History of Somaliland

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Map of present-day Somaliland

The history of Somaliland is the history of a part of the Somali- inhabited area, which was colonized in the 19th century as British Somaliland and merged with Italian Somaliland to form Somalia in 1960 . It is therefore closely linked to the history of Somalia as well as the history of the Somali in the neighboring countries of Ethiopia and Djibouti . After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, Somaliland declared itself independent and has since developed largely separate from the rest of Somalia.

The Somalia timetable provides an overview in tabular form .

Early history

Detail of the cave paintings in Laas Geel
Man and cow

Evidence for the colonization of the Horn of Africa before the beginning of the Christian era is sparse. The first traces of human civilization were discovered in Laas Geel near Hargeysa . Cave paintings were found there that date back to between 4000 and 3000 BC. To be dated. Further cave paintings are u. a. in Karin Heegan and Dhambalin .

Today's inhabitants of the region, the Somali , trace their origins back to immigrants from the Arabian Peninsula , from whom all Somali are said to have patrilineal descent . Linguistics, on the other hand, sees its origins in the southern Ethiopian highlands , where other ethnic groups live who, like the Somali, speak Cushitic languages , and thus focuses on the Cushite-African part of their ancestry. According to these theories, the Somali ancestors separated around 500 BC. From related groups between the Omo and Tana rivers and populated the entire Horn of Africa until around 100 AD.

Pre-colonial period

The Somali developed their economy and way of life, which still exists today, which consists mainly of nomadic cattle farming and, in the south of what is now Somalia, agriculture in the area of ​​the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers . The way of life of the nomads in Northern Somalia / Somaliland was long considered prototypical for the Somali, but it probably developed later than the sedentary, agropastoralistic way of life of the South Somali Rahanweyn .

The Somali clan system was probably influenced by the patrilineal tribal society of the Arabs and superseded the original, possibly matrilineally organized society. Even in pre-colonial times there were repeated conflicts between clans, especially over scarce land and water. The naturally occurring droughts in the region regularly led to hunger, especially among the nomads in northern and central Somalia.

Maritime trade and introduction of Islam

The kingdom of Aksum extended to northwest Somalia at the height of its power (approx. 4th to 6th centuries), but little is known about the effects of its rule.

Through sea trade via coastal cities such as Zeila (Saylac) and Hobyo , the Somali came into contact with Arab and Persian influences, including Islam from the 7th century. Islam spread even further in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries with the arrival of Muslim patriarchs. By the 16th century, Zeila rose to become a trading center for coffee, gold, civet , ostrich feathers and slaves from Ethiopia ( see also : East African slave trade ) and the center of Islam in Somalia. Trade was conducted with the Middle East, India, and China.

Sultanates in Northern Somalia

In the 13th century, the Somali began to migrate southwards, which would continue into the 19th century. During this time, states began to form, in particular the Ifat Sultanate in Ethiopia and Northern Somalia, the forerunner of the Adal Sultanate led by the Muslim Somali and Afar . This stretched from its capital Zeila to Jijiga and Harar in what is now the Ethiopian Ogaden and for a long time remained peaceful in relation to the neighboring Christian Empire of Ethiopia. Relations between the two states deteriorated, however, when the Ethiopian Negus Isaak (Yeshaq) attacked Muslim settlements in the valley east of Harar and captured Ifat in 1415. After his victory, Isaac imposed tribute on the Muslims and had a hymn written in celebration of this victory. In this hymn, the word Somali appears for the first time in written form.

In the 16th century it was again the Muslims who attacked Ethiopia. Supported by the Ottoman Empire , led by Ahmed Gurey (Gran) , they penetrated far into the country, wreaking havoc and decimating the population. With the help of a Portuguese expedition under Cristóvão da Gama - a son of Vasco da Gama - and the use of cannons, Ethiopia finally managed to avert the conquest. After the fall of Ahmed Gurey at the Battle of Wayna Daga on February 21, 1543, the Muslims were repulsed. In the following time Adal split up into smaller states, including the Sultanate of Harar. Like the Ethiopian territories, this came under pressure from the Oromo , who now advanced from the south.

The Portuguese had sailed along the coast of Africa since the time of Henry the Navigator and had reached Somalia in this way. From the 16th century, Portuguese seafarers attacked Somali coastal cities. Zeila lost importance as a result of Portuguese attacks in 1517 and 1528 as well as raids by Somali nomads from the surrounding area and became the property of the Yemeni city of Mocha . Berbera took on his role, but also owned mocha. In turn, Yemen, and with it Mocha, came under Ottoman rule at times. In 1875, under Ismail Pasha , Egypt attempted an invasion of Ethiopia, with Harar and Zeila briefly coming under Egyptian control.

Colonial times

Map of the Gulf of Aden around 1860
The Horn of Africa around 1900

From the end of the 19th century, the area inhabited by the Somali experienced the division, which still has an effect today and is partially in place. Harar and thus all of Ogaden came under the rule of Ethiopia through the conquests of Menelik II . The south and east of what is now Somalia were colonized by Italy as Italian Somaliland , the north ( British Somaliland ) and Kenya by Great Britain and Djibouti (French Somaliland) in northwestern France .

First protection treaties

Great Britain had concluded a first protection treaty with a local clan on the north coast of the Somali- inhabited area in 1827 and had envoys in the port cities of Zeila and Berbera since 1839 to secure the sea trade routes through the Red Sea to India . 1884–1886 it concluded further contracts with various clans and thus secured the area that was mainly inhabited by nomadic Somali ranchers from the Isaaq clans as well as Dir and Darod .

From 1884 to 1898 the Protectorate was administered from Bombay , it was considered the area of ​​the Colony of Aden . Its borders were set in treaties with Italy (1894) and Ethiopia (1897 and 1954). An agreement was made with France as early as 1888. Among other things, the island of Musha in the Gulf of Tadjoura was bought and assigned by the Indian government for the price of ten sacks of rice. After that, British Somaliland was administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, from 1905, by the Colonial Office .

British military base

The British used the colony as a military base and as a supply station for ships and, above all, established an extensive export trade in live cattle, which they needed to supply their nearby colony Aden . Until 1942 the administrative seat of the colony was the port city of Berbera , through which these exports were handled. Inland, the growing trade meant that Hargeysa and Burao emerged as larger towns and centers of trade. The export of livestock as an important economic factor remained beyond the colonial period, as from the 1950s there was a high demand for Somali cattle from the Arab states that had become wealthy through oil production.

Flag 1950-60

In contrast to the Italians in the neighboring Italian Somaliland, the British were hardly interested in more extensive control and development of their Somaliland . They were largely limited to an indirect rule over the area, hardly invested in its development and did little to intervene in internal conditions. Local structures such as the councils of elders (guurti) , which are traditionally responsible for peace-building between the clans, were largely retained.

Not all clans submitted to foreign rule without violence. The border treaty with Ethiopia in 1897, which recognized Ethiopia's sovereignty over the Ogaden, including the important pastureland in the Haud area , caused particular displeasure . From 1899 to 1920, the Dolbohanta (Dhulbahante) Darod led by Mohammed Abdullah Hassan in a religiously and nationalistically motivated guerrilla war against colonial rule. In the course of this war, combined with a famine in 1911–1912, around a third of the population perished.

The new Baldwin government in office offered its ally in the Stresa Front , Mussolini, the Ogaden in August 1934 . At the same time, Abyssinia was to be compensated by a strip of land as a corridor to the port of Zeila .

Local self-government

1940 occupied fascist Italy British Somaliland ( see also : Italian-Ethiopian war ). Six months later, Great Britain recaptured British Somaliland in 1941 and, together with Italian Somaliland, which had also been conquered, placed it under military administration until 1950. Its seat was from 1942 Hargeysa. The Somali were now included in the administration, from 1947 an Advisory Council consisted of local representatives who met once a year.

In 1950, Italian Somaliland was returned to Italy as trust territory, while British Somaliland remained with Great Britain. In 1957 the political participation of the local population was expanded by the formation of an Executive Council and a Legislative Council . These were partly elected and partly appointed by the governor. In the first elections to the Legislative Council in February 1960, the Somali Youth League party received 20 out of 33 seats.

independence

Association with Somalia

Flag of Independent Somalia

When the independence of Italian Somaliland was scheduled for July 1, 1960, the Legislative Council called for British Somaliland's independence to be swiftly achieved in order to achieve unification with Italian Somaliland as a step towards the unification of all Somali in one state. Independence was prepared within two months and finally granted on June 26, 1960, five days later it merged with Italian Somaliland to form the state of Somalia. The reason for the amalgamation were efforts to unite all Somali in one state, after this people had been divided into several states through colonization. The then Prime Minister of British Somaliland Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal was given a ministerial post in the new government of Somalia, and in 1967, Egal became Prime Minister.

Hargeysa city center with the war memorial

However, many residents of the area soon felt disadvantaged in the whole of Somalia. National integration caused difficulties, as northern and southern Somalia differed in their level of development, educational and administrative structures. In the opinion of many Northern Somalis, the economically, politically and demographically dominant south did little to take account of these differences and to promote the development of the north. In 1961, the new Somali constitution was adopted by a large majority of voters in the south, but supported by less than 50% in the north. In the same year officers in the north revolted unsuccessfully against the merger with the south.

After Siad Barre seized power in 1969 and established an authoritarian government, Isaaq founded the Somali National Movement (SNM) rebel movement in 1981 , which began an armed struggle against the government in northern Somalia. The army responded with repression that culminated in the 1988 bombing of the cities of Burao and Hargeysa . Around 50,000 people were killed, 400,000 were internally displaced , and another 400,000 fled across the border to refugee camps such as Hartishek in Ogaden in Ethiopia or to Djibouti . (About 300,000 of these refugees returned between 1997 and 2006.) The minority clans of the Gadabursi-Dir and the Dolbohanta-Darod partly supported the government against the SNM. In 1991, various rebel movements succeeded in ousting Barre, but conflicts between clans and warlords prevented the formation of a successor government. The Somali civil war has continued in southern and central Somalia since then.

Declaration of Independence

overlapping claims between Somaliland and Puntland
first flag of Somaliland 1991–1996
current flag of Somaliland

In the meantime, the SNM initiated a process of reconciliation between the northern Somali clans, using traditional peacemaking mechanisms. At a meeting of clan elders led by the SNM in Burao in 1991, Somaliland's unilateral declaration of independence was passed. This step was originally not planned by the SNM leadership and was made under pressure from the public, which, due to the war experience, rejected the unity with southern and central Somalia by a majority. Together with the declaration of independence, a “National Charter” was passed, according to which the SNM should exercise power for the next two years. A new constitution was then to be drawn up under which power would pass to an elected government. SNM leader Abd-ar-Rahman Ahmad Ali Tur became the first president. However, the SNM soon disintegrated into warring factions and, as in the rest of Somalia, clan conflicts arose until a 1992 ceasefire agreement was signed. At another conference in Boorama in 1993, a new national charter and a peace agreement were passed, and the SNM transferred power to a civilian government with a two-chamber parliament under President Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal . In 1994–1996 clashes flared up again. Members of the Dir clan in the western Awdal region , who refused to recognize Somaliland's authority, proclaimed their own "Republic of Awdal" in 1995.

Another conference in Hargeysa in 1996/97 led - together with several local peace meetings between individual subclans - to the ongoing peace in Somaliland and confirmed Egal's presidency for the next five years. During this time the President fulfilled his obligation to prepare a constitution for Somaliland . This was approved in a referendum in 2001 . The next steps in the democratization process were to hold local elections in 2001 and presidential elections in 2002. Delays in preparation and Egal's death in 2002 resulted in a year delay in implementing these plans. As provided in the constitution, the previous Vice President Dahir Riyale Kahin took over the presidency, in which he was confirmed in 2003 . In 2002 the local elections were the first multi-party elections in the country, and in 2005 the House of Representatives was elected .

The example of Somaliland contributed to the fact that Puntland in the northeast, under the leadership of the Harti Darod clan, declared itself an autonomous state within Somalia in 1998 and formed its own regional government. In the controversial border area between Puntland and Somaliland , there have been increased confrontations since 2003. The conflict between Somalililand and Puntland is essentially about the future of the Somali state. While Somaliland insists on statehood and thus the end of Somalia within the borders of 1990, Puntland tries to restore a unified but federal Somalia. The Warsangeli clan proclaimed another autonomous state Maakhir in Sanaag in July 2007 . However, this only existed for a short time and joined Puntland in early 2009.

The domestic political situation has been tense since 2008, as the upcoming presidential and local elections have been postponed several times beyond the actual term of office of the president.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : History of Somaliland  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

General:

Individual evidence:

  1. ↑ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Origins, Migrations, and Settlement
  2. ^ Herbert S. Lewis: The Origins of the Galla and Somali , in: The Journal of African History , Vol. 7, No. 1 (1966)
  3. ↑ Abdi Kusow : The Somali Origin: Myth or Reality, in: Ali Jimale Ahmed (Ed.): The Invention of Somalia , Red Sea Press 1995, ISBN 0932415997
  4. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Coastal Towns
  5. ↑ Human Rights Watch country report on Somalia 1992 #The Impending Famine; quoted there from M. Boothman, A Historical Survey of the Incidence of Drought in Northern Somalia , in IM Lewis (ed.) Abaar: The Somali Drought , London, 1975.
  6. ↑ Countrystudies.us: Ethiopia - The Aksumite State
  7. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - Emergence of Adal
  8. ^ Nordic Africa Institute: Local History of Ethiopia : Harar
  9. ↑ Haithornthwaite, Philip; The Colonial Wars Sourcebook; London 1995; ISBN 1-85409-196-4 , p. 174.
  10. ↑ Brandon P .; The Dark Valley: a panorama of the 1930s; London 2000; P. 70.
  11. ^ Countrystudies.us: Somalia - From Independence to Revolution
  12. ↑ World Bank: Conflict in Somalia: Drivers and Dynamics (January 2005; PDF; 654 kB) / Africa Watch: Somalia: A Government at War with its Own People , New York 1990.
  13. ^ UNHCR: UNHCR launches last phase of Somali repatriation from Djibouti
  14. ↑ Bradbury 2008 (pp. 80-82)
  15. ↑ Ioan Lewis: Understanding Somalia and Somaliland , 2008, ISBN 978-1-85065-898-6 (p. 75)
  16. ↑ Hoehne, Markus Virgil 2009: Mimesis and mimicry in dynamics of state and identity formation in northern Somalia ', Africa 79/2: 252–281. doi : 10.3366 / E0001972009000710