Hargeisa (PP Remark) — The President of Somaliland Administration Muse Bihi Abdi refers to pre-independence Southern Somalia because the province colonised by Italy. “Somaliland and the Somalia that was colonised by Italy united in 1960” Bihi mentioned on Might 18, 2024. Somaliland independence on 26 June 1960 was expedited to facilitate union with the Belief Territory of Somalia on 1 July 1960.
Bihi believes that the standing of the previous British Somaliland was superior to that of the Italian colonial system in southern Somalia. He failed to say that, at one level, Italian colonial rule prolonged throughout all Somali territories, together with a seven-month interval in 1941 when Italy colonised the previous British Somaliland.
If we settle for the excellence Bihi makes between the Italian presence within the South and the British presence within the North earlier than 1941, we’d be tempted to name the Italians colonisers and the British protectors. If one compares the Italian legacy within the South and the British legacy within the North, the report exhibits that London not solely violated the Protectorate Agreements with Somali “tribes,” but in addition put the North at an obstacle by denying Northerners a pre-independence association much like the trusteeship that ready the South for self-rule (dakhiliyah), adopted by independence on 1 July 1960. Earlier than 1960, Italy skilled Somali civil servants and the primary batch of officers for the Somali Nationwide Military and despatched lecturers to the trusteeship territories to fulfil its obligations in keeping with the mandate of AFIS (Amministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia).
How Italy, beneath the fascist chief Benito Mussolini, dominated southern Somalia is documented. The formation of the Somali Youth League in 1943 throughout the colonial rule of the British Army Administration within the South (1941-1950) raises a query for historians: Why did the British Empire bar Somali topics within the former British Somaliland Protectorate from agitating for independence?
© Puntland Publish, 2024
