Somali Youth League
The Somali Youth League ( Italian Lega dei Giovani Somali , English Somali Youth League , abbreviation SYL ) was the first political party in Somalia and played an important role in the country's independence in 1960.
development
During the Second World War , Great Britain occupied what was then the colony of Italian Somaliland and then administered the area from 1941 to 1950 (in addition to its own colony, British Somaliland ). During this time, the Somali Youth League was founded in 1943, which should succeed in politically uniting all Somali clans and bringing Somalia into independence. Faced with growing political pressure from Italy , which was hostile to both Britain's colony and Somali independence, the British and Somali saw themselves as allies. This led the British colonial administration to support the Somali political organization. As a result, the Somali Youth Club was founded in Mogadishu in 1943 as the first Somali political party.
To promote the new party, the British allowed the more educated police officers and community service providers to join. In 1947 the party renamed itself the "Somali Youth League" and began to open offices, not only in the two British-administered Somaliland colonies, but also in the Ethiopian Ogaden and the Kenyan Northern Frontier District . These areas are both mainly inhabited by Somali people. The declared goals of the SYL were the unification of all areas inhabited by Somali - including the Ogaden and Northeast Kenya - into a " Greater Somalia ", the creation of educational opportunities, the development of the Somali language through the creation of a nationally standardized spelling, the representation of Somali interests and the resistance to the re-establishment of Italian rule. Since the politics of the youth league also rejected the traditional clan system of the Somali , the 13 founding members refused to announce their clan affiliation. The SYL enjoyed support across the country; however, in the north, what was then British Somaliland and now Somaliland , the Somali National League , mainly linked to the Isaaq , and the United Somali Party supported by Dir and Darod were the strongest parties.
Although Italian Somaliland was still legally an Italian colony, it was decided at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 not to return it to Italy. Instead, in 1949 the UN General Assembly made it a trust territory under Italian administration from 1950 to 1960 - against which the youth league, which sought immediate independence, protested in vain - and then released into independence. In the first Somali elections on March 30, 1964, the SYL won an absolute majority of 69 of the 123 parliamentary seats; the rest were divided among eleven parties. Five years later, in the general election of March 1969, the SYL was able to retain power under Mohammed Haji Ibrahim Egal . In the same year it was overthrown by the Siad Barres coup.