annual growth was 2.1%,
and the industrial sector, with food processing,
pharmaceuticals, and textiles, was developing at 5%
per annum (Samatar, 1997: 123). A refinery was
established at Mogadishu to process Saudi Arabian
petrol, but nationalisation of manufacturing and
commerce halted these developments. Natural
disasters exacerbated the decline - severe droughts
throughout the period cut a swathe through herds,
decimated agricultural production, and engendered
widespread famine. An ill-conceived development
plan threw the country into debt and onto the
mercy of foreign creditors. Because of its strategic
value at the time of the cold war, both eastern and
western money and military hardware poured into
the country, sustaining the state but undermining
a productive economy. Barre forfeited Russian aid
The Somali community in the UK
19