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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.
The Colonial Partition of Somaliland
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 which finally incorporated 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
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 the first beginnings 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 rôle in helping to foster the growth of anti-tribal sentiments in Somalia.
Preparation for Independence
20 Sir Gerald Reece, Governor of British Somaliland 1948–53, opening the Trades School at Hargeisa in 1952.
21 Somali District Commissioner greeting tribesmen in the south. Under the Italian trusteeship administration of Somalia, all expatriate District and Provincial Commissioners were replaced by Italian-trained Somali officials in 1956, four years before independence.
22 Colonel Muhammad Abshir assuming command of the Somalia Police Force from Colonel Arnera of the Italian Carabinieri at Mogadishu in December, 1958. Behind the microphone is Di Stefani; Administrator of Somalia at the time.
23 Adan ‘Abdulle ‘Osman, Somalia’s first president, (gesticulating) with prime minister Dr ‘Abd ar Rashid ‘Ali Shirmarke, surveying flood damage in southern Somalia in the early 1960s.
24 President Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Igal addressing a political rally in Hargeisa.
25 General Muhammad Siyad Barre and entourage at Mogadishu airport about to embark on an official visit to the United States. From left to right: General Muhammad Farah ‘Aideed, bodyguard, Vice President Hussein Kulmiye, Vice President Ismail ‘Ali ‘Abokor, President Siyad, Yusuf Abu Ras (mayor of Mogadishu) and ‘Omar Arte, foreign minister and the only civilian in Siyad’s government.
26 ‘Abdulqassim Salad Hassan
27 Arms market, Mogadishu 2000
28 Immobilised ‘technical’, under guard in Somaliland
29 Irregular militia in process of surrendering their ‘technicals’ and arms to Somaliland elders as demobilisation proceeds in Somaliland.
30 Official opening of the outpatients department at ‘Edna Adan’ maternity hospital in Hargeisa 2000.
31 Loading camels for export on ship at Bossaso port, Puntland.
32 Street scene round the centre of Hargeisa (2001), capital of Somaliland Republic.
CHAPTER I
THE PHYSICAL AND SOCIAL SETTING
The Land
WITH A POPULATION numbering perhaps four and a half million, the Somali-speaking people can scarcely be regarded as a large nation. Yet they form one of the largest single ethnic blocks in Africa, and though sparsely distributed on the ground, live in continuous occupation of a great expanse of territory covering almost 400,000 square miles in the north-east corner, or ‘Horn’, of the continent facing Arabia. From the region of the Awash Valley in the north-west, this often arid territory occupied by the Somali stretches round the periphery of the Ethiopian highlands and along the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts down to the Tana River in northern Kenya. This region forms a well-defined geographical and ethnic unit which Somalis see as a natural base for a sovereign state, although today it is split up into four separate parts. In the ex-French Republic of Jibuti, which became independent in 1977, Somalis make up about half the local population (c. 200,000 in 350,000); in the adjoining country of Ethiopia (mainly in Harar and Bale Provinces) they number probably almost one million; in the Somali
