Siad Barre in the midst of members of the October Revolution movement. Photo/NMG ARCHIVE
By ABDULKADIR KHALIF in Mogadishu
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Just five days before Italian Somalia got her independence, the British Somalia covering, more or less what is today’s Somaliland and Puntland, was already on her fifth day as a republic. The two administrations in Hargeisa and Mogadishu planned to merge on July 1, 1960 to form what was to be the Republic of Somalia. The whole country was in joyous mood; it was a big moment for all of us, despite our little knowledge of what the celebrations meant for the country’s future and us.
My mother served dinner early on the eve of independence celebrations before taking us to the town square in my home-township Beledweyne, 335 km north of Mogadishu.
At the square, hundreds of school children dressed in blue and white uniforms, anxiously waited for the big announcement, holding what looked like wheels. Dances from all sorts of places throughout Somaliland, schools choirs, skits and music painted the scene; this was a moment of raw excitement.
When midnight struck, the crowd burst into joyous ululations, song and dance. To crown the ceremony were three district administrative policemen with a Somalia flag, neatly folded. Also on standby for the national moment of glory were three army officers in starched khaki uniforms, who followed closely, holding trumpets ready to blow to the country’s independence.
As the fresh national anthem went alive, the Italian and UN flags were symbolically lowered; Somalia’s blue colour flag with five-pointed white stars went full mast. The cheers, the chants and the jubilations were joined by frenzy fireworks that hit the sky.
It was a moment never experienced before, for a country that had wound through years of Italian colony until 1941 when the British defeated Italy in the Horn of Africa at the height of the Second World War. The British stayed on for nine years before the territory was granted a UN Trusteeship under Italy for 10 years.
During the trusteeship, Somalia experimented democratic ways. A territorial Council, a local type of parliament, was established in Mogadishu in 1954 with 90 members acting as legislators. The man who was later to become the country’s first president, Aden Abdulle Osman alias Aden Adde, chaired the council.
It was during the trusteeship period that an interim government was established with five ministers and a prime minister to lead Somalia to independence.
One of the milestones of independent Somalia was the 1961 constitutional referendum
When it became law, the constitution spelt out the process of picking a president, among other issues.
Through the constitution, Somalia had two general elections, two presidential elections and three prime ministers in just nine years; a remarkable achievement.
Growth of democracy was symbolised by the smooth transition of the presidency in 1967 when Mr Aden Adde lost the top post to his challenger, Mr Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.
With eight regions, a national assembly, a government made of just over 10 ministers and a presidency at Villa Somalia in Mogadishu, the country had a truly manageable establishment. All checks and balances were in place.
But the orderly pattern was to be upset on October 15, 1969 right in front of my eyes. A group of army officers staged a coup d'état; rolling army tanks through the city centre and strategic places. Elected leaders, including the hitherto prime minister, Mr Mohamed Ibrahim Egal and Mr Adde, were kicked out of leadership and forced into a camp in Afgoye town, 30 km north of Mogadishu.
This was five days after President Sharmarke had been assassinated. And instead of grieving with the rest of the nation, some army officers took over power.
The Supreme Revolutionary Council that was immediately established to run the country undemocratically, quickly abolished the constitution.
I was in junior high school when this eventful turn in Somalia history unfolded.
Some historians believe that there were other groups in the army that were planning to overthrow the civilian government, but its the group led by General Mohamed Siad Barre that moved fastest. That was perhaps the reason that the junta faced a number of coup attempts later.
A series of decrees were promulgated by the Supreme Revolutionary Council in Somalia that eroded the civil liberties as we watched helplessly.
“The nation was split. One was either Kacaan (revolutionary) or Kacaan-deed (reactionary), the latter deserving punishment from longer term jail to facing firing squads,” Ali Omar Dhubow, a resident in Mogadishu with political insight recalls.
Police were stripped of their powers as were other security apparatus.
A copy of soviet style socialism was proclaimed to ensure that everything was under tight control. It was the job of the single party, especially its ideological branch, to import the philosophy and practices from Moscow in Russia and from Pyongyang in North Korea to the Horn of Africa.
But 1990s saw the fall of the dictatorial regime, leaving Somalia in a serious turmoil.
But the junta refused to accept any call for change from intellectuals and other wise men of the country. The leadership turned more and more repressive, filling prisons from Mandera near Hargeisa in the north to Lanta Buur, south of Mogadishu, with dissidents.
The junta faced gradual build up of armed rebels, turning what they claimed as ‘the bloodless revolution’ into bloody struggle for power.
The regime may have been brutal, but we could see even more disorganised opposition groups. Most of the rebels lacked national entity, hence simply being clan-based, right from Somali National Movement (SNM) and Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF) in the North to the United Somali Congress (USC) in the southern regions.
Though the secular groups were opposing the government, others with religious agenda were growing, albeit without arms. Al-Ikwaan al-Muslimeen emerged influential at mosques and at clandestine meeting halls.
As the military regime disintegrated, the Islamists split into two factions, a less radical one and a more militant group. Al-Islah chose the power to convince the people to choose an Islamic State as its philosophy while Al-Ittihad Al-Islamy followed the gun power to impose Islamic state.
For nearly a decade and half, the clan-based warlords dominated the political and military scene in southern and central regions of Somalia. Groups in Northern Somalia formed enclaves along clan lines known as Somaliland and Puntland. They are far more peaceful, but have had little interest in seeking the unity of the nation, particularly Somaliland.
Millions of Somalis fled as the mayhem took its toll on everybody. I was among those pushed to Kenya and Tanzania in search of more peaceful environment as the civil war seemed endless.
I only returned to Mogadishu when the first signs of statehood emerged, following the conclusion of the Somali Reconciliation Conference at Arta in Djibouti, that gave birth to the Transitional National Government led by Dr Abdiqassim Salad Hassan in 2000.
The current Transitional Federal Government is facing the wrath of the Islamists who have undergone deep transformations.
Currently, al-Shabaab, with alleged links to al-Qaeda, has turned very radical and a serious headache to the transitional leadership.
And why isn’t Somalia in a celebratory mood?
According to the spokesman of al-Shabaab, Sheikh Ali Momaoud Raghe alias Sheikh Ali Dhere, only Islamic dates like Idd, the Muslims festivals after Ramadhan and the hajj pilgrimage, can be celebrated.