“Somalia”的意思、由来-百科全书

Somalia

Introduction

Somali Soomaaliya, Arabic As-Sūmāl,

Somalia, flag ofcountry on the Horn of Africa. It occupies an important geopolitical position between sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of Arabia and southwestern Asia. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Aden and on the east by the Indian Ocean; from its southern point, its western border is bounded by Kenya and Ethiopia and, to the northwest, by Djibouti. The capital is Mogadishu (in Somali, Muqdisho or Xamar; in the colonial Italian rendering, Mogadiscio).

Living in a country of geographic extremes, with a dry and hot climate and a landscape of thornbush savanna and semidesert, the inhabitants of Somalia have developed equally demanding economic survival strategies. The Somali are Muslim, and about half follow a mobile way of life, pursuing nomadic pastoralism (nomadism) or agropastoralism. As a result, the Somali are an egalitarian, freedom-loving people who are suspicious of governmental authority.

In colonial times the lands traditionally occupied by the Somali were divided by a new western boundary for Somalia, resulting in large Somali communities in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. This boundary is still in dispute.

The Somali Peninsula consists mainly of a tableland of young limestone and sandstone formations. Apart from a mountainous coastal zone in the north and several pronounced river valleys, most of the country is extremely flat, with few natural barriers to restrict the mobility of the nomads and their livestock.

The land

Relief (Somalia)

In the extreme north, along the Gulf of Aden, is a narrow coastal plain called the Guban, which broadens out in the direction of Berbera. This gives way inland to a maritime mountain range with a steep, north-facing scarp. Near Ceerigaabo (Erigavo), a mountain called Surud Cad (Surud Ad) reaches the highest elevation in the country, about 7,900 feet (2,408 metres). To the south are the broad plateaus of the Galgodon (Galgodon Highlands) (or Ogo) Highlands and the Sool and Hawd regions, which drop gradually southward toward the Indian Ocean.

In southern Somalia the crystalline bedrock outcrops to the south of Baydhabo (Baidoa) in the shape of granite formations called inselbergs (inselberg). These give way farther south to alluvial plains, which are separated from the coast by a vast belt of ancient dunes stretching more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometres) from south of Kismaayo (Chisimaio) to north of Hobyo (Obbia).

Drainage

The flatness of the Somalian plateaus is interrupted by several deep valleys. Starting in the northeast, these are the Dharoor and Nugaal (Nogal) valleys (Nugaaleed Valley); both are wadis that, in season, have rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean at Xaafuun and Eyl, respectively. In the southwest are the only permanent rivers in Somalia, the Jubba (Jubba River) (Giuba) and Shabeelle (Shebeli River) (Shebele). Originating in the Ethiopian highlands, these two streams cut deeply into the plateaus before meandering through the alluvial plains toward the coast. Whereas the Jubba flows directly from north of Kismaayo into the Indian Ocean, the Shabeelle veers southwest immediately to the north of Mogadishu and flows into a large swamp before reaching the Jubba. The Jubba carries more water than the Shabeelle, which sometimes dries up in its lower course in years of sparse rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands. During dry seasons, these rivers are a major source of water for people and animals alike.

Because over most of the country the water table is deep or the groundwater has a high mineral content, the conservation of surface runoff is of primary importance.

Soil

The types of soil vary according to climate and parent rock. The arid regions of northeastern Somalia have mainly thin and infertile desert soils. The limestone plateaus of the interfluvial area have fertile, dark gray to brown, calcareous residual soils that provide good conditions for rain-fed agriculture. The most fertile soils are found on the alluvial plains of the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. These deep vertisols (black cotton soils) have a high water-retention capacity and are mainly used for irrigation agriculture.

Climate

Somalia lies astride the equator and so belongs to the tropics. Unlike typical climates at this latitude, conditions in Somalia range from arid in the northeastern and central regions to semiarid in the northwest and south.

The climatic year comprises four seasons. The gu, or main rainy season, lasts from April to June; the second rainy season, called the dayr, extends from October to December. Each is followed by a dry season: the main one (jilaal) from December to March and the second one (xagaa) from June to September. During the second dry season, showers fall in the coastal zone.

Long-term mean annual rainfall is less than 4 inches (100 millimetres) in the northeast and approximately 8 to 12 inches in the central plateaus. The southwest and northwest receive an average of 20 to 24 inches a year. While the coastal areas experience hot, humid, and unpleasant weather year-round, the interior is dry and hot. Somalia has some of the highest mean annual temperatures in the world. At Berbera on the northern coast the afternoon high averages more than 100° F (38° C) from June through September. Temperature maxima are even higher inland, but along the coast of the Indian Ocean temperatures are considerably lower because of a cold offshore current. The average afternoon high at Mogadishu, for example, ranges from 83° F (28° C) in July to 90° F (32° C) in April.

Plant and animal life

In accordance with rainfall distribution, southern and northwestern Somalia have a relatively dense thornbush savanna, with various succulents and species of acacia. By contrast, the high plateaus of northern Somalia have wide, grassy plains, with mainly low formations of thorny shrubs and scattered grass tussocks in the remainder of the region. Northeastern Somalia and large parts of the northern coastal plain, on the other hand, are almost devoid of vegetation. Exceptions to this are the wadi areas and the moist zones of the northern coastal mountains, where the frankincense tree (Boswellia) grows. The myrrh tree (Commiphora) thrives in the border areas of southern and central Somalia.

Owing to inappropriate land use, the original vegetation cover, especially in northern Somalia, has been heavily degraded and in various places even entirely destroyed. This progressive destruction of plant life also has impaired animal habitats and reduced forage, affecting not only Somalia's greatest resource, its livestock (chiefly goats, sheep, camels, and cattle), but also the wildlife. At present there are still many species of wild animals throughout the country—especially in the far south: hyenas, foxes, leopards, lions, warthogs, ostriches, small antelopes, and a large variety of birds. Unfortunately, giraffes, zebras, oryx, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and, above all, elephants have been decimated, elephants being slaughtered chiefly by ivory poachers. Measures to protect endangered species have been taken by creating a national park in the lower Shabeelle swamp region.

Settlement patterns

Roughly half of the Somali population lives permanently in settled communities, the other half being nomadic pastoralists (nomadism) or agropastoralists. The sedentary population chiefly occupies climatically and topographically favourable regions in southern and northwestern Somalia, where rain-fed agriculture is possible and irrigation agriculture can be practiced along the rivers. Their settlements consist of large, clustered villages near the rivers and in the central interfluvial area, as well as small hamlets farther away. The population is also concentrated in the old trading centres on the coast, such as Kismaayo, Baraawe (Brava), Marka (Merca), Mogadishu, Berbera, and Boosaaso (Bosaso).

The strong influence from Arabia, Persia, and India has shaped the face of the old coastal town centres, and Italian colonial architecture is visible in Mogadishu. Solid constructions of traditional coral limestone and modern concrete brick clearly distinguish the large coastal settlements from the district and provincial capitals of the interior, where traditional wooden houses with thatched or corrugated-iron roofs predominate. There are two main types of traditional house: the typically African round house (mundul), mainly found in the interior, and the Arab-influenced rectangular house (cariish) with corrugated-steel roof, prevailing in the coastal regions and northern Somalia.

Pastoral nomads still live in transportable round huts called aqal. During the dry seasons, the high mobility of these livestock keepers leads to their temporary concentration in the river valleys of southern Somalia and around important water points all over the country.

Heavy migration from rural areas into towns has caused enormous urban expansion, especially in Mogadishu. As a result of increased market-oriented and extrapastoral activities, more nomads are tending to adopt a semi-settled way of life and economy. This has led to a great number of permanent nomad settlements, chiefly along the roads and tracks of the country's interior.

The people

In culture, language, and way of life, the people of Somalia, northeastern Kenya, the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, and the southern part of Djibouti are largely one homogeneous group.

Ethnic composition

The Somali people are divided into numerous clans, which are groups that trace their common ancestry back to a single father. These clans, which in turn are subdivided into numerous subclans, combine at a higher level to form clan families. The clan families inhabiting the interfluvial area of southern Somalia are the Rahanwayn and the Digil, which together are known as the Sab. Mainly farmers and agropastoralists, the Sab include both original inhabitants and numerous Somali groups that have immigrated into this climatically favourable area. Other clan families are the Daarood of northeastern Somalia, the Ogaden, and the border region between Somalia and Kenya; the Hawiye, chiefly inhabiting the area on both sides of the middle Shabeelle and south-central Somalia; and the Isaaq, who live in the central and western parts of northern Somalia. In addition, there are the Dir, living in the northwestern corner of the country but also dispersed throughout southern Somalia, and the Tunni, occupying the stretch of coast between Marka and Kismaayo. Toward the Kenyan border the narrow coastal strip and offshore islands are inhabited by the Bagiunis, a Swahili fishing people.

As well as the Somali, there is a sizable and economically important Bantu (Bantu peoples) population, which is mainly responsible for the profitable irrigation agriculture practiced on the lower and middle reaches of the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. Socially, however, they are regarded as inferior, many of them being descendants of former slaves. The result is a strict social distinction between the “noble” Somali of nomadic descent and the Bantu groups.

Another economically significant minority is the several tens of thousands of Arabs (Arab), mainly of Yemenite origin. By the end of the 1980s, the number of Italians permanently residing in Somalia (mainly as banana farmers) had dropped to only a few hundred.

Linguistic composition

The Somali language belongs to the Cushitic language family. Despite several regional dialects, it is understood throughout the country. The second official language is Arabic, which is spoken chiefly in northern Somalia and in the coastal towns. Owing to Somalia's colonial past, many people have a good command of English and Italian, which also are used in colleges and in the university. Swahili also is spoken in the south.

In 1973 Somalia adopted an official orthography based on the Latin alphabet. Until then, Somali had been an unwritten language.

Religion

Most Somali belong to the Shāfiʿī rite of the Sunnite sect of Islām (Islāmic world). Various Muslim orders (ṭarīqa) are important, especially the Qādirīyah, the Aḥmadīyah, and the Ṣaliḥiyah.

Demographic trends

The population of Somalia has been increasing annually by more than 3 percent, despite very high infant mortality and an average life expectancy of less than 50 years.

A high migration rate into the towns, chiefly by young men, has led to a disproportionately large percentage of old people in most rural areas and to high unemployment in the towns. Also, after the Ogaden conflict of 1977–78, hundreds of thousands (refugee) of Somali from Ethiopia fled to Somalia, and during the ensuing civil war more than one million Somali sought shelter in neighbouring countries.

The economy

Somalia's economy is based on agriculture; however, the main economic activity is not crop farming but livestock raising. Between 1969 and the early 1980s, the military government imposed a system of “Scientific socialism,” which featured the nationalization of banks, insurance firms, oil companies, and all large industrial firms, the setting up of state-owned enterprises, farms, and trading companies, and the organizing of state-controlled cooperatives. In the end, this experiment weakened the Somalian economy considerably, and since the collapse of the military regime the economy has suffered even more as a result of civil war. Generally speaking, the Somalian economy cannot survive without foreign aid.

Resources

Somalia has few mineral resources—only some deposits of tin, phosphate, gypsum, guano, coal, iron ore, and uranium—but both quantity and quality are too low for mining to be worthwhile. However, the deposits of the clay mineral sepiolite, or meerschaum, in south-central Somalia are among the largest known reserves in the world. Exploitable oil and natural gas have not yet been found. Sea salt is collected at several sites on the coast.

Somalia's most valuable resources are the natural pastures that cover most of the country. Another resource that has scarcely been exploited is the abundant fish life in the coastal waters, still unpolluted by industrial waste. A potential source of hydroelectricity is the Jubba River.

Agriculture

By far the most important sector of the economy is agriculture, with livestock raising surpassing crop growing fourfold in value and earning about 90 percent of Somalia's foreign exchange. Agriculture in Somalia can be divided into three subsectors. The first is nomadic pastoralism, which is practiced outside the cultivation areas. This sector, which raises goats, sheep, camels, and cattle, has become increasingly market-oriented. The second sector is the traditional, chiefly subsistence, agriculture practiced by small farmers. This traditional sector takes two forms: rain-fed farming in the south and northwest, which raises sorghum, often with considerable livestock; and small irrigated farms along the rivers, which produce corn (maize), sesame, cowpeas, and, near towns, vegetables and fruits. The third sector consists of market-oriented farming on medium- and large-scale irrigated plantations along the lower Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. Here the major crops are bananas, sugarcane, rice, cotton, vegetables, grapefruit, mangoes, papayas, and other fruits.

Forestry

The acacia species of the thorny savanna in southern Somalia supply good timber and are the major source of charcoal, but charcoal production has long exceeded ecologically acceptable limits. More efficient and careful handling of Boswellia, Commiphora, and other resin-exuding trees could increase yields of aromatic gums.

Fishery

In the small fishing sector, tunny and mackerel are caught and canned in the north, sharks are often caught and sold dried by artisanal inshore fishers, and, in southern Somalia, choice fish and shellfish are processed for export.

Industry

In the late 1980s industry was responsible for just under 10 percent of Somalia's gross domestic product. Mogadishu was the chief industrial centre, with bottling plants, factories producing spaghetti, cigarettes, matches, and boats, a petroleum refinery, a small tractor assembly workshop, and small enterprises producing construction materials. In Kismaayo there were a meat-tinning factory, a tannery, and a modern fish factory. There were two sugar refineries, one near Jilib on the lower reach of the Jubba and one at Jawhar (Giohar) on the middle reach of the Shabeelle.

Even before the destruction caused by Somalia's civil wars of the 1980s and '90s, the productivity of Somalian factories was very low. Often entire works did not operate at full capacity or produced nothing at all over long periods. The few existing power stations, located at Mogadishu, Hargeysa (Hargeisa), and Kismaayo, were often out of order, resulting in frequent power cuts with adverse effects on factory production. (Rural areas have no power plants at all.) A significant portion of commodities necessary for daily life is produced by small workshops in the informal sector.

Finance

The three principal banks, which are nationalized, are the Central Bank of Somalia, the Commercial and Savings Bank of Somalia, and the Somali Development Bank, which mainly provides loans for development projects. The currency, the Somali shilling, has been depreciating for years, and a shortage of hard currency greatly impedes the country's economic development.

Trade

Somalia has a large trade deficit. Its chief export commodities are livestock (to Arab countries, mainly Saudi Arabia) and bananas (to Italy and Arab countries). Other, much less important exports are hides and skins, fish, and frankincense and myrrh. Almost everything is imported, even food for an urban population no longer accustomed to the traditional diet.

Besides the official market, there is also a flourishing black market, by means of which tens of thousands of Somali workers in Arab countries provide commodities missing on the Somali market while avoiding the duties levied on imports. Since wages in Somalia are very low, almost every family is directly or indirectly involved in informal trading.

Transportation

Inadequate transport facilities are a considerable impediment to Somalia's economic development. There are no railways. Only about 1,800 miles of paved roads are passable year-round, and in the rainy seasons most rural settlements are not accessible by motor vehicle. Buses, trucks, and minibuses are the main means of transport for the population. In rural areas camels, cattle, and donkeys are still used for personal transportation and as pack animals.

During peacetime, the state-owned Somali Airlines operated on national routes as well as on international routes to Kenya, Arabia, and Europe. Mogadishu, Berbera, and Kismaayo all have airports with long runways. These three cities also have deep-water harbours, but dangerous coral reefs keep coastal traffic to a minimum.

Administration and social conditions

Government

In 1960 Somalia became independent as a Western-style parliamentary democracy. A military coup in 1969, led by Major General Maxamed Siyaad Barre, inaugurated a phase of “Scientific socialism” that acknowledged one legal political party, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, and various socialist-style mass organizations. Under the 1979 constitution the president and his supporters held the important positions of power, and a People's Assembly had no real power. The legal system was based largely on Islamic law, an independent judiciary did not exist, and human rights were frequently violated.

After years of destructive civil war waged by clan-based guerrillas, Siyaad's government fell in January 1991. Later that year a de facto government declared the formation of an independent Republic of Somaliland in the northeast; similarly, in 1998 the autonomous region of Puntland was self-proclaimed in the northeast. Meanwhile, the fragmented, conflict-riven south lay largely in the hands of various clan-based militia groups at war with each other. Since Siyaad's fall from power, various attempts have been made to end the conflict and form a new government.

Education

Somalia's education system was in shambles after the government was overthrown in 1991. Some private schools have managed to function since then, as have some schools in the Republic of Somaliland and Puntland. Some Islamic schools are also operational, but traditionally these Qurʾānic schools are responsible for the religious education of children according to Islamic law and do not provide secular education.

Prior to the country's civil war and the resulting anarchy, the state educational system had been somewhat successful despite considerable shortcomings. Enrollment in primary and secondary schools had multiplied, and the proportion of girls attending school also had risen—at least in towns. A lack of buildings, furniture, equipment, teaching materials, and teachers, together with the frequent unwillingness of rural people to allow children to attend school instead of working, all prevented a rapid improvement of schooling in rural areas. Options for higher education included agricultural secondary schools, a polytechnic school, a vocational training centre, a teacher-training centre, an agricultural college, and the National University. Most of these institutions, located in and around Mogadishu, were unable to consistently maintain operations because of warfare.

Health and welfare

Many years of conflict, severe drought, and famine have left Somalia in a state of crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Somali have been displaced by warfare. Chronic food shortages have led to high rates of malnutrition in many parts of the country. Much of Somalia is without adequate water supplies or sanitation. Cholera, measles, tuberculosis, and malaria are widespread. The absence of health or welfare infrastructure in the country—largely destroyed after years of conflict—has left international relief organizations struggling to provide essential services normally offered by the government. However, their efforts are hindered by continuing violence, and most Somali have little or no access to health care.

Conditions in the Republic of Somaliland and Puntland are somewhat better than in the rest of the country but still fall short of ideal. Because of the overall level of stability enjoyed by the two self-governing regions, they have been able to rebuild much of their health care infrastructure.

Cultural life

The varied cultural life of the Somali includes both traditional activities and, especially in the towns, many modern interests.

Daily life

Cultural activities primarily consist of poetry, folk dancing, the performance of plays, and singing. These traditional activities still retain their importance, especially in rural areas, and are practiced not only at family and religious celebrations but also at state ceremonies. On such occasions traditional local costume is generally worn.

Especially in the towns, traditional culture is rapidly being superseded by imported modern influences, such as television and videotapes, cinema, and bars and restaurants. Urban Somalian cooking has been strongly influenced by Italian cuisine, and young townspeople are much influenced by Western fashion in the way they dress. Football (soccer) is a very popular sport.

The arts

There are many famous Somali artists, poets, musicians, actors, and dancers, some of whom live in exile. Nuruddin Farah (Farah, Nuruddin), whose novels are written in English, has achieved international fame. (For Farah's thoughts about his country at the turn of the new millennium, see Sidebar: Somalia at the Turn of the 21st Century.)

Cultural institutions in Mogadishu are the National Museum, the new Historical Museum, and the National Theatre. The Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts promotes research on Somalia.

Press and broadcasting

Press, radio, and television are all controlled and censored by the state. Books in general are hard to obtain, and the printing quality of the few books available in Somali is very poor.

Jörg H.A. Janzen

History

Exploration

Early activity on the coasts

From their connection with the Ethiopian hinterland, their proximity to Arabia, and their export of precious gums, ostrich feathers, ghee (clarified butter), and other animal products as well as slaves from farther inland, the northern and eastern Somali coasts have for centuries been open to the outside world. This area probably formed part of Punt, “the land of aromatics and incense,” mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings. Between the 7th and 10th centuries, immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians developed a series of trading posts along the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts. Many of the early Arab geographers mentioned these trading posts and the sultanates that grew out of them, but they rarely described the interior of the country in detail.

Intensive exploration really began only after the occupation of Aden by the British in 1839 and the ensuing scramble for Somali possessions by Britain, France, and Italy (see below The imperial partition (Somalia)). In 1854, while Richard Burton (Burton, Sir Richard) was exploring the country to the northwest in the course of his famous journey from Berbera to Harer, his colleague John Hanning Speke (Speke, John Hanning) was making his way along the Makhir coast in the northeast. This region had previously been visited by Charles Guillain, captain of the brig Ducouedid, between 1846 and 1848. Guillain also sailed down the Indian Ocean coast and went ashore at Mogadishu, Marka, and Baraawe, penetrating some distance inland and collecting valuable geographic and ethnographic information. In 1865 the German explorer Karl Klaus von der Decken (Decken, Karl Klaus von der) sailed up the Jubba River as far as Baardheere in the small steamship Welf, which foundered in rapids above the town. Decken was killed by Somali, but much valuable information collected by his expedition survived.

Penetration of the interior

In 1883 a party of Englishmen (F.L. and W.D. James, G.P.V. Aylmer, and E. Lort-Phillips) penetrated from Berbera as far as the Shabeelle, and between 1886 and 1892 H.G.C. and E.J.E. Swayne surveyed the country between the coast and the Shabeelle and also reached farther east toward the Nugaal valley. During 1894–95 A. Donaldson-Smith explored the headwaters of the Shabeelle in Ethiopia, reached Lake Rudolf, and eventually descended the Tana River to the Kenyan coast. In 1891 the Italian Luigi Robecchi-Bricchetti (Robecchi-Bricchetti, Luigi) trekked from Mogadishu to Hobyo and then crossed the Ogaden to Berbera. About the same time, further explorations were made by another Italian, Captain Vittorio Bottego. In the 20th century several extensive surveys were made, especially in the British protectorate, by J.A. Hunt between 1944 and 1950, and much of the country was mapped by aerial survey.

Before partition

Peoples of the coasts and hinterland

Until recent times the history of the Horn of Africa was dominated by two great themes: the southward expansion of the Somali from the Gulf of Aden littoral and the development by Arab and Persian Muslim settlers of a ring of coastal trading towns dating from at least the 10th century AD. By this time Islam was firmly established in the northern ports of Seylac (Zeila) and Berbera and at Marka, Baraawe, and Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean coast in the south. These centres were engaged in a lively trade, with connections as far afield as China. Initially the trend of pressure was from these coastal centres inland, especially in the north.

Probably by the 10th century the country from the Gulf of Aden coast inland was occupied first by Somali nomads and then, to their south and west, by various groups of pastoral Oromo who apparently had expanded from their traditional homelands in southwestern Ethiopia. To the south of these Cushitic-speaking Somali and Oromo—the “Berberi” of Classical times and of the Arab geographers—the fertile lands between the Shabeelle and Jubba rivers were occupied, partly at least, by sedentary Bantu tribes of the Nyika confederacy, whose ancient capital was Shungwaya. Remnants of these Zanj, as they were known to the Arab geographers, still survive in this region, but their strongest contemporary representatives are found among the coastal Bantu, of whom the Pokomo live along the Tana River in northern Kenya. Another smaller allied population consisted of the ancestors of the scattered bands of hunters of northern Kenya and southern Somalia known as Wa-Ribi, or Wa-Boni, a people whose appearance and mode of existence recall those of the San of other areas of Africa.

The great Somali migrations

With this distribution of peoples in the 10th century, the stage was set for the great movements of expansion of the Somali toward the south and of the Oromo to the south and west. The first known major impetus to Somali migration was that of Sheikh Ismāʿīl Jabartī, ancestor of the Daarood Somali, who apparently came from Arabia to settle in the northeastern corner of the Somali Peninsula in the 11th century. This was followed, perhaps two centuries later, by the settlement of Sheikh Isaq, founder of the Isaaq Somali. As the Daarood and Isaaq clans (clan) grew in numbers and territory in the northeast, they began to vie with their Oromo neighbours, thus creating a general thrust toward the southwest. By the 16th century the movements that followed seem to have established much of the present distribution of Somali clans in northern Somalia. Other Somali pressed farther south, and some, according to the Arab geographer Ibn Saʿīd, had already reached the region of Marka by as early as the 13th century.

In the meantime, farther to the west, a ring of militant Muslim sultanates had grown up around the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, and the two sides were engaged in a protracted struggle for supremacy. Somali clansmen regularly formed part of the Muslim armies: the name Somali first occurs in an Ethiopian song of victory early in the 15th century. In the 16th century the Muslim state of Adal, whose port was Seylac, assumed the lead in the holy wars against the Christian Amhara. The turning point in the struggle between Christians and Muslims was reached with the Ethiopian victory in 1542, with Portuguese support, over the remarkable Muslim leader Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghāzī (Aḥmad Grāñ), known to the Ethiopians as Aḥmad GrāŃ (Aḥmad Grāñ). With his Somali armies, Aḥmad had harried Ethiopia almost to the point of collapse. This victory, which saved Ethiopia, also closed the door to Somali expansion westward and increased the pressure of the Somali and Oromo thrust southward. With this stimulus the main mass of the Oromo swept into Ethiopia from the south and southwest and streamed in conquering hordes as far north as the ancient city of Harer, which was laid to waste in 1567.

This massive invasion left something of a political vacuum in the south of the Horn, which new Somali settlers were quick to fill. By the 17th century the influx of new migrants, competing and jostling with each other, had become considerable. The old Ajuran Somali sultanate, linked with the port of Mogadishu, was overthrown and Mogadishu itself invaded and split into two rival quarters. Some of the earlier Somali groups found refuge in northern Kenya. The continuing Somali thrust south—largely at the expense of Oromo and Zanj predecessors—was ultimately only effectively halted at the Tana River by the establishment of administrative posts about 1912.

Somali clans and foreign traders

Thus, by the latter part of the 19th century, the coastal and hinterland traditions had merged, and the centre of pressure had swung from the coast to the interior. In the north the ancient ports of Berbera and Seylac, much reduced in prosperity and importance, were now controlled by Somali nomads, and the position of the old ports of Marka, Baraawe, and Mogadishu was very similar. These towns had all been penetrated by various Somali clans, and the dominant political influence became that exercised by the Geledi clan ruling the lower reaches of the Shabeelle. Commercial and political links that provided an opening for European infiltration had, however, also been forged between these two coasts and the outside world. Part of the northern Somali coast, including Seylac, was then nominally under Turkish suzerainty, the Turkish claim going back to the 16th century, when Turkish forces had aided Aḥmad Grāñ in his campaigns against Ethiopia. The southern coastal towns, on the other hand, acknowledged the overlordship of the sultan of Zanzibar, although the latter's authority was slight in comparison with that exercised locally by the Geledi Somali.

The imperial partition

Competition among the European powers and Ethiopia

About the middle of the 19th century the Somali Peninsula became a theatre of competition between Great Britain (British Empire), Italy, and France. On the African continent itself Egypt also was involved, and later Ethiopia, expanding and consolidating its realm under the guiding genius of the emperors Tewodros II, Yohannes IV, and Menilek II. Britain's interest in the northern Somali coast followed the establishment in 1839 of the British coaling station at Aden on the short route to India. The Aden garrison relied upon the importation of meat from the adjacent Somali coast. France sought its own coaling station and obtained Obock on the Afar coast in 1862, later thrusting eastward and developing the Somali port of Djibouti. Farther north, Italy opened a station in 1869 at Aseb, which, with later acquisitions, became the colony of Eritrea. Stimulated by these European maneuvers, Egypt revived Turkey's ancient claims to the Red Sea coast. In 1870 the Egyptian flag was raised at Bullaxaar (Bulhar) and Berbera.

Britain at first protested these Egyptian moves but by 1877 had come to regard the Egyptian occupation as a convenient bulwark against the encroachments of European rivals. With the disorganization caused by the revolt in the Sudan, however, Egypt was obliged to curtail its colonial responsibilities, evacuating Harer and its Somali possessions in 1885. In these circumstances the British government reluctantly decided to fill the gap left by Egypt. Between 1884 and 1886, accordingly, treaties of protection were drawn up with the main northern Somali clans guaranteeing them their “independence.” Somali territory was not fully ceded to Britain, but a British (British Somaliland) protectorate was proclaimed and vice-consuls appointed to maintain order and control trade at Seylac, Berbera, and Bullaxaar. The interior of the country was left undisturbed, only the coast being affected.

Meanwhile, France had been assiduously extending its colony from Obock, and a clash with Britain was only narrowly averted when an Anglo-French agreement on the boundaries of the two powers' Somali possessions was signed in 1888. In the same period, the Italians were also actively extending their Eritrean colony and encroaching upon Ethiopian territory. Not to be outdone, Menilek took the opportunity of seizing the Muslim city of Harer, left independent after the Egyptian withdrawal. In 1889 Ethiopia and Italy concluded the Treaty of Wichale (Wichale, Treaty of), which in the Italian view established an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia. Arms and capital were poured into the country, and Menilek was able to apply these new resources to bring pressure to bear on the Somali clansmen around Harer. In 1889 Italy also acquired two protectorates in the northeastern corner of Somalia; and by the end of the year the southern part of the Somali coast leased by the British East Africa Company from the sultan of Zanzibar was sublet to an Italian company.

Italy had thus acquired a Somali colony. From 1892 the lease was held directly from Zanzibar for an annual rent of 160,000 rupees, and, after the failure of two Italian companies by 1905, the Italian government assumed direct responsibility for its colony of Italian Somaliland. To the south of the Jubba River the British East Africa Company held Jubaland until 1895, when this became part of Britain's East Africa protectorate. Britain and Italy had reached agreement in 1884 on the extent of their respective Somali territories, but the Battle of Adwa (Adwa, Battle of) (1896), at which the infiltrating Italian armies were crushed by Ethiopian forces, radically changed the position. Ethiopia, then independent of Italy, was plainly master of the hinterland, and in 1896–97 Italy, France, and Britain all signed treaties with Emperor Menilek, curtailing their Somali possessions. Italy gave up the Somali Ogaden, and Britain excised much of the western Hawd from its protectorate. Although the land and the Somali clansmen (who were not consulted), so abandoned, were not recognized as belonging to Ethiopia, there was nothing then to stop their gradual acquisition by Ethiopia.

Revolt in British Somaliland

These arrangements had scarcely been completed when the British Somaliland protectorate administration found its modest rule threatened by a religious rebellion led by Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan (Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid) (in Arabic, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ḥasan (Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid)). This Somali sheikh (known to the British as the Mad Mullah) of the Ogaadeen clan, living with his mother's people in the east of the protectorate, was an adherent of the Ṣaliḥiyyah religious order, whose reformist message he preached with messianic zeal. He quickly achieved wide recognition for his learning, piety, and skill as a mediator and initially cooperated with the authorities. In 1899, however, Sheikh Maxamed came into conflict with the recently established Christian mission and also was involved in a petty dispute with the administration. With the current European and Ethiopian encroachment and with the example of the Sudanese mahdi (in Islamic eschatology, a messianic deliverer), these two incidents provided the seeds that rapidly developed into a major Somali insurrection.

Maxamed did not appropriate the title of mahdi but assumed the title of sayyid (a descendant of the Prophet), and his followers were known as the dervishes (dervish). He displayed great skill in employing all the traditional tactics of Somali clan politics in building up his following, strengthening these with the call to national Muslim solidarity against the infidel colonizers. Arms and ammunition, denied to Somali in the past, became easily available through the ports of Djibouti and the northeastern coast, and the dervishes, although opposed by many Somali, who were branded as traitors to Islam, successfully weathered four major British, Italian, and Ethiopian campaigns between 1900 and 1904. The cumbersome British armies, hampered by their supply and water requirements, found the dervish guerrilla tactics hard to combat effectively, and, when in 1910 the British government decided to abandon its inconclusive, extremely expensive operations and withdrew to the coast, leaving chaos in the interior, Sayyid Maxamed seemed to have gained the day. A new policy was subsequently adopted, however, and, with the aid of an increasingly effective camel constabulary (whose founder, Richard Corfield, was killed at the Battle of Dulmadoobe in 1913), the dervishes were kept at bay until 1920, when a combined air, sea, and land operation finally routed them. The formidable dervish stronghold at Taleex, or Taleh, was bombed, but the sayyid escaped, as so often before, only to die of influenza a few months later while desperately seeking to rally his scattered followers.

Italian Somaliland

After 1920, administrative control (under the colonial office since 1905) was gradually restored in the protectorate. In Italian Somaliland, where the Italians had been gradually extending their hold on the country, the sayyid's rebellion had caused less disruption, and the appointment in 1923 of the first fascist governor marked a new active phase in the life of the colony. Two years later Britain ceded Jubaland with the port of Kismaayo, and in 1926, after a bitter military campaign, the two northern Italian protectorates were firmly incorporated. Italian settlement was encouraged, and fruit plantations were developed along the Shabeelle and Jubba valleys. Although agreements of 1897 and 1908 had defined the border with Ethiopia, this had not been demarcated, except for a stretch of about 18 miles delimited in 1910, and remained in dispute, thus facilitating the gradual Italian infiltration into Ethiopia. In late 1934 the celebrated Welwel incident, in which an Ethiopian patrol clashed with an Italian garrison, occurred at the Welwel oasis in the eastern part of the Ogaden claimed by both Italy and Ethiopia. The Italian conquest of Ethiopia that followed in 1935–36 (see Italo-Ethiopian War) brought the Ethiopian and Italian Somali territories together within the framework of Italy's short-lived East African empire. Italian Somaliland became the province of Somalia.

The Somali Republic

Independence and union

During World War II the British protectorate was evacuated (1940) but was recaptured with Italian Somalia in 1941, when Ethiopia also was liberated. With the exception of French Somaliland, all the Somali territories were then united under British military administration. In 1948 the protectorate reverted to the Colonial Office; the Ogaden and the Hawd were gradually surrendered to Ethiopia; and in 1950 the Italians returned to southern Somalia with 10 years to prepare the country for independence under a United Nations trusteeship.

Taking advantage of the modest progress that the British military administration had effected, the Italians rapidly pursued social and political advancement, although economic development proved much more difficult. The British protectorate, in the event, became independent on June 26, 1960. On July 1, Italian Somalia followed suit, and the two territories joined as the Somali Republic.

The politics of the new republic were conditioned by clan allegiances, but the first major problems arose from the last-minute marriage between the former Italian trust territory and the former British protectorate. Urgent improvements in communication between the two areas were necessary, as were readjustments in their legal and judicial systems. The first independent government was formed by a coalition of the southern-based Somali Youth League (SYL) and the northern-based Somali National League (SNL).

Pan-Somalism

While modest developments were pursued internally with the help of mainly Western aid, foreign policy was dominated by the Somali unification issue and by the campaign for self-determination of adjoining Somali communities in the Ogaden, French Somaliland, and northern Kenya. The Somalian government strongly supported the Kenyan Somali community's aim of self-determination (and union with Somalia); when this failed in the spring of 1963, after a commission of inquiry endorsed Somali aspirations, Somalia broke off diplomatic relations with Britain, and a Somali guerrilla war broke out in northern Kenya, paralyzing the region until 1967. By the end of 1963 a Somali uprising in the Ogaden led to a brief confrontation between Ethiopian and Somalian forces. Since the United States and the West provided military support to Ethiopia and Kenya, Somalia turned to the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) for military aid. Nevertheless, the republic maintained a generally neutral but pro-Western stance, and, indeed, a new government formed in June 1967 under the premiership of Maxamed Xaaji Ibrahiim Cigaal (Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal) embarked on a policy of détente with Kenya and Ethiopia, muting the Pan-Somali campaign.

The era of “Scientific Socialism”

In March 1969 more than 1,000 candidates representing 64 parties (mostly clan-based) contested the 123 seats in the National Assembly. After these chaotic elections, all the deputies (with one exception) joined the SYL, which became increasingly authoritarian. The assassination of President Cabdirashiid Cali Shermaʾarke (Abdirashid Ali Shermarke) on October 15, 1969, provoked a government crisis, of which the military took advantage to stage a coup on October 21.

The overthrow of Cigaal brought to power as head of state and president of a new Supreme Revolutionary Council the commander of the army, Major General Maxamed Siyaad Barre (Muhammed Siad Barre). At first the new regime concentrated on consolidating its power internally. Siyaad quickly adopted “Scientific Socialism (socialism),” which, he claimed, was fully compatible with his countrymen's traditional devotion to Islam. Leading a predominantly military administration, Siyaad declared a campaign to liberate the country from poverty, disease, and ignorance. The president was soon hailed as the “Father” of the people (their “Mother” was the “Revolution,” as the coup was titled). Relations with socialist countries (especially the Soviet Union and China) were so greatly strengthened at the expense of Western connections that, at the height of Soviet influence, slogans proclaiming a trinity of “Comrade Marx, Comrade Lenin, and Comrade Siyaad” decorated official Orientation Centres throughout the land. Siyaad's authoritarian rule was reinforced by a national network of vigilantes called Victory Pioneers, by a National Security Service headed by his son-in-law, and by National Security Courts notorious for ruthless sentencing. Rural society was integrated into this totalitarian structure through regional committees on which clan elders (now renamed “peace-seekers”) were placed under the authority of a chairman, who was invariably an official of the state apparatus. Clan loyalties were officially outlawed, and clan-inspired behaviour became a criminal offense. Of the government's many crash programs designed to transform society, the most successful were mass literacy campaigns in 1973 and 1974, which made Somali a written language (in Latin characters) for the first time.

After 1974 Siyaad turned his attention to external affairs. Somalia joined the Arab League, gaining much-needed petrodollar aid and access to political support from those Persian Gulf states to which Somali labour and livestock were exported at a growing rate. Following Haile Selassie's overthrow in September 1974, Ethiopia began to fall apart, and guerrilla fighters of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) in the Ogaden pressed Siyaad (whose mother was an Ogaadeen) for support. When in June 1977 France granted independence to Djibouti (under a Somali president), the WSLF, backed by Somalia, immediately launched a series of fierce attacks on Ethiopian garrisons. By September 1977 Somalia had largely conquered the Ogaden region and the war was at the gates of Harer. Then the Soviet Union turned to fill the superpower vacuum left in Ethiopia by the gradual withdrawal of the United States. In the spring of 1978, with the support of Soviet equipment and Cuban soldiers, Ethiopia reconquered the Ogaden, and hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees (refugee) poured into Somalia.

Ioan M. Lewis

Civil war

Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden War strained the stability of the Siyaad regime as the country faced a surge of clan pressures. An abortive military coup in April 1978 paved the way for the formation of two opposition groups: the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), drawing its main support from the Majeerteen clan of the Mudug region in central Somalia, and the Somali National Movement (SNM), based on the Isaaq clan of the northern regions. Formed in 1982, both organizations undertook guerrilla operations from bases in Ethiopia. These pressures, in addition to pressure from Somalia's Western backers, encouraged Siyaad to improve relations with Kenya and Ethiopia. But a peace accord (1988) signed with the Ethiopian leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, obliging each side to cease supporting Somali antigovernment guerrillas, had the ironic effect of precipitating civil war in Somalia.

Threatened with the closure of their bases in Ethiopia, the SNM attacked government forces in their home region, provoking a bitter conflict that left ghost towns in the hands of government forces. Ogaadeen Somali, who had been progressively absorbed into the army and militia, felt betrayed by the peace agreement with Ethiopia and began to desert, attacking Siyaad's clansmen. Siyaad became preoccupied with daily survival and consolidated his hold on Mogadishu. Clan-based guerrilla opposition groups multiplied rapidly, following the example of the SSDF and SNM. In January 1991, forces of the Hawiye-based United Somali Congress (USC) led a popular uprising that overthrew Siyaad and drove him to seek asylum among his own clansmen. Outside Mogadishu, all the main clans with access to the vast stores of military equipment in the country set up their own spheres of influence. Government in the south had largely disintegrated and existed only at the local level in the SSDF-controlled northeast region. In May 1991 the SNM, having secured control of the former British Somaliland northern region, declared that the 1960 federation was null and void and that henceforth the northern region would be independent and known as the Republic of Somaliland (Somaliland).

In Mogadishu the precipitate appointment of a USC interim government triggered a bitter feud between rival Hawiye clan factions. The forces of the two rival warlords, General Maxamed Farax Caydiid (Muhammad Farah Aydid) of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and Cali Mahdi Maxamed (Ali Mahdi Muhammad) of the Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA), tore the capital apart and battled with Siyaad's regrouped clan militia, the Somali National Front, for control of the southern coast and hinterland. This brought war and devastation to the grain-producing region between the rivers, spreading famine throughout southern Somalia. Attempts to distribute relief food were undermined by systematic looting and rake-offs by militias. In December 1992 the United States led an intervention by a multinational force of more than 35,000 troops, which imposed an uneasy peace on the principal warring clans and pushed supplies into the famine-stricken areas. The military operation provided support for a unique effort at peacemaking by the United Nations.

In January and March 1993, representatives of 15 Somali factions signed peace and disarmament treaties in Addis Ababa, but by June the security situation had deteriorated. American and European forces, suffering an unacceptable number of casualties, were withdrawn by March 1994. The UN force was reduced to military units mainly from less-developed countries, and the clan-based tensions that had precipitated the civil war remained unresolved. The remaining UN troops were evacuated a year later. Over the next few years there were several failed attempts at peace as fighting persisted among the various clans; the SSA and SNA continued to be two of the primary warring factions.

In 1998 another portion of the war-torn country—the SSDF-controlled area in the northeast, identified as Puntland—announced its intentions to self-govern. Unlike the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, Puntland did not claim complete independence from Somalia—it instead sought to remain a part of the country as an autonomous region, with the goal of reuniting the country as a federal republic.

Attempts at peace

During the 1990s more than 10 peace conferences were held to address the warfare in Somalia, but they were largely unsuccessful. A 2000 peace conference held in Djibouti, however, sparked international optimism when it yielded a three-year plan for governing Somalia. A Transitional National Assembly, comprising representatives of the many clans, was established and later that year formed a Transitional National Government (TNG). But the TNG's authority was not widely accepted within the country: the new government faced constant opposition and was never able to rule effectively.

Another series of peace talks began in 2002; these talks, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and based in Kenya, eventually produced a new transitional government. A transitional parliament was inaugurated in 2004, and in October of that year Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed was elected interim president by the parliament for a five-year period. Somalia's new government remained in Kenya, however, as much of Somalia, especially Mogadishu, was unsafe. In 2005 plans were announced to relocate the new government to the Somali towns of Baidoa and Jowhar for safety reasons. In December 2008 Yusuf, who faced growing criticism for his handling of the peace efforts, resigned as president.

Unrelenting violence and warfare, in addition to drought, flooding, and famine, devastated Somalia at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. The situation was further exacerbated in late 2004 when a tsunami (Indian Ocean tsunami) struck the Somali coast, killing several hundred people, displacing many thousands more, and destroying the livelihood of Somalia's fishing communities.

Ioan M. Lewis Ed.

Additional Reading

Geography

Thomas Labahn (ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Somali Studies, 4 vol. (1984), is a good collection of articles on socioeconomic development, politics, national science, and the arts. Economic Transformation in a Socialist Framework (1977), a report compiled by the JASPA Employment Advisory Mission, analyzes the economic changes under the socialist Somali government in the 1970s. Jörg Janzen, “Economic Relations Between Somalia and Saudi Arabia: Livestock Exports, Labor Migration, and the Consequences for Somalia's Development,” Northeast African Studies, 8(2–3):41–51 (1986), analyzes the close economic interrelationship showing Somalia's dependence upon the Saudis. Janzen's “The Somali Inshore Fishing Economy: Structure, Problems, Perspectives,” in Annarita Puglielli (ed.), Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Somali Studies (1988), pp. 551–561, evaluates an important but under-exploited natural resource. Two additional essays by Janzen are in Applied Geography and Development: “Mobile Livestock Keeping: A Survival Strategy for the Countries of the Sahel? The Case of Somalia,” 37:7–20 (1991), and “Dams and Large-Scale Irrigated Cultivation Versus Mobile Livestock Keeping? The Baardheere Dam Project in Southern Somalia and Its Possible Consequences for Mobile Animal Husbandry,” 38:53–65 (1991), a critical evaluation of the planned dam's effects in the Jubba region. Jan M. Haakonsen, Scientific Socialism and Self Reliance (1984), provides a well-informed account of the fishing cooperatives established for drought-afflicted pastoral nomads. Peter Conze and Thomas Labahn (eds.), Somalia: Agriculture in the Winds of Change (1986), contains articles on the modern changes in crop production, pastoralism, and the socioeconomic environment. M.P.O. Baumann, Jörg Janzen, and H.J. Schwartz (eds.), Pastoral Production in Central Somalia (1993), an interdisciplinary selection of articles, gives a profound insight into the structure and problems of Somalia's pastoral production. Garth Massy, Subsistence and Change: Lessons of Agropastoralism in Somalia (1987), explores the interfluvial area. Abdi Ismail Samatar, The State and Rural Transformation in Northern Somalia, 1884–1986 (1989), is an analysis of the changes in rural areas. Volker Matthies, Der Grenzkonflikt Somalias mit Äthiopien und Kenya: Analyse eines zwischenstaatlichen Konflikts in der Dritten Welt (1977), describes in great depth the internal and external geopolitical influences on the Horn of Africa since the 19th century and analyzes in detail Somalia's border conflict with Ethiopia and Kenya.Jörg H.A. Janzen

History

Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600–1900 (1986), focuses on the history and society of southern Somalia. David D. Laitin and Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State (1987), contains a general account of Somalian history, especially since independence in 1960. I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of Somalia: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa, rev., updated, and expanded ed. (1988), is a comprehensive treatment of the political history of affairs in all the Somali territories. Said S. Samatar, Oral Poetry and Somali Nationalism (1982), explains the crucial role of poetry in Somali politics, especially the case of nationalist leader Sayyid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, and his Somalia: A Nation in Turmoil (1991), provides a valuable overview of the factors leading to the collapse of the socialist state into clan-based warfare. Ahmed I. Samatar, Socialist Somalia: Rhetoric and Reality (1988), analyzes the Siyaad regime's socialist policy of self-reliance and its efforts to achieve development.Ioan M. Lewis

词条	Somalia
释义	Somalia Introduction Somali Soomaaliya, Arabic As-Sūmāl, Somalia, flag ofcountry on the Horn of Africa. It occupies an important geopolitical position between sub-Saharan Africa and the countries of Arabia and southwestern Asia. It is bounded on the north by the Gulf of Aden and on the east by the Indian Ocean; from its southern point, its western border is bounded by Kenya and Ethiopia and, to the northwest, by Djibouti. The capital is Mogadishu (in Somali, Muqdisho or Xamar; in the colonial Italian rendering, Mogadiscio). Living in a country of geographic extremes, with a dry and hot climate and a landscape of thornbush savanna and semidesert, the inhabitants of Somalia have developed equally demanding economic survival strategies. The Somali are Muslim, and about half follow a mobile way of life, pursuing nomadic pastoralism (nomadism) or agropastoralism. As a result, the Somali are an egalitarian, freedom-loving people who are suspicious of governmental authority. In colonial times the lands traditionally occupied by the Somali were divided by a new western boundary for Somalia, resulting in large Somali communities in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. This boundary is still in dispute. The Somali Peninsula consists mainly of a tableland of young limestone and sandstone formations. Apart from a mountainous coastal zone in the north and several pronounced river valleys, most of the country is extremely flat, with few natural barriers to restrict the mobility of the nomads and their livestock. The land Relief (Somalia) In the extreme north, along the Gulf of Aden, is a narrow coastal plain called the Guban, which broadens out in the direction of Berbera. This gives way inland to a maritime mountain range with a steep, north-facing scarp. Near Ceerigaabo (Erigavo), a mountain called Surud Cad (Surud Ad) reaches the highest elevation in the country, about 7,900 feet (2,408 metres). To the south are the broad plateaus of the Galgodon (Galgodon Highlands) (or Ogo) Highlands and the Sool and Hawd regions, which drop gradually southward toward the Indian Ocean. In southern Somalia the crystalline bedrock outcrops to the south of Baydhabo (Baidoa) in the shape of granite formations called inselbergs (inselberg). These give way farther south to alluvial plains, which are separated from the coast by a vast belt of ancient dunes stretching more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometres) from south of Kismaayo (Chisimaio) to north of Hobyo (Obbia). Drainage The flatness of the Somalian plateaus is interrupted by several deep valleys. Starting in the northeast, these are the Dharoor and Nugaal (Nogal) valleys (Nugaaleed Valley); both are wadis that, in season, have rivers flowing into the Indian Ocean at Xaafuun and Eyl, respectively. In the southwest are the only permanent rivers in Somalia, the Jubba (Jubba River) (Giuba) and Shabeelle (Shebeli River) (Shebele). Originating in the Ethiopian highlands, these two streams cut deeply into the plateaus before meandering through the alluvial plains toward the coast. Whereas the Jubba flows directly from north of Kismaayo into the Indian Ocean, the Shabeelle veers southwest immediately to the north of Mogadishu and flows into a large swamp before reaching the Jubba. The Jubba carries more water than the Shabeelle, which sometimes dries up in its lower course in years of sparse rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands. During dry seasons, these rivers are a major source of water for people and animals alike. Because over most of the country the water table is deep or the groundwater has a high mineral content, the conservation of surface runoff is of primary importance. Soil The types of soil vary according to climate and parent rock. The arid regions of northeastern Somalia have mainly thin and infertile desert soils. The limestone plateaus of the interfluvial area have fertile, dark gray to brown, calcareous residual soils that provide good conditions for rain-fed agriculture. The most fertile soils are found on the alluvial plains of the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. These deep vertisols (black cotton soils) have a high water-retention capacity and are mainly used for irrigation agriculture. Climate Somalia lies astride the equator and so belongs to the tropics. Unlike typical climates at this latitude, conditions in Somalia range from arid in the northeastern and central regions to semiarid in the northwest and south. The climatic year comprises four seasons. The gu, or main rainy season, lasts from April to June; the second rainy season, called the dayr, extends from October to December. Each is followed by a dry season: the main one (jilaal) from December to March and the second one (xagaa) from June to September. During the second dry season, showers fall in the coastal zone. Long-term mean annual rainfall is less than 4 inches (100 millimetres) in the northeast and approximately 8 to 12 inches in the central plateaus. The southwest and northwest receive an average of 20 to 24 inches a year. While the coastal areas experience hot, humid, and unpleasant weather year-round, the interior is dry and hot. Somalia has some of the highest mean annual temperatures in the world. At Berbera on the northern coast the afternoon high averages more than 100° F (38° C) from June through September. Temperature maxima are even higher inland, but along the coast of the Indian Ocean temperatures are considerably lower because of a cold offshore current. The average afternoon high at Mogadishu, for example, ranges from 83° F (28° C) in July to 90° F (32° C) in April. Plant and animal life In accordance with rainfall distribution, southern and northwestern Somalia have a relatively dense thornbush savanna, with various succulents and species of acacia. By contrast, the high plateaus of northern Somalia have wide, grassy plains, with mainly low formations of thorny shrubs and scattered grass tussocks in the remainder of the region. Northeastern Somalia and large parts of the northern coastal plain, on the other hand, are almost devoid of vegetation. Exceptions to this are the wadi areas and the moist zones of the northern coastal mountains, where the frankincense tree (Boswellia) grows. The myrrh tree (Commiphora) thrives in the border areas of southern and central Somalia. Owing to inappropriate land use, the original vegetation cover, especially in northern Somalia, has been heavily degraded and in various places even entirely destroyed. This progressive destruction of plant life also has impaired animal habitats and reduced forage, affecting not only Somalia's greatest resource, its livestock (chiefly goats, sheep, camels, and cattle), but also the wildlife. At present there are still many species of wild animals throughout the country—especially in the far south: hyenas, foxes, leopards, lions, warthogs, ostriches, small antelopes, and a large variety of birds. Unfortunately, giraffes, zebras, oryx, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and, above all, elephants have been decimated, elephants being slaughtered chiefly by ivory poachers. Measures to protect endangered species have been taken by creating a national park in the lower Shabeelle swamp region. Settlement patterns Roughly half of the Somali population lives permanently in settled communities, the other half being nomadic pastoralists (nomadism) or agropastoralists. The sedentary population chiefly occupies climatically and topographically favourable regions in southern and northwestern Somalia, where rain-fed agriculture is possible and irrigation agriculture can be practiced along the rivers. Their settlements consist of large, clustered villages near the rivers and in the central interfluvial area, as well as small hamlets farther away. The population is also concentrated in the old trading centres on the coast, such as Kismaayo, Baraawe (Brava), Marka (Merca), Mogadishu, Berbera, and Boosaaso (Bosaso). The strong influence from Arabia, Persia, and India has shaped the face of the old coastal town centres, and Italian colonial architecture is visible in Mogadishu. Solid constructions of traditional coral limestone and modern concrete brick clearly distinguish the large coastal settlements from the district and provincial capitals of the interior, where traditional wooden houses with thatched or corrugated-iron roofs predominate. There are two main types of traditional house: the typically African round house (mundul), mainly found in the interior, and the Arab-influenced rectangular house (cariish) with corrugated-steel roof, prevailing in the coastal regions and northern Somalia. Pastoral nomads still live in transportable round huts called aqal. During the dry seasons, the high mobility of these livestock keepers leads to their temporary concentration in the river valleys of southern Somalia and around important water points all over the country. Heavy migration from rural areas into towns has caused enormous urban expansion, especially in Mogadishu. As a result of increased market-oriented and extrapastoral activities, more nomads are tending to adopt a semi-settled way of life and economy. This has led to a great number of permanent nomad settlements, chiefly along the roads and tracks of the country's interior. The people In culture, language, and way of life, the people of Somalia, northeastern Kenya, the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, and the southern part of Djibouti are largely one homogeneous group. Ethnic composition The Somali people are divided into numerous clans, which are groups that trace their common ancestry back to a single father. These clans, which in turn are subdivided into numerous subclans, combine at a higher level to form clan families. The clan families inhabiting the interfluvial area of southern Somalia are the Rahanwayn and the Digil, which together are known as the Sab. Mainly farmers and agropastoralists, the Sab include both original inhabitants and numerous Somali groups that have immigrated into this climatically favourable area. Other clan families are the Daarood of northeastern Somalia, the Ogaden, and the border region between Somalia and Kenya; the Hawiye, chiefly inhabiting the area on both sides of the middle Shabeelle and south-central Somalia; and the Isaaq, who live in the central and western parts of northern Somalia. In addition, there are the Dir, living in the northwestern corner of the country but also dispersed throughout southern Somalia, and the Tunni, occupying the stretch of coast between Marka and Kismaayo. Toward the Kenyan border the narrow coastal strip and offshore islands are inhabited by the Bagiunis, a Swahili fishing people. As well as the Somali, there is a sizable and economically important Bantu (Bantu peoples) population, which is mainly responsible for the profitable irrigation agriculture practiced on the lower and middle reaches of the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. Socially, however, they are regarded as inferior, many of them being descendants of former slaves. The result is a strict social distinction between the “noble” Somali of nomadic descent and the Bantu groups. Another economically significant minority is the several tens of thousands of Arabs (Arab), mainly of Yemenite origin. By the end of the 1980s, the number of Italians permanently residing in Somalia (mainly as banana farmers) had dropped to only a few hundred. Linguistic composition The Somali language belongs to the Cushitic language family. Despite several regional dialects, it is understood throughout the country. The second official language is Arabic, which is spoken chiefly in northern Somalia and in the coastal towns. Owing to Somalia's colonial past, many people have a good command of English and Italian, which also are used in colleges and in the university. Swahili also is spoken in the south. In 1973 Somalia adopted an official orthography based on the Latin alphabet. Until then, Somali had been an unwritten language. Religion Most Somali belong to the Shāfiʿī rite of the Sunnite sect of Islām (Islāmic world). Various Muslim orders (ṭarīqa) are important, especially the Qādirīyah, the Aḥmadīyah, and the Ṣaliḥiyah. Demographic trends The population of Somalia has been increasing annually by more than 3 percent, despite very high infant mortality and an average life expectancy of less than 50 years. A high migration rate into the towns, chiefly by young men, has led to a disproportionately large percentage of old people in most rural areas and to high unemployment in the towns. Also, after the Ogaden conflict of 1977–78, hundreds of thousands (refugee) of Somali from Ethiopia fled to Somalia, and during the ensuing civil war more than one million Somali sought shelter in neighbouring countries. The economy Somalia's economy is based on agriculture; however, the main economic activity is not crop farming but livestock raising. Between 1969 and the early 1980s, the military government imposed a system of “Scientific socialism,” which featured the nationalization of banks, insurance firms, oil companies, and all large industrial firms, the setting up of state-owned enterprises, farms, and trading companies, and the organizing of state-controlled cooperatives. In the end, this experiment weakened the Somalian economy considerably, and since the collapse of the military regime the economy has suffered even more as a result of civil war. Generally speaking, the Somalian economy cannot survive without foreign aid. Resources Somalia has few mineral resources—only some deposits of tin, phosphate, gypsum, guano, coal, iron ore, and uranium—but both quantity and quality are too low for mining to be worthwhile. However, the deposits of the clay mineral sepiolite, or meerschaum, in south-central Somalia are among the largest known reserves in the world. Exploitable oil and natural gas have not yet been found. Sea salt is collected at several sites on the coast. Somalia's most valuable resources are the natural pastures that cover most of the country. Another resource that has scarcely been exploited is the abundant fish life in the coastal waters, still unpolluted by industrial waste. A potential source of hydroelectricity is the Jubba River. Agriculture By far the most important sector of the economy is agriculture, with livestock raising surpassing crop growing fourfold in value and earning about 90 percent of Somalia's foreign exchange. Agriculture in Somalia can be divided into three subsectors. The first is nomadic pastoralism, which is practiced outside the cultivation areas. This sector, which raises goats, sheep, camels, and cattle, has become increasingly market-oriented. The second sector is the traditional, chiefly subsistence, agriculture practiced by small farmers. This traditional sector takes two forms: rain-fed farming in the south and northwest, which raises sorghum, often with considerable livestock; and small irrigated farms along the rivers, which produce corn (maize), sesame, cowpeas, and, near towns, vegetables and fruits. The third sector consists of market-oriented farming on medium- and large-scale irrigated plantations along the lower Jubba and Shabeelle rivers. Here the major crops are bananas, sugarcane, rice, cotton, vegetables, grapefruit, mangoes, papayas, and other fruits. Forestry The acacia species of the thorny savanna in southern Somalia supply good timber and are the major source of charcoal, but charcoal production has long exceeded ecologically acceptable limits. More efficient and careful handling of Boswellia, Commiphora, and other resin-exuding trees could increase yields of aromatic gums. Fishery In the small fishing sector, tunny and mackerel are caught and canned in the north, sharks are often caught and sold dried by artisanal inshore fishers, and, in southern Somalia, choice fish and shellfish are processed for export. Industry In the late 1980s industry was responsible for just under 10 percent of Somalia's gross domestic product. Mogadishu was the chief industrial centre, with bottling plants, factories producing spaghetti, cigarettes, matches, and boats, a petroleum refinery, a small tractor assembly workshop, and small enterprises producing construction materials. In Kismaayo there were a meat-tinning factory, a tannery, and a modern fish factory. There were two sugar refineries, one near Jilib on the lower reach of the Jubba and one at Jawhar (Giohar) on the middle reach of the Shabeelle. Even before the destruction caused by Somalia's civil wars of the 1980s and '90s, the productivity of Somalian factories was very low. Often entire works did not operate at full capacity or produced nothing at all over long periods. The few existing power stations, located at Mogadishu, Hargeysa (Hargeisa), and Kismaayo, were often out of order, resulting in frequent power cuts with adverse effects on factory production. (Rural areas have no power plants at all.) A significant portion of commodities necessary for daily life is produced by small workshops in the informal sector. Finance The three principal banks, which are nationalized, are the Central Bank of Somalia, the Commercial and Savings Bank of Somalia, and the Somali Development Bank, which mainly provides loans for development projects. The currency, the Somali shilling, has been depreciating for years, and a shortage of hard currency greatly impedes the country's economic development. Trade Somalia has a large trade deficit. Its chief export commodities are livestock (to Arab countries, mainly Saudi Arabia) and bananas (to Italy and Arab countries). Other, much less important exports are hides and skins, fish, and frankincense and myrrh. Almost everything is imported, even food for an urban population no longer accustomed to the traditional diet. Besides the official market, there is also a flourishing black market, by means of which tens of thousands of Somali workers in Arab countries provide commodities missing on the Somali market while avoiding the duties levied on imports. Since wages in Somalia are very low, almost every family is directly or indirectly involved in informal trading. Transportation Inadequate transport facilities are a considerable impediment to Somalia's economic development. There are no railways. Only about 1,800 miles of paved roads are passable year-round, and in the rainy seasons most rural settlements are not accessible by motor vehicle. Buses, trucks, and minibuses are the main means of transport for the population. In rural areas camels, cattle, and donkeys are still used for personal transportation and as pack animals. During peacetime, the state-owned Somali Airlines operated on national routes as well as on international routes to Kenya, Arabia, and Europe. Mogadishu, Berbera, and Kismaayo all have airports with long runways. These three cities also have deep-water harbours, but dangerous coral reefs keep coastal traffic to a minimum. Administration and social conditions Government In 1960 Somalia became independent as a Western-style parliamentary democracy. A military coup in 1969, led by Major General Maxamed Siyaad Barre, inaugurated a phase of “Scientific socialism” that acknowledged one legal political party, the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party, and various socialist-style mass organizations. Under the 1979 constitution the president and his supporters held the important positions of power, and a People's Assembly had no real power. The legal system was based largely on Islamic law, an independent judiciary did not exist, and human rights were frequently violated. After years of destructive civil war waged by clan-based guerrillas, Siyaad's government fell in January 1991. Later that year a de facto government declared the formation of an independent Republic of Somaliland in the northeast; similarly, in 1998 the autonomous region of Puntland was self-proclaimed in the northeast. Meanwhile, the fragmented, conflict-riven south lay largely in the hands of various clan-based militia groups at war with each other. Since Siyaad's fall from power, various attempts have been made to end the conflict and form a new government. Education Somalia's education system was in shambles after the government was overthrown in 1991. Some private schools have managed to function since then, as have some schools in the Republic of Somaliland and Puntland. Some Islamic schools are also operational, but traditionally these Qurʾānic schools are responsible for the religious education of children according to Islamic law and do not provide secular education. Prior to the country's civil war and the resulting anarchy, the state educational system had been somewhat successful despite considerable shortcomings. Enrollment in primary and secondary schools had multiplied, and the proportion of girls attending school also had risen—at least in towns. A lack of buildings, furniture, equipment, teaching materials, and teachers, together with the frequent unwillingness of rural people to allow children to attend school instead of working, all prevented a rapid improvement of schooling in rural areas. Options for higher education included agricultural secondary schools, a polytechnic school, a vocational training centre, a teacher-training centre, an agricultural college, and the National University. Most of these institutions, located in and around Mogadishu, were unable to consistently maintain operations because of warfare. Health and welfare Many years of conflict, severe drought, and famine have left Somalia in a state of crisis. Hundreds of thousands of Somali have been displaced by warfare. Chronic food shortages have led to high rates of malnutrition in many parts of the country. Much of Somalia is without adequate water supplies or sanitation. Cholera, measles, tuberculosis, and malaria are widespread. The absence of health or welfare infrastructure in the country—largely destroyed after years of conflict—has left international relief organizations struggling to provide essential services normally offered by the government. However, their efforts are hindered by continuing violence, and most Somali have little or no access to health care. Conditions in the Republic of Somaliland and Puntland are somewhat better than in the rest of the country but still fall short of ideal. Because of the overall level of stability enjoyed by the two self-governing regions, they have been able to rebuild much of their health care infrastructure. Cultural life The varied cultural life of the Somali includes both traditional activities and, especially in the towns, many modern interests. Daily life Cultural activities primarily consist of poetry, folk dancing, the performance of plays, and singing. These traditional activities still retain their importance, especially in rural areas, and are practiced not only at family and religious celebrations but also at state ceremonies. On such occasions traditional local costume is generally worn. Especially in the towns, traditional culture is rapidly being superseded by imported modern influences, such as television and videotapes, cinema, and bars and restaurants. Urban Somalian cooking has been strongly influenced by Italian cuisine, and young townspeople are much influenced by Western fashion in the way they dress. Football (soccer) is a very popular sport. The arts There are many famous Somali artists, poets, musicians, actors, and dancers, some of whom live in exile. Nuruddin Farah (Farah, Nuruddin), whose novels are written in English, has achieved international fame. (For Farah's thoughts about his country at the turn of the new millennium, see Sidebar: Somalia at the Turn of the 21st Century.) Cultural institutions in Mogadishu are the National Museum, the new Historical Museum, and the National Theatre. The Somali Academy of Sciences and Arts promotes research on Somalia. Press and broadcasting Press, radio, and television are all controlled and censored by the state. Books in general are hard to obtain, and the printing quality of the few books available in Somali is very poor. Jörg H.A. Janzen History Exploration Early activity on the coasts From their connection with the Ethiopian hinterland, their proximity to Arabia, and their export of precious gums, ostrich feathers, ghee (clarified butter), and other animal products as well as slaves from farther inland, the northern and eastern Somali coasts have for centuries been open to the outside world. This area probably formed part of Punt, “the land of aromatics and incense,” mentioned in ancient Egyptian writings. Between the 7th and 10th centuries, immigrant Muslim Arabs and Persians developed a series of trading posts along the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean coasts. Many of the early Arab geographers mentioned these trading posts and the sultanates that grew out of them, but they rarely described the interior of the country in detail. Intensive exploration really began only after the occupation of Aden by the British in 1839 and the ensuing scramble for Somali possessions by Britain, France, and Italy (see below The imperial partition (Somalia)). In 1854, while Richard Burton (Burton, Sir Richard) was exploring the country to the northwest in the course of his famous journey from Berbera to Harer, his colleague John Hanning Speke (Speke, John Hanning) was making his way along the Makhir coast in the northeast. This region had previously been visited by Charles Guillain, captain of the brig Ducouedid, between 1846 and 1848. Guillain also sailed down the Indian Ocean coast and went ashore at Mogadishu, Marka, and Baraawe, penetrating some distance inland and collecting valuable geographic and ethnographic information. In 1865 the German explorer Karl Klaus von der Decken (Decken, Karl Klaus von der) sailed up the Jubba River as far as Baardheere in the small steamship Welf, which foundered in rapids above the town. Decken was killed by Somali, but much valuable information collected by his expedition survived. Penetration of the interior In 1883 a party of Englishmen (F.L. and W.D. James, G.P.V. Aylmer, and E. Lort-Phillips) penetrated from Berbera as far as the Shabeelle, and between 1886 and 1892 H.G.C. and E.J.E. Swayne surveyed the country between the coast and the Shabeelle and also reached farther east toward the Nugaal valley. During 1894–95 A. Donaldson-Smith explored the headwaters of the Shabeelle in Ethiopia, reached Lake Rudolf, and eventually descended the Tana River to the Kenyan coast. In 1891 the Italian Luigi Robecchi-Bricchetti (Robecchi-Bricchetti, Luigi) trekked from Mogadishu to Hobyo and then crossed the Ogaden to Berbera. About the same time, further explorations were made by another Italian, Captain Vittorio Bottego. In the 20th century several extensive surveys were made, especially in the British protectorate, by J.A. Hunt between 1944 and 1950, and much of the country was mapped by aerial survey. Before partition Peoples of the coasts and hinterland Until recent times the history of the Horn of Africa was dominated by two great themes: the southward expansion of the Somali from the Gulf of Aden littoral and the development by Arab and Persian Muslim settlers of a ring of coastal trading towns dating from at least the 10th century AD. By this time Islam was firmly established in the northern ports of Seylac (Zeila) and Berbera and at Marka, Baraawe, and Mogadishu on the Indian Ocean coast in the south. These centres were engaged in a lively trade, with connections as far afield as China. Initially the trend of pressure was from these coastal centres inland, especially in the north. Probably by the 10th century the country from the Gulf of Aden coast inland was occupied first by Somali nomads and then, to their south and west, by various groups of pastoral Oromo who apparently had expanded from their traditional homelands in southwestern Ethiopia. To the south of these Cushitic-speaking Somali and Oromo—the “Berberi” of Classical times and of the Arab geographers—the fertile lands between the Shabeelle and Jubba rivers were occupied, partly at least, by sedentary Bantu tribes of the Nyika confederacy, whose ancient capital was Shungwaya. Remnants of these Zanj, as they were known to the Arab geographers, still survive in this region, but their strongest contemporary representatives are found among the coastal Bantu, of whom the Pokomo live along the Tana River in northern Kenya. Another smaller allied population consisted of the ancestors of the scattered bands of hunters of northern Kenya and southern Somalia known as Wa-Ribi, or Wa-Boni, a people whose appearance and mode of existence recall those of the San of other areas of Africa. The great Somali migrations With this distribution of peoples in the 10th century, the stage was set for the great movements of expansion of the Somali toward the south and of the Oromo to the south and west. The first known major impetus to Somali migration was that of Sheikh Ismāʿīl Jabartī, ancestor of the Daarood Somali, who apparently came from Arabia to settle in the northeastern corner of the Somali Peninsula in the 11th century. This was followed, perhaps two centuries later, by the settlement of Sheikh Isaq, founder of the Isaaq Somali. As the Daarood and Isaaq clans (clan) grew in numbers and territory in the northeast, they began to vie with their Oromo neighbours, thus creating a general thrust toward the southwest. By the 16th century the movements that followed seem to have established much of the present distribution of Somali clans in northern Somalia. Other Somali pressed farther south, and some, according to the Arab geographer Ibn Saʿīd, had already reached the region of Marka by as early as the 13th century. In the meantime, farther to the west, a ring of militant Muslim sultanates had grown up around the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, and the two sides were engaged in a protracted struggle for supremacy. Somali clansmen regularly formed part of the Muslim armies: the name Somali first occurs in an Ethiopian song of victory early in the 15th century. In the 16th century the Muslim state of Adal, whose port was Seylac, assumed the lead in the holy wars against the Christian Amhara. The turning point in the struggle between Christians and Muslims was reached with the Ethiopian victory in 1542, with Portuguese support, over the remarkable Muslim leader Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ghāzī (Aḥmad Grāñ), known to the Ethiopians as Aḥmad GrāŃ (Aḥmad Grāñ). With his Somali armies, Aḥmad had harried Ethiopia almost to the point of collapse. This victory, which saved Ethiopia, also closed the door to Somali expansion westward and increased the pressure of the Somali and Oromo thrust southward. With this stimulus the main mass of the Oromo swept into Ethiopia from the south and southwest and streamed in conquering hordes as far north as the ancient city of Harer, which was laid to waste in 1567. This massive invasion left something of a political vacuum in the south of the Horn, which new Somali settlers were quick to fill. By the 17th century the influx of new migrants, competing and jostling with each other, had become considerable. The old Ajuran Somali sultanate, linked with the port of Mogadishu, was overthrown and Mogadishu itself invaded and split into two rival quarters. Some of the earlier Somali groups found refuge in northern Kenya. The continuing Somali thrust south—largely at the expense of Oromo and Zanj predecessors—was ultimately only effectively halted at the Tana River by the establishment of administrative posts about 1912. Somali clans and foreign traders Thus, by the latter part of the 19th century, the coastal and hinterland traditions had merged, and the centre of pressure had swung from the coast to the interior. In the north the ancient ports of Berbera and Seylac, much reduced in prosperity and importance, were now controlled by Somali nomads, and the position of the old ports of Marka, Baraawe, and Mogadishu was very similar. These towns had all been penetrated by various Somali clans, and the dominant political influence became that exercised by the Geledi clan ruling the lower reaches of the Shabeelle. Commercial and political links that provided an opening for European infiltration had, however, also been forged between these two coasts and the outside world. Part of the northern Somali coast, including Seylac, was then nominally under Turkish suzerainty, the Turkish claim going back to the 16th century, when Turkish forces had aided Aḥmad Grāñ in his campaigns against Ethiopia. The southern coastal towns, on the other hand, acknowledged the overlordship of the sultan of Zanzibar, although the latter's authority was slight in comparison with that exercised locally by the Geledi Somali. The imperial partition Competition among the European powers and Ethiopia About the middle of the 19th century the Somali Peninsula became a theatre of competition between Great Britain (British Empire), Italy, and France. On the African continent itself Egypt also was involved, and later Ethiopia, expanding and consolidating its realm under the guiding genius of the emperors Tewodros II, Yohannes IV, and Menilek II. Britain's interest in the northern Somali coast followed the establishment in 1839 of the British coaling station at Aden on the short route to India. The Aden garrison relied upon the importation of meat from the adjacent Somali coast. France sought its own coaling station and obtained Obock on the Afar coast in 1862, later thrusting eastward and developing the Somali port of Djibouti. Farther north, Italy opened a station in 1869 at Aseb, which, with later acquisitions, became the colony of Eritrea. Stimulated by these European maneuvers, Egypt revived Turkey's ancient claims to the Red Sea coast. In 1870 the Egyptian flag was raised at Bullaxaar (Bulhar) and Berbera. Britain at first protested these Egyptian moves but by 1877 had come to regard the Egyptian occupation as a convenient bulwark against the encroachments of European rivals. With the disorganization caused by the revolt in the Sudan, however, Egypt was obliged to curtail its colonial responsibilities, evacuating Harer and its Somali possessions in 1885. In these circumstances the British government reluctantly decided to fill the gap left by Egypt. Between 1884 and 1886, accordingly, treaties of protection were drawn up with the main northern Somali clans guaranteeing them their “independence.” Somali territory was not fully ceded to Britain, but a British (British Somaliland) protectorate was proclaimed and vice-consuls appointed to maintain order and control trade at Seylac, Berbera, and Bullaxaar. The interior of the country was left undisturbed, only the coast being affected. Meanwhile, France had been assiduously extending its colony from Obock, and a clash with Britain was only narrowly averted when an Anglo-French agreement on the boundaries of the two powers' Somali possessions was signed in 1888. In the same period, the Italians were also actively extending their Eritrean colony and encroaching upon Ethiopian territory. Not to be outdone, Menilek took the opportunity of seizing the Muslim city of Harer, left independent after the Egyptian withdrawal. In 1889 Ethiopia and Italy concluded the Treaty of Wichale (Wichale, Treaty of), which in the Italian view established an Italian protectorate over Ethiopia. Arms and capital were poured into the country, and Menilek was able to apply these new resources to bring pressure to bear on the Somali clansmen around Harer. In 1889 Italy also acquired two protectorates in the northeastern corner of Somalia; and by the end of the year the southern part of the Somali coast leased by the British East Africa Company from the sultan of Zanzibar was sublet to an Italian company. Italy had thus acquired a Somali colony. From 1892 the lease was held directly from Zanzibar for an annual rent of 160,000 rupees, and, after the failure of two Italian companies by 1905, the Italian government assumed direct responsibility for its colony of Italian Somaliland. To the south of the Jubba River the British East Africa Company held Jubaland until 1895, when this became part of Britain's East Africa protectorate. Britain and Italy had reached agreement in 1884 on the extent of their respective Somali territories, but the Battle of Adwa (Adwa, Battle of) (1896), at which the infiltrating Italian armies were crushed by Ethiopian forces, radically changed the position. Ethiopia, then independent of Italy, was plainly master of the hinterland, and in 1896–97 Italy, France, and Britain all signed treaties with Emperor Menilek, curtailing their Somali possessions. Italy gave up the Somali Ogaden, and Britain excised much of the western Hawd from its protectorate. Although the land and the Somali clansmen (who were not consulted), so abandoned, were not recognized as belonging to Ethiopia, there was nothing then to stop their gradual acquisition by Ethiopia. Revolt in British Somaliland These arrangements had scarcely been completed when the British Somaliland protectorate administration found its modest rule threatened by a religious rebellion led by Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan (Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid) (in Arabic, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ḥasan (Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, Sayyid)). This Somali sheikh (known to the British as the Mad Mullah) of the Ogaadeen clan, living with his mother's people in the east of the protectorate, was an adherent of the Ṣaliḥiyyah religious order, whose reformist message he preached with messianic zeal. He quickly achieved wide recognition for his learning, piety, and skill as a mediator and initially cooperated with the authorities. In 1899, however, Sheikh Maxamed came into conflict with the recently established Christian mission and also was involved in a petty dispute with the administration. With the current European and Ethiopian encroachment and with the example of the Sudanese mahdi (in Islamic eschatology, a messianic deliverer), these two incidents provided the seeds that rapidly developed into a major Somali insurrection. Maxamed did not appropriate the title of mahdi but assumed the title of sayyid (a descendant of the Prophet), and his followers were known as the dervishes (dervish). He displayed great skill in employing all the traditional tactics of Somali clan politics in building up his following, strengthening these with the call to national Muslim solidarity against the infidel colonizers. Arms and ammunition, denied to Somali in the past, became easily available through the ports of Djibouti and the northeastern coast, and the dervishes, although opposed by many Somali, who were branded as traitors to Islam, successfully weathered four major British, Italian, and Ethiopian campaigns between 1900 and 1904. The cumbersome British armies, hampered by their supply and water requirements, found the dervish guerrilla tactics hard to combat effectively, and, when in 1910 the British government decided to abandon its inconclusive, extremely expensive operations and withdrew to the coast, leaving chaos in the interior, Sayyid Maxamed seemed to have gained the day. A new policy was subsequently adopted, however, and, with the aid of an increasingly effective camel constabulary (whose founder, Richard Corfield, was killed at the Battle of Dulmadoobe in 1913), the dervishes were kept at bay until 1920, when a combined air, sea, and land operation finally routed them. The formidable dervish stronghold at Taleex, or Taleh, was bombed, but the sayyid escaped, as so often before, only to die of influenza a few months later while desperately seeking to rally his scattered followers. Italian Somaliland After 1920, administrative control (under the colonial office since 1905) was gradually restored in the protectorate. In Italian Somaliland, where the Italians had been gradually extending their hold on the country, the sayyid's rebellion had caused less disruption, and the appointment in 1923 of the first fascist governor marked a new active phase in the life of the colony. Two years later Britain ceded Jubaland with the port of Kismaayo, and in 1926, after a bitter military campaign, the two northern Italian protectorates were firmly incorporated. Italian settlement was encouraged, and fruit plantations were developed along the Shabeelle and Jubba valleys. Although agreements of 1897 and 1908 had defined the border with Ethiopia, this had not been demarcated, except for a stretch of about 18 miles delimited in 1910, and remained in dispute, thus facilitating the gradual Italian infiltration into Ethiopia. In late 1934 the celebrated Welwel incident, in which an Ethiopian patrol clashed with an Italian garrison, occurred at the Welwel oasis in the eastern part of the Ogaden claimed by both Italy and Ethiopia. The Italian conquest of Ethiopia that followed in 1935–36 (see Italo-Ethiopian War) brought the Ethiopian and Italian Somali territories together within the framework of Italy's short-lived East African empire. Italian Somaliland became the province of Somalia. The Somali Republic Independence and union During World War II the British protectorate was evacuated (1940) but was recaptured with Italian Somalia in 1941, when Ethiopia also was liberated. With the exception of French Somaliland, all the Somali territories were then united under British military administration. In 1948 the protectorate reverted to the Colonial Office; the Ogaden and the Hawd were gradually surrendered to Ethiopia; and in 1950 the Italians returned to southern Somalia with 10 years to prepare the country for independence under a United Nations trusteeship. Taking advantage of the modest progress that the British military administration had effected, the Italians rapidly pursued social and political advancement, although economic development proved much more difficult. The British protectorate, in the event, became independent on June 26, 1960. On July 1, Italian Somalia followed suit, and the two territories joined as the Somali Republic. The politics of the new republic were conditioned by clan allegiances, but the first major problems arose from the last-minute marriage between the former Italian trust territory and the former British protectorate. Urgent improvements in communication between the two areas were necessary, as were readjustments in their legal and judicial systems. The first independent government was formed by a coalition of the southern-based Somali Youth League (SYL) and the northern-based Somali National League (SNL). Pan-Somalism While modest developments were pursued internally with the help of mainly Western aid, foreign policy was dominated by the Somali unification issue and by the campaign for self-determination of adjoining Somali communities in the Ogaden, French Somaliland, and northern Kenya. The Somalian government strongly supported the Kenyan Somali community's aim of self-determination (and union with Somalia); when this failed in the spring of 1963, after a commission of inquiry endorsed Somali aspirations, Somalia broke off diplomatic relations with Britain, and a Somali guerrilla war broke out in northern Kenya, paralyzing the region until 1967. By the end of 1963 a Somali uprising in the Ogaden led to a brief confrontation between Ethiopian and Somalian forces. Since the United States and the West provided military support to Ethiopia and Kenya, Somalia turned to the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) for military aid. Nevertheless, the republic maintained a generally neutral but pro-Western stance, and, indeed, a new government formed in June 1967 under the premiership of Maxamed Xaaji Ibrahiim Cigaal (Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal) embarked on a policy of détente with Kenya and Ethiopia, muting the Pan-Somali campaign. The era of “Scientific Socialism” In March 1969 more than 1,000 candidates representing 64 parties (mostly clan-based) contested the 123 seats in the National Assembly. After these chaotic elections, all the deputies (with one exception) joined the SYL, which became increasingly authoritarian. The assassination of President Cabdirashiid Cali Shermaʾarke (Abdirashid Ali Shermarke) on October 15, 1969, provoked a government crisis, of which the military took advantage to stage a coup on October 21. The overthrow of Cigaal brought to power as head of state and president of a new Supreme Revolutionary Council the commander of the army, Major General Maxamed Siyaad Barre (Muhammed Siad Barre). At first the new regime concentrated on consolidating its power internally. Siyaad quickly adopted “Scientific Socialism (socialism),” which, he claimed, was fully compatible with his countrymen's traditional devotion to Islam. Leading a predominantly military administration, Siyaad declared a campaign to liberate the country from poverty, disease, and ignorance. The president was soon hailed as the “Father” of the people (their “Mother” was the “Revolution,” as the coup was titled). Relations with socialist countries (especially the Soviet Union and China) were so greatly strengthened at the expense of Western connections that, at the height of Soviet influence, slogans proclaiming a trinity of “Comrade Marx, Comrade Lenin, and Comrade Siyaad” decorated official Orientation Centres throughout the land. Siyaad's authoritarian rule was reinforced by a national network of vigilantes called Victory Pioneers, by a National Security Service headed by his son-in-law, and by National Security Courts notorious for ruthless sentencing. Rural society was integrated into this totalitarian structure through regional committees on which clan elders (now renamed “peace-seekers”) were placed under the authority of a chairman, who was invariably an official of the state apparatus. Clan loyalties were officially outlawed, and clan-inspired behaviour became a criminal offense. Of the government's many crash programs designed to transform society, the most successful were mass literacy campaigns in 1973 and 1974, which made Somali a written language (in Latin characters) for the first time. After 1974 Siyaad turned his attention to external affairs. Somalia joined the Arab League, gaining much-needed petrodollar aid and access to political support from those Persian Gulf states to which Somali labour and livestock were exported at a growing rate. Following Haile Selassie's overthrow in September 1974, Ethiopia began to fall apart, and guerrilla fighters of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF) in the Ogaden pressed Siyaad (whose mother was an Ogaadeen) for support. When in June 1977 France granted independence to Djibouti (under a Somali president), the WSLF, backed by Somalia, immediately launched a series of fierce attacks on Ethiopian garrisons. By September 1977 Somalia had largely conquered the Ogaden region and the war was at the gates of Harer. Then the Soviet Union turned to fill the superpower vacuum left in Ethiopia by the gradual withdrawal of the United States. In the spring of 1978, with the support of Soviet equipment and Cuban soldiers, Ethiopia reconquered the Ogaden, and hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees (refugee) poured into Somalia. Ioan M. Lewis Civil war Somalia's defeat in the Ogaden War strained the stability of the Siyaad regime as the country faced a surge of clan pressures. An abortive military coup in April 1978 paved the way for the formation of two opposition groups: the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF), drawing its main support from the Majeerteen clan of the Mudug region in central Somalia, and the Somali National Movement (SNM), based on the Isaaq clan of the northern regions. Formed in 1982, both organizations undertook guerrilla operations from bases in Ethiopia. These pressures, in addition to pressure from Somalia's Western backers, encouraged Siyaad to improve relations with Kenya and Ethiopia. But a peace accord (1988) signed with the Ethiopian leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam, obliging each side to cease supporting Somali antigovernment guerrillas, had the ironic effect of precipitating civil war in Somalia. Threatened with the closure of their bases in Ethiopia, the SNM attacked government forces in their home region, provoking a bitter conflict that left ghost towns in the hands of government forces. Ogaadeen Somali, who had been progressively absorbed into the army and militia, felt betrayed by the peace agreement with Ethiopia and began to desert, attacking Siyaad's clansmen. Siyaad became preoccupied with daily survival and consolidated his hold on Mogadishu. Clan-based guerrilla opposition groups multiplied rapidly, following the example of the SSDF and SNM. In January 1991, forces of the Hawiye-based United Somali Congress (USC) led a popular uprising that overthrew Siyaad and drove him to seek asylum among his own clansmen. Outside Mogadishu, all the main clans with access to the vast stores of military equipment in the country set up their own spheres of influence. Government in the south had largely disintegrated and existed only at the local level in the SSDF-controlled northeast region. In May 1991 the SNM, having secured control of the former British Somaliland northern region, declared that the 1960 federation was null and void and that henceforth the northern region would be independent and known as the Republic of Somaliland (Somaliland). In Mogadishu the precipitate appointment of a USC interim government triggered a bitter feud between rival Hawiye clan factions. The forces of the two rival warlords, General Maxamed Farax Caydiid (Muhammad Farah Aydid) of the Somali National Alliance (SNA) and Cali Mahdi Maxamed (Ali Mahdi Muhammad) of the Somali Salvation Alliance (SSA), tore the capital apart and battled with Siyaad's regrouped clan militia, the Somali National Front, for control of the southern coast and hinterland. This brought war and devastation to the grain-producing region between the rivers, spreading famine throughout southern Somalia. Attempts to distribute relief food were undermined by systematic looting and rake-offs by militias. In December 1992 the United States led an intervention by a multinational force of more than 35,000 troops, which imposed an uneasy peace on the principal warring clans and pushed supplies into the famine-stricken areas. The military operation provided support for a unique effort at peacemaking by the United Nations. In January and March 1993, representatives of 15 Somali factions signed peace and disarmament treaties in Addis Ababa, but by June the security situation had deteriorated. American and European forces, suffering an unacceptable number of casualties, were withdrawn by March 1994. The UN force was reduced to military units mainly from less-developed countries, and the clan-based tensions that had precipitated the civil war remained unresolved. The remaining UN troops were evacuated a year later. Over the next few years there were several failed attempts at peace as fighting persisted among the various clans; the SSA and SNA continued to be two of the primary warring factions. In 1998 another portion of the war-torn country—the SSDF-controlled area in the northeast, identified as Puntland—announced its intentions to self-govern. Unlike the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, Puntland did not claim complete independence from Somalia—it instead sought to remain a part of the country as an autonomous region, with the goal of reuniting the country as a federal republic. Attempts at peace During the 1990s more than 10 peace conferences were held to address the warfare in Somalia, but they were largely unsuccessful. A 2000 peace conference held in Djibouti, however, sparked international optimism when it yielded a three-year plan for governing Somalia. A Transitional National Assembly, comprising representatives of the many clans, was established and later that year formed a Transitional National Government (TNG). But the TNG's authority was not widely accepted within the country: the new government faced constant opposition and was never able to rule effectively. Another series of peace talks began in 2002; these talks, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and based in Kenya, eventually produced a new transitional government. A transitional parliament was inaugurated in 2004, and in October of that year Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed was elected interim president by the parliament for a five-year period. Somalia's new government remained in Kenya, however, as much of Somalia, especially Mogadishu, was unsafe. In 2005 plans were announced to relocate the new government to the Somali towns of Baidoa and Jowhar for safety reasons. In December 2008 Yusuf, who faced growing criticism for his handling of the peace efforts, resigned as president. Unrelenting violence and warfare, in addition to drought, flooding, and famine, devastated Somalia at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. The situation was further exacerbated in late 2004 when a tsunami (Indian Ocean tsunami) struck the Somali coast, killing several hundred people, displacing many thousands more, and destroying the livelihood of Somalia's fishing communities. Ioan M. Lewis Ed. Additional Reading Geography Thomas Labahn (ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Somali Studies, 4 vol. (1984), is a good collection of articles on socioeconomic development, politics, national science, and the arts. Economic Transformation in a Socialist Framework (1977), a report compiled by the JASPA Employment Advisory Mission, analyzes the economic changes under the socialist Somali government in the 1970s. Jörg Janzen, “Economic Relations Between Somalia and Saudi Arabia: Livestock Exports, Labor Migration, and the Consequences for Somalia's Development,” Northeast African Studies, 8(2–3):41–51 (1986), analyzes the close economic interrelationship showing Somalia's dependence upon the Saudis. Janzen's “The Somali Inshore Fishing Economy: Structure, Problems, Perspectives,” in Annarita Puglielli (ed.), Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Somali Studies (1988), pp. 551–561, evaluates an important but under-exploited natural resource. Two additional essays by Janzen are in Applied Geography and Development: “Mobile Livestock Keeping: A Survival Strategy for the Countries of the Sahel? The Case of Somalia,” 37:7–20 (1991), and “Dams and Large-Scale Irrigated Cultivation Versus Mobile Livestock Keeping? The Baardheere Dam Project in Southern Somalia and Its Possible Consequences for Mobile Animal Husbandry,” 38:53–65 (1991), a critical evaluation of the planned dam's effects in the Jubba region. Jan M. Haakonsen, Scientific Socialism and Self Reliance (1984), provides a well-informed account of the fishing cooperatives established for drought-afflicted pastoral nomads. Peter Conze and Thomas Labahn (eds.), Somalia: Agriculture in the Winds of Change (1986), contains articles on the modern changes in crop production, pastoralism, and the socioeconomic environment. M.P.O. Baumann, Jörg Janzen, and H.J. Schwartz (eds.), Pastoral Production in Central Somalia (1993), an interdisciplinary selection of articles, gives a profound insight into the structure and problems of Somalia's pastoral production. Garth Massy, Subsistence and Change: Lessons of Agropastoralism in Somalia (1987), explores the interfluvial area. Abdi Ismail Samatar, The State and Rural Transformation in Northern Somalia, 1884–1986 (1989), is an analysis of the changes in rural areas. Volker Matthies, Der Grenzkonflikt Somalias mit Äthiopien und Kenya: Analyse eines zwischenstaatlichen Konflikts in der Dritten Welt (1977), describes in great depth the internal and external geopolitical influences on the Horn of Africa since the 19th century and analyzes in detail Somalia's border conflict with Ethiopia and Kenya.Jörg H.A. Janzen History Lee V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600–1900 (1986), focuses on the history and society of southern Somalia. David D. Laitin and Said S. Samatar, Somalia: Nation in Search of a State (1987), contains a general account of Somalian history, especially since independence in 1960. I.M. Lewis, A Modern History of Somalia: Nation and State in the Horn of Africa, rev., updated, and expanded ed. (1988), is a comprehensive treatment of the political history of affairs in all the Somali territories. Said S. Samatar, Oral Poetry and Somali Nationalism (1982), explains the crucial role of poetry in Somali politics, especially the case of nationalist leader Sayyid Maxamed Cabdulle Xasan, and his Somalia: A Nation in Turmoil (1991), provides a valuable overview of the factors leading to the collapse of the socialist state into clan-based warfare. Ahmed I. Samatar, Socialist Somalia: Rhetoric and Reality (1988), analyzes the Siyaad regime's socialist policy of self-reliance and its efforts to achieve development.Ioan M. Lewis
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